Thursday, January 8, 2009 9:09 PM EST
By DAVID SCALES,Special to Weekend
MIDDLETOWN — Picasso once said each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again.When Eleanore Milardo discovered a new personal universe in her life, it brought a new sense of clarity and the words to shape her book, "Sacred Journey: Healing Ourselves and our Planet," (Running Water Press, $20, July 2008).
Milardo may be known to residents as the owner of the house on Sisk Street with the spiral gardens, which was recently nominated for placement in the Smithsonian Institute’s landscape division. The gardens were selected by the Garden Club of America, the only organization who can nominate gardens for such an entry for their innovativeness and naturalness.
"I started on the gardens in 1996, when I attended a conference and walked into this room which had a spiral rope and candles and signs next to each candle telling the story of the universe," Milardo said. "I was so impressed with reading the story and I said to myself, ‘I must bring this to the people.’Filled almost exclusively with native New England trees, shrubs and plants, the gardens are sustainable (balancing resources) and educational.Visitors walk through 14 gardens, from the Peace Garden, the 60-foot spiral of the Sacred Universe Garden, the Rain Garden and the Robins’ Corner.Milardo’s two years of effort literally bore the fruit of recognition — for not only her reputation as a gardener, but her spiritual growth.
But it came at a high price.Milardo, a former registered nurse who began her career as an operating room supervisor in a local hospital, began practicing homeopathic medicine, a relatively new field in 1985.A nurse with a master’s degree and a specialty could be a nurse medical specialist."In the state of Connecticut, you weren’t allowed to practice homeopathic medicine unless you are an M.D.," Milardo said. "I was given a piece of paper to sign and promise never to practice this again and nobody would be the wiser.
But the way it was written, it didn’t really tell quite the truth. I said, ‘No. If I’m going to lose my license over this, I want it to be truthfully known why.’"Milardo chose to go before the Board of Nursing Examiners, which suspended her nursing license for six months."After that," she says, "I got interested in spiritual direction and my whole life took a completely different path. ""Even though the president of the Homeopathic Physicians approved of me and got me to go through the training, he had a heart attack and couldn’t defend me," Milardo said.Still, Milardo claims this potential disaster was the best thing to ever happen to her.
Embarking upon a journey of self-discovery, she began keeping a journal. As the years went on, she realized not too many people really knew her or her story. Considering how others might be helped by her insight; especially her grandchildren, who she wanted them to know, she embarked on a quest to have her work published.
Milardo later joined the International Women’s Writers’ Guild, which gave her a list of editors to contact who might assist in getting the book off the ground.She eventually reached Hazel Dawkins in Greenfield, Mass., who read the manuscript and said it definitely needed to be published. It gave Milardo the courage to keep going. Her interest in helping people know who they truly are and their connection to the divine mystery continued, like her gardens, to bloom.
And so the book was born."I learned how to walk people through difficult times and it’s called spiritual focusing," Milardo said."As children, we need to have our ego get strong as we’re growing up so we can survive our peers, family and culture. Then as an adult, we have to pass through that to the ‘True Self’ so we don’t do what everyone else thinks we are supposed to do. So we come to know what we are supposed to be doing."That’s the message of the book. Once you get past the expectations applied to you, then you understand the truth for yourself."It chronicles Milardo’s personal tragedies, including the loss of her son, and her departure from the Roman Catholic Church."I try to help people recognize the divine is everywhere and in everyone," Milardo said.To purchase the book, see www.spiraloflifegardens.com.
From Middletown Press
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