The idea for Carmel started in the early 2000’s, back when the meadow was a farmer’s field.  I had watched my dearest friend suffer a devastating bereavement and struggle to cope with the fall out.  We spent hours walking and talking, trying to plough through the grey fog of grief and come to terms with everything that had happened.   We shared a Christian faith and it was hard to reconcile what had happened with the ‘God is love’ messages that we had always believed.  My friend wanted nothing to do with anything to do with God and almost entirely rejected her faith.

In my head, I formulated an idea for somewhere that she could go and be free to sit and think and talk.  Somewhere where anyone could have space to explore what was going on in their lives and their heads without time pressures or judgement.  Somewhere people, if they wanted, could come for support and companionship, or solitude and silence if that was their preference.  In my head it became ‘God’s Garden’ and I drew a little plan.  The idea grew and was shared with friends, a (professional!) design was drawn up and everything seemed to be coming together except for one big obstacle – there was nowhere for it to go.  After more talking and planning and thinking, I reconciled myself to the fact that it wasn’t going to happen and moved on.  Every now and again, it would come back to mind and I knew that I still wanted to make it happen, but circumstances were never right, so I would daydream about it for a while and then put it away again.  Time was passing, I was getting older and I really thought it would never ever happen.

But, in the background, wheels were slowly turning, and God was working.  While I was dreaming, some friends had, coincidentally, purchased some land.  The same friends had retired and had more time on their hands, and our garden designer reappeared and was asking about the garden again.

In the closing months of 2018, we started again to talk about the possibility and how we would go about turning a field into a garden.  From that, Carmel (Hebrew: God’s Garden) was born….  For what happened next visit ‘All about Carmel’.

Rachel Hyde-Smith