| Bastyr University » Give to Bastyr » Bastyr Magazine » Spring 2005 | February 8, 2010 |
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Spring 2005: Vol 2, Number 2
The Not-So-Secret GardenBastyr’s herb garden has always been popular with the public, but thanks to recent media attention, the garden has become a local celebrity with its own enthusiastic following. A mention last year in Sunset Magazine helped bring a crowd of close to 3,000 to last spring’s annual Herb Fair. The turnout for this year’s fair - scheduled for Saturday, May 14, 10 am to 6 pm - could be even greater, especially if the sun shines. This expectation is based in part on the attention garnered by a popular television show, which featured the Bastyr garden, and media coverage of the new reflexology path that runs a longside the garden. Last October 9, gardening aficionados were treated to a tour of the garden via Gardening with Ciscoe on Seattle’s NBC affiliate, KING-5 TV. Ciscoe Morris and news anchor Meeghan Black explored the garden and the botanical medicine lab in a segment about medicinal plants. The program, which had originally been taped in August while the garden was in full and glorious bloom, included interviews with Bastyr’s interim garden manager and Dr. Kingsbury. The beautiful reflexology foot path is the newest star of the herb garden, thanks to the contributions of university donor Helen Higgen, the hard work of numerous volunteers and the dream of project manager Elizabeth Marazita, a licensed acupuncturist and a doctoral candidate in Bastyr’s acupuncture and Oriental medicine program. Marazita came up with plans for the garden addition based on her experiences with reflexology paths in Asia during her previous career as an international banker and more recently as a student of Chinese medicine. “I was amazed by how widespread these lovely stone walking paths were,” she says. “They were peppered throughout Asia in public parks and served communities as an inexpensive source of holistic health care. Walking over the stones helps move the body’s meridians of energy that enhance vitality and immunity and limit disease development.” When Marazita studied acupuncture and Oriental medicine (AOM) at the University of Shanghai, she and her fellow Bastyr AOM students would often walk on a nearby reflexology path to bolster their stamina at the end of their hospital shifts. “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if Bastyr had its own path?’ And so the idea was born!” Opened to the public on September 17, barefoot visitors of all ages have been happily walking, as well as wincing, their way over the winding, 64-foot path embedded with smooth river rocks of varying shapes and sizes. Most visitors quickly discover that making their way across the stones isn’t exactly, as the cliché goes, a walk in the park. The body’s initial response is often sore and tender feet. Because the path is designed to apply pressure to points on the soles of the feet that neurologically connect to specific areas of the body, soreness may reflect imbalances in those corresponding areas. Some walkers have compared the discomfort to that felt after a deep-tissue massage. Says Marazita, “Only short distances should be walked at first. Within six months of daily walking, however, any initial discomfort should give way to feelings of well-being, and you should be able to walk the path from beginning to end.” The public is welcome to use the reflexology path and wander through the garden at any time using a printed walking-tour guide. Livingston points out that visitors to the garden haven’t been limited, however, to the two-legged kind. Last year a domesticated rabbit found its way into the herb garden. Says Livingston, “He had a great time! I’m sure he thought he’d died and gone to heaven.” 
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