What you are feeling is the chi. When your attention is drawn to a focal point, or your attention meanders, you are following the flow of chi. When we design a garden with chi in mind, we apply many of the same design principles used to capture and control our attention and emotions, as well as the other natural forces of water and wind. In earlier articles in this series, we discussed a number of desirable design elements, but not within the context of how those elements soften and direct the flow of chi. The large cluster of trees behind our house, however, serve as protection at our back.
Straight roads gather and speed chi, just as a straight channel carries water swiftly downhill.
In the garden, paths are roads. If you use right-angle turns, widen or round them to soften the impact of the upper segment. Nearby, we have an T-intersection where three roads meet, with the leg of the T coming downhill. A small building is in the path of that leg across the intersection. In 10 years, three cars have run the intersection and plowed into that building.