Physicians Molly and Bruce Roberts run the Synchronicity Center, which is attached to their home.

photos by James S. Wood / Arizona Daily Star

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A medicine wheel fountain, labyrinth and fire pit are some of the features of the half-acre Spirit Garden at the Synchronicity Center run by physicians Molly and Bruce Roberts.

The center and garden are integral parts of the Robertses' efforts to help patients decrease stress and enhance well-being and to provide a holistic approach to health.

"Many of the health problems we see in people are tied into the lack of connection to nature and its cycles," Bruce Roberts said. "We try to get people back in touch with those natural rhythms."

The center is attached to the couple's home at 1701 E. Lind Road, near East Fort Lowell Road and North Campbell Avenue. The center features a large great room with a tall, curving wall mirrored by circular seating around a low sandstone table. Sculptures, photographs and unobtrusive furniture decorate the room, but its focal points are the wall of windows and the sliding doors that give visitors a view into the garden.

Stepping into the garden, one notices the 320-foot-long undulating stucco wall. Outside the patio area stands a 7-foot-high medicine wheel fountain, fashioned like a column with a spiral twist and surmounted by a large urn from which water overflows and collects in a pool. Stone benches flank the wheel's outer rim.

The medicine wheel has multiple representations — the four seasons, the four major compass points, the four life stages (childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age) and the four embodiments of ourselves (mind, body, emotions and spirit), Molly Roberts said.

Leslie Mansur, owner of Great Gardens and the designer of the Spirit Garden, said that using water in motion was important to the garden's design.

"We put in three fountains of interesting shapes and colors in the garden," she noted, "but with quiet, soft water flows. Water falling from one level to another is louder than water running down the side of something, so we chose to make the water flow and not fall."

A 25-foot-diameter labyrinth is fashioned in the classic form and shielded on one side by a 6-foot-high ocotillo fence. The doctors chose a classic labyrinth because it's the most ancient form and also because of its significance to the Tohono O'odam Indian Tribe.

At the southeastern edge of the garden is the moon wall, a round archway that leads to the fire pit.

"Walking through the moon wall feels like you are walking into something," Molly Roberts said. "It's like moving through a portal and stepping into a different space."

The fire pit, surrounded by wooden benches and enclosed by a 5-foot-high wall, is used in rituals and ceremonies during healing sessions or at the end of sessions as participants enjoy music or conversation.

Critical components of the garden, Molly Roberts said, include plants with lots of color and the fact that everything is touchable, which meant no cacti or other spiny plants. Flowering plants such as red salvia, Monterey blue dahlia, Baja fairy duster, rosemary and purple sage flank the garden's twisting path and populate its nooks and crannies.

"People walk in and say they feel enveloped in love," Molly Roberts said. "And I think it's a community thing that has created a feeling of energy in this space. And the garden is part of that, too."