Finding a Home in the Garden

My gardening friend, Ruth gave me seeds for white money plant 3 or 4 times before it finally established itself in my white garden.

I have scads of purple money plant, but how to make the white feel at home?

Just tossing the seeds into the white garden, they got lost.

The next time, i planted the seeds in a nursery bed, then the next year (Lunaria is a biennial), i transplanted the flowering plants into the white garden. Then the gardener weeded them out after flowering, but before they had gone to seed. Sigh.

Next year, back to nursery bed, etc., with instructions to the gardener to let them look ratty and go to seed in the white garden. This year: Bonanza!

How long does it take for us to feel at home in meditation? How many practices do we try? Zen, Tibetan, Vipassana. Yoga, tai chi, qi gong. Finally, we find a place where our heart can rest. Finally, we feel at home with our practice and our teacher.

Investment in Gardening

What is the return on your investment in gardening?

Now is the time when we are spending money at the garden center. Then we go spend time in the garden and spend our energy in our flowerbed.

What's the difference between spending and investing?

We are willing to spend--money, time, and energy--in order to satisfy a desire. We invest for the long-term with a hope of increasing our wealth.

Do we spend time in meditation?
Or are we investing in our well-being?

Photo from examiner.com

A Lot of Work

My yard is quite beautiful right now with blooming crabapples, redbud, and a Kwanzan cherry. Eye-popping flowerbeds are crowded with the last pale yellow narcissus, blue forget-me-nots, and pinky-purple money plant.

Visitors to my garden sometimes say, "That's a lot of work."

What they mean is that the garden is a lot of time, energy, and caring.

• Children are a lot of work.
• Relationships are a lot of work.
• Maintaining a house and household is a lot of work.
• Working a job is a lot of work.
• Keeping track of a checkbook and savings is a lot of work.

"A lot of work" is another way to say "stress," and this is the Buddha's 1st Noble Truth.

Hidden inside even the things we love--children, spouse, home, (and maybe our work :)--is a lot of stress.

According to the 2nd Noble Truth, the cause of stress is desire (literally, thirst or hunger), and in the 3rd Noble Truth, the Buddha tells us how stress can come to a complete halt.

I'm not ready to halt gardening, but i have discovered my gardening "mission statement," which brings me a lot of joy:

I garden in order to give plants away.

Today, i'm potting up plants for the Garden Club plant sale this weekend. Joy overcomes stress.

Frost in the Gardens

While i was away on retreat, my garden withstood a mild frost. I worried about my plants and berated myself for not putting milk jug cloches on the fledgling tomatoes. What was i thinking? That May would remain warm? That change wouldn't happen? That change wouldn't happen to me and my garden?

I surveyed my losses yesterday: 18 zinnias, 3 tomatoes, and 6 cryptotenia (an edging for 1 flowerbed). And the banana tree leaves down at my neighbor Connie's are pretty well singed.

Death comes to the young. Even in the midst of burgeoning green growth, some plant children have died.

The mystery and lesson of life confronts us, and we avert our eyes. We don't want this change.

I buy zinnias and tomatoes at a Historical Society plant sale. Now i have new plant children, and they make me smile.

The Meditative Gardener is on Retreat and will return May 20

Sow those seeds!

Watering the Seed

Photo by Lynne Weinstein

Blessed rain in its many forms:
downpour, shower, mist.
Rain soaks into earth,
and into my psyche.

The dry April drought deterred me from planting seeds. Now i am lubricated with life-giving, seed-germinating rain, and i suddenly sow seeds with ease.

The seed of enlightenment is growing in your heart.

Sometimes, it seems it has landed on the dry soil of dissatisfaction and distress and will never send down its roots. We nurture the seed of enlightenment with loving-kindness. This is the inner rain our tender heart needs to loosen that parched feeling that desiccates our mind as well.

Water the seed of enlightenment that is growing in your heart--now.

It's Raining!

It's raining! Finally!

We had only a sprinkle or two of April showers, so the May flowers have been beautiful, but dry.

I much prefer that the sky waters the garden than that i drag a hose around in one hand when i have a trowel in the other.

All during April, the class i was teaching on Embracing Change had the assignment of noticing raindrops. But no rain. The class ended Tuesday night, and then it began to rain.

May is a beautiful month to "embrace change." A new flower blooms every day. An old flower dies every day. Yet the change is exhilarating. How can that be?

Today, notice openness to change and resistance to change. How does openness/resistance show up in your life?

Photo from dedidesign.wordpress.com