It's Raining

The next 5 days are forecast to be cloudy and rainy. Yay! I can transplant!

Foremost on my list is to place creeping thyme between stepping stones. Creeping thyme is very low, which means its roots are quite shallow and will dry out quickly in even a brief blast of summer sun.

I dig into the sandy gravel between the stones and place a divot of thyme. Then i bury it up to its neck with compost. The rain will do my watering for me. Hopefully, the furry little green spot will establish itself in the next few days and thus survive the summer.

Sometimes our lives seem dry as we repeat the same routine every day. This is it? We glance at a spiritual path, but we hardly have time for a spiritual practice in the blast of information that surrounds us.

We can begin with the Noble 8-fold Path:

• Wise View            -- We aim to decrease stress in our lives.
• Wise Intention     -- We follow through with our aim
• Wise Speech         -- We notice how we talk, to ourselves and to others
• Wise Action          -- We act in accord with our conscience, and this puts our mind at ease.
• Wise Livelihood   -- We earn a living in accord with our conscience, putting our mind at ease.
• Wise Effort           -- We aim our effort in wise directions and forego some unskillful bits.
• Wise Mindfulness -- We keep body & mind together.
• Wise Meditation   --  We meditate regularly.

In this way we establish little green spaces in our lives that cool our minds and bodies even in the toughest situations.

Pour some cool, refreshing water into your life. Choose one wise action today.

Spring Cleaning the Flower Bed

There's a plant sale fundraiser in every little town around here this coming Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend. I'm busy dividing plants and potting them up, using the rich-looking soil from a compost bin.

Offering plants for the Garden Club plant sale is a great excuse to do some "spring cleaning" in my flowerbeds. A month ago, the plants looked small and well-spaced. Now they're buxom and crowding their neighbors like a metropolitan subway at rush hour.

Generosity is the first of the supreme qualities (paramis); renunciation (disguised as "spring cleaning") is the 3rd. By virtue of taking on this exercise, this intention, i also practice energy (#5) and determination (#8). And underlying all this digging, dividing, and driving the plants to the sale is a mild flavor of loving-kindness (#9). I love my flowers, i love my garden, and i love sharing it with others, one plant at a time.

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!