The Curly Hose

Last fall, my sweetie brought home a curly hose that looks like a giant-sized old-style telephone cord. I had been looking at these hoses in the gardening supply catalog for a few years, but i wasn't sure it would be quite right for my solarium.

Once the automatically-coiled hose appeared in my life, however, i immediately put it to use. But first, i had to buy a faucet-to-hose adapter at the hardware store, which is very easy to install. Suddenly, i could neatly water my 50 houseplants, even the ones that are 20 feet away from the sink.

There's a lot of meditation paraphernalia in the catalogs. How do you decide which cushion? Which bench? Which statue? Which shawl? We buy beautiful things hoping they will help us calm our mind.

Mostly, i have waited for items to appear in my life. My meditation cushion is a pillow, shaped like a turtle, that my sister made for me a couple of years before i started meditating. My nephew bought me a shawl in Nepal.

In a sense, the paraphernalia hardly matters because once we close our eyes, we are face-to-face with our own minds regardless of the outer regalia. We only need enough to be comfortable.

I do love watering my houseplants with the curly hose. And my purple shawl keeps me warm in the quiet hours of an early morning meditation.