Why I Hire a Gardener

In order to go on a 6-week retreat one September, I had to abandon my vegetable garden. I gave away 20 pounds of onions, 30 pounds of tomatoes, and a couple of dozen peppers.

Every day on retreat, i did walking meditation beside the retreat center's little vegetable/flower garden. And i watched my mind garden, even though i was restraining my body from pulling weeds or picking cherry tomatoes. Day after day, i silently worried, Is anyone going to pick those cherry tomatoes before it frosts?

The advantage of all those hours of sitting on a cushion and calming the mind enabled me to notice that my mind focuses first and foremost on The Unpleasant: a weed, unpicked vegetables, dead flower heads.

Yet it is the pleasantness of the garden--a ripe cherry tomato--that leads me to joy, happiness, and more calmness. How could i more easily focus on Pleasantness?

I decided to hire a gardener. Elisha comes for 7 or 8 hours a week. She weeds, she edges, she deadheads. I return from a week away, and the gardens look great. Elisha does the heavy lifting work of mulch and manure. She wrestles shrubs out of holding beds so that we can replant them in a more permanent location. She takes the stress out of gardening.

Hiring a gardener is a win-win-win situation. She receives a paycheck. The gardens bloom profusely. And i enjoy the pleasantness of beautiful gardens, which bring me happiness and peace.