Showy

I bought some flowering kale at the farm & garden stand. Even though i'm not a frilly type person, i love the kale's feathery foliage.

Each one cost $5, and i know their lifespan will be about 6 weeks, through the month of November. At the first snowfall, it's bye-bye kale.

At the same time, i bought a few pots of perennials for $5 each. Even though they were the same price, I consider the kale to be expensive, and the perennials to be a deal. The kale will live for 6 weeks. With luck, the perennials will live for many years.

I tend to spend my spiritual dollars for retreats in which i have to do the work. Insights of perennial wisdom come to me, drop by drop.

Other friends like to go to big name weekend workshops. The showy, big names talk; we listen and nod our heads. But what sticks? How long do we derive benefit?

Sometimes, i like to go with my friends to the big name weekends. But mostly, i prefer the solitude of a calm mind suddenly seeing a perennial truth. That's something i don't forget.