Beech Hedge

Here in England and Scotland, we often see beech hedges--an inventive way to make use of those copper-y beech leaves that don't fall off until the very end of April. A beech hedge can be one "wall" of a garden "room."

The idea of a beech hedge is particularly attractive to me since i live in the woods, which is full of beech saplings. I recently heard the state archaeologist give a talk, and he said that 6,000 years ago, just after the Ice Age, beech made up 36 percent of the forest in Vermont. My guess is that it still does.

My neighbor, who lived in England 40 years ago, is trying to create a beech hedge to keep the deer out.

How do you create a protective hedge so that the positive qualities you wish to grow will actually grow? For instance, it's difficult to listen to the news and cultivate happiness at the same time. The news gives us many opportunities to practice compassion, but i often get stuck in ain't-it-awful or some other form of aversion. Aversion is a mental weed that i do not want to propagate.

My "hedge" means i don't read or listen to the news very much--maybe 5 minutes a day reading the headlines in our town newspaper. It's amazing how much i absorb through osmosis.

Here in the U.K., the news has been interminably of Brexit for the past two years. People are good and tired of that "news," which could just as well be called "olds."

It's time to build a hedge around your precious time, your precious life.

Raking Up the Schadenfreude

The snow is melting, so i started raking near the edges of the snow, where i could see papery tan beech leaves resting on the ground--in the garden, mostly. Those rascal beech leaves blow themselves into corners and behind things so that i have to hand-pick them out.

Rascal bad habits blow themselves into the corners of our minds. I recently had an attack of Schadenfreude--joy at someone else's misfortune. As i practiced self-compassion, that bit of glee opened up into relief. So yes, i was feeling glee (aka joy) at the situation. Joy (and relief) that right action is prevailing.

I had to pick through that Schadenfreude (literally, joy for someone else's troubles) to clean it up. Now my mind can rest in the joy of the right action. I can feel self-compassion for myself and compassion toward the person in trouble.

Now i can rake those rascal beech leaves with a lighter and calmer heart.

The Few Remaining Leaves

Leaves have mostly fallen off the trees, with a few exceptions:

• oak leaves are still clinging to their branches, but should fall any day.
• beech leaves stay on trees all winter until the end of April
• buckthorn leaves are just now turning yellow.

Oh, that rascal buckthorn--an invasive shrubby tree with tasty berries. But those berries are like eating chocolate Ex-Lax. After all, buckthorn's Latin name is cathartica.

Now is an excellent time to take a walk in the woods or along the roadside and play I Spy with yourself. You can easily find those buckthorn culprits, and pull them out.

Stress is like the buckthorn--hiding in plain view, even seeming to be tasty. But beware! Those tasty pleasant people or experiences or situations can be stress in disguise. We so easily focus on the pleasant, it can be difficult to even see the unpleasant.

Every pleasant thing comes to an end--friends fade away, relationships end, homes are sold, children grow up and move away. Each beautiful thing turns into stress.

If we can recognize those culprit stresses, we can rise above the pleasant--unpleasant dichotomy, enjoying the pleasant, but not clinging to it; noticing the unpleasant and not wishing for anything different.

The buckthorn are turning yellow in the woods. Can i pull them with equanimity?

Beech Hedge

In Scotland, some years ago, i saw beech trees used as a hedge. In Dublin, i see a beech hedge surrounding the Garden of Remembrance--a peaceful oasis on a busy street.

Since beech saplings are plentiful in the woods around my house, i've tried to develop a short beech hedge as a background. Beech leaves don't fall off until spring, so the tan leaves really do look like a hedge all winter long. My neighbor is twisting the branches of beech saplings together, aiming for a hedge that keeps out the deer.

A hedge can act as a container for the garden. Or a hedge can form a backdrop against which other plantings can show off.

Mindfulness is the container for our inner and outer garden. When we "hedge" our minds in with mindfulness, the mind becomes calm and peaceful. When the mind calms, we can see the facts of life--change, stress, and emptiness--so much more clearly.

Considering protecting your mind from the busy-ness of everyday life by remembering mindfulness.

November Indian Summer

November and we are having a beautiful Indian summer--days when outdoors feels wonderfully warm. My California friend, Sam, who does not particularly like the weather in the Northeast, is wearing shorts while i'm in corduroys and perspiring.

I think of Indian summer as September or October. This early November is surprisingly lovely and warm.

Many trees are bare. The oaks have lost their beautiful red sheen and turned brown. A few poplars shake their round yellow leaves. I live in a grove of beech, which cling to their copper leaves all winter. I never thought i'd say it: browns are beautiful.

Nowadays, many of us experience aging like Indian summer. Yes, we are past the half-way mark, maybe past the three-quarters mark of our years, yet we too remain warm and lively. Some of our friends have lost all their leaves. Our own skin is sprinkled with brown age spots. The end of the year is coming. Winter is coming. We know that. But today is warm and heavenly.

Beech Leaves Let Go

Last year's beech leaves are finally falling off beech trees today. Pushed out, i suppose, by new green leaves, rightly curled into pointy buds.

How long do we hold on to old grudges, old traumas? We hold on, hold on, hold on. Eventually our mind lets go. In retrospect, we wonder: What was that about?

While we are holding on, our minds and bodies hold tension--perhaps an unrecognized tension because we are so used to it.

New growth happens when we finally let go.

Beech Leaves

The first snow has fallen here in the North country. And, finally, the first frost this morning--31 degrees--which had the effect of freezing the wet snow.

Beech leaves have been beautiful this past week--apple green in the understory, changing to shades of yellow-golden above eye-level, topped off by coppery tan above. Now snow encrusts leaves and branches.

The pale green beech leaves almost fooled us into feeling spring, yet now their aging is truly apparent.

Friends in their 60s and 70s, who seem young at heart, nevertheless wrestle with their aging bodies. A 53-year-old friend has terminal cancer.

The end of harvest season gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect on our own end-of season as wintry frost creeps up on us.