Back and Forth to the Compost Bin

During harvest season, i make 3 or 5 trips to the compost bin every day. I actually don't mind. It doesn't feel like a chore. My 2-quart compost bucket fills up; i put on my shoes and walk out to the bin. Maybe i do this every hour before and after dinner.

Meanwhile, if i stop by a flowerbed, i fill up a 5-gallon bucket with deadheads and take that to the compost bin. Maybe i like the walk even though it's back and forth--sort of like walking meditation. Maybe i like filling up my compost bin.

A chore is something sort of unpleasant, something i need to do whether or not i want to do it. When meditation becomes a chore, it's time to lighten it up somehow. Make meditation interesting.

I love my compost. Maybe that's why taking kitchen scraps out to the compost bin is not a chore.

Unhook the Hose

It's time to unhook the hoses from their outdoor faucets before water freezes in the hose. One more garden chore for this change of season.

I recently filled out my Advance Directives. I said that i did not want feeding tubes because, as a medical professional pointed out, tubes in means tubes out. Think catheter, for instance. When my body slows down, i want to allow Nature to take its course. That's when it's time to unhook the tubes.

The hoses watered the garden in its prime, but now that the garden's old age is here, it's time to put the garden to bed and unhook the hoses.

A Spritz of Metta

My chore at the retreat center is to wipe the dining tables after dinner and then spritz them with three puffs of mild bleach water.

During meditation, I realize I feel like I’ve been spritzed with loving kindness. Ahh. Deep cleaning without the scrubbing.

Mental Weeds

I'm on retreat at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. It's an annual seminar-retreat with 20 other meditation teachers, so i can be on my computer and writing this blog. Even though we're all talking to friends from across the country whom we haven't seen for a year or three, even though we are all connecting through cyberspace, there's still a feeling of retreat--silence from 9 p.m. until after breakfast, 3 meditation periods a day, a daily chore (I'm washing pots after lunch), and living out of a small suitcase for 5 days.

Gardening is one of the things i have renounced for the time being. This is hard for me, so i pull a few invasives (buckthorn or bittersweet) on my daily walks.

I pull a few weeds in the garden, and learn more about the mental weeds that sometimes slip by unawares.