Entropy

 One of the 5 daily recollections is

Everything i cherish will change and vanish.

In other words, everything is impermanent. Everything changes. Everything.

We could also call this uncertainty, this lack of order, this unpredictability, entropy. Entropy is defined as a gradual decline into disorder.

My fall yard certainly look random and disordered. We might feel the same way about the political situation.

One of my personality traits is bringing order out of chaos. I love to organize things into categories. Categories is not a natural state. It takes work to organize stuff. We've all heard stories about people who (in the old days) get all their slides organized, and then trip, and all the slides go flying. Entropy is enough to drive neat-niks crazy, because things don't stay organized.

Maybe i'll do some work today, and go out and organize my leaves into piles and carry them to the compost bin.

Houseplants in the Tropics

The very small garden (4' x 4') at our vacation condo's front door is crowded with plants that i have in my solarium at home. Banana tree, variegated scheffilera, agave.

Here in their native habitat in the tropics, they thrive and look lush. My houseplants at home--banana tree, plain green scheffilara--look pathetic in comparison.

During their summer vacation outdoors, my houseplants perk up and look lush. Then i bring them in doors and they start to decline and look piqued.

I have houseplants in the first place for the joy they bring me. Ahhh. Green and growing plants. Some, like geraniums, with flowers.

When the mind compares my housebound North Country plants to the tropics, i and my houseplants always lose.

The comparing mind can't help but compare. That is its main job. And the comparison? Useless. Really useless.

I'm sinking into the beauty of what is. Right here. Right now.