Christmas Tree Outdoors

In January, I took the Christmas tree outdoors and ensconced it in a snowbank in the white garden at the front door. Instant landscaping! A snow-covered fir tree is so beautiful and so seasonal. It's fun to look out the window and see a fir tree suddenly there, or to drive in the driveway and notice a perfectly-shaped evergreen in the garden.

Many people would like to have instant meditation. I can't tell you how many students say, "But my mind isn't quiet."

Of course, it isn't. We meditate in order to train our minds. Our inner landscape won't instantly be quiet. A quiet-ish mind (for the mind is usually at least wisp-y) requires repetition of meditation.

Outdoor, the Christmas tree stands quietly in the snow.

Borrowed Landscape

I'm staying with my friend Nancy in her 800-square-foot condo in Olympia. Outside the sliding glass door, she has a small patio, about 10'x12', which is a lovely space to sit or eat meals while her cat roams around the adjoining lawn or crouches under towering Douglas firs.

The green space actually belongs to the condo association, but Nancy's eyes feast on the expanse of green outside her door. This is called "borrowed landscape." It belongs to someone else (technically), but you have the visual use of it, and, in this case, the cat owns the territory.

I often "borrow" wisdom from my meditation teachers, repeating it to myself or to students, until such time as i thoroughly know it for myself. Right now, the wisdom i'm repeating to myself is "Every being has her own journey."

The cat goes out to the lawn to meditate, while i sit on the little patio, savoring the Pacific Northwest landscape.

All Lives are Impermanent

Well, spring arrived a week ago, so to celebrate the season, i defrocked the Christmas wreath on the front door and sent the wreath itself to the compost pile. I'll find its "skeleton" in a couple of years--the thin steel metal ring with a slinky spiral of green wire wrapped around and around and around and....

The wreath still looked mostly fir-green, though the yew sprigs were more yellow than green, and the spruce sprigs were turning brown. This is how old age looks on us--a bit paler and frailer than we used to be. Not quite as "much" of us as there used to be.

Friday evening, i attended a Living Memorial service for a friend who is dying. She was the mother of our local Interfaith Initiative, and a representative from each of her favorite traditions spoke, chanted, or danced. A Sufi whirling dervish, the Jewish cantor with a spectacular voice, a pan-eurhythmy dance celebrating sunset, and i offered a Buddhist chant.

All things are impermanent.

They arise, and they pass away.

To live in harmony with this truth

brings great happiness.

The season of my interfaith friend's life is passing away.
And so is mine.

The Old Christmas Tree

Today i am taking down the Christmas tree. Actually, i'm just taking the lights off of it, and setting it outside the front door, in its tree stand, in the white garden. Instant landscaping! Suddenly, i have a nice little wintry fir tree in my front yard.

At the end of our lives, we still want to be useful, even if we are old and brittle. Doing good deeds, even little good deeds, makes our lives worth living. Even invisible good deeds, such as acting benevolently toward others and wishing them well is a way to make ourselves useful and to benefit our fellow human beings.

My dried-up old Christmas tree will bring a smile to my face for another 2 months.

Holiday Centerpiece

At Garden Club on Monday evening, i made a holiday centerpiece. I stationed myself right next to the floral designer so i could receive step-by-step instructions. What's the strategy for filling the oasis (that green floral foam) with greens?

Once the cedar, boxwood, and balsam fir looked lush, i was on my own as to design. I used 3 carnations, 3 glittery peacock feathers, 3 pine cones i spray painted with silver glitter, and a batch of baby's breath. Oh, and a candle.

When we're learning meditation, it's good to get step-by-step instructions from someone who knows how.

I tried not to look at what other women were doing in baskets and vases. Some people are really artistic, their creations looked really festive, and, well, i'm....

Let's not believe what the comparing mind is saying. The mind holds onto negative thoughts like Velcro. I could just enjoy my centerpiece, which actually looks pretty good standing alone on the dining table.