Watering Mindfulness

My friend, Fair, grows fantastic tomato seedlings. They're whoppers by the time she brings her extras to me. Her secret, she says is to use fish emulsion every time she waters.

What makes our practice grow? Adding mindfulness every time we water ourselves.

Practice mindfulness with every glass of water, every glug from your water bottle.
Become aware of the sensation that leads to reaching for the water bottle.
Notice reaching, the feel of the bottle (plastic? metal? glass?).
Feel the water on your lips and in your mouth.
Notice swallowing.

Grow your mindfulness practice.

Photo from changeanything.com

The Heavenly Fragrance of Gardenias

My sweetie told me that his mother--also named Sweetie--loved gardenias. They reminded her of the corsages she wore to debutante parties when she was young, back in the Roaring '20s.

One Christmas i gave her a gardenia plant, and when she died in 1995, i took her gardenia plant home with me. It's been limping along in my solarium ever since.

I knew gardenias like a foliar spray, but i never quite managed to spritz it regularly. Then i found a salmon plant food spray next to the fish emulsion at the garden center, and last month i began spraying the gardenia every day or two.

My sweetie complained of the fishy smell. The label does say it's a "superior fermented salmon product." Nevertheless, the stinky smell has reward me with a record 5 white blossoms exuding a heavenly fragrance.

Sometimes our meditation practice limps along--even for years--before we find just the right nutriment--a teacher, a teaching, or a community (at home or on retreat). Then our practice flowers, and we realize that the heavenly actually resides within us, right along with some of those "stinky" qualities.