Rainbow Garden

I try to arrange May so that i am out in the garden for several hours each day. I love the days when i stay home all day, even though this sometimes means playing hookey from various meetings and exercise classes. I rationalize it by assuming that walking for six hours in the garden, back and forth, must add up to a few miles. Gardening is as good as exercise, isn't it? Plus, gardening is so calming.

Yesterday's day in the garden ended with a sprinkle of rain while the sun was shining. That meant a double rainbow in the east.

The rainbow reminds me that my self and my garden are as real as a rainbow. Here today. Gone tomorrow. But, oh so beautiful right now.

Mirages

Driving across southwest Texas, we kept seeing mirages of water on the road in front of us. A mirage is a peculiar trick. It looks like water across the road, but as you drive closer, it disappears.

The Buddha says

Form* is like a glob of foam; 
feeling, a bubble; 
perception, a mirage; 
mental fabrications, a banana tree**; consciousness, a magic trick.

However you observe them, 
appropriately examine them, 
they're empty, 
void 
to whoever sees them appropriately.

Our self is a mirage. Like a rainbow, it seems to exist, but then it doesn't.

* the body
**a banana tree has no heartwood, no core

Winter Rainbow

I love shrubs that look interesting in different seasons. Right now i am really enjoying looking at Leucothoe fontanesia Rainbow, sometimes known as drooping fetterbush or dog hobble.

The variegated green-and-cream leaves are still hanging on bright pink branches, which are eye-catching with snow in the background. In the spring, this shrub for shade has drooping creamy flowers.

There are 10 fetters that bind us to our stress and suffering. The first 3 are

• belief in a self
• skeptical doubt
• belief in rites & rituals

As always, we begin with mindfulness. Mindfulness of what having a self feels like, noticing how building our ego leads to stress. Noticing that a self is as ephemeral as a rainbow--visible, yet without physical reality. Really looking into the construction of the self leads to insight. Eventually, insight leads to letting go.

Let go. Let be.

Bluebird of Happiness

I have installed several bluebird houses out near my vegetable garden because it's the most open area i have here in the woods. You're supposed to put 2 houses within 10 feet of each other, so the swallows can have one and the bluebirds the other. Otherwise, the swallows will take over and defend their territory.

I bolt the bluebird house to an 8-foot long PVC pipe, then slide the pipe down over a fencepost, like a sleeve. Usually chickadees take up residence, or sometimes a mouse family.

Yesterday i saw an actual bluebird on one fencepost and 2 swallows on 2 other fenceposts. What a festival of blue birds :) I was thrilled to see the bluebird of happiness. And i was equally thrilled to have a rare sighting (for me) of sleek swallows.

Thrill. Joy. Happiness. Really, any bird can touch the happiness chord in us. Stop. Feel what happiness feels like. Allow it to permeate your body. Soak in happiness for at least 30 seconds--this "soaking" will retrain your brain so that you'll have easier access to happiness.

Somewhere over the rainbow,
Bluebirds fly.

Our hearts can fly over the rainbow too.