Searching for Hyacinth Forcing Vases

I often cruise through our local hospice thrift shop. I'm always looking for hyacinth forcing vases. Wine decanters work perfectly with a narrow neck to hold the bulb and nearly a quart of water to see the swirl of white roots.

Right now, my basement has 50 vases of hyacinths getting ready to bloom. Today, i gave away 3, so, yes, i'm already preparing for next year's batch. I never have quite enough forcing vases.

I love his win-win-win of shopping at the hospice thrift store. I get to support an organization i love; i buy forcing vases; and they are inexpensive--sometimes just 25 cents, sometimes a dollar.

So when i'm giving away hyacinths i can freely offer the vase as well.

Thanksgiving Prayer

Max Coots’ Thanksgiving Prayer

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:

For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are….

For generous friends with hearts and smiles as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we’ve had them;

For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, plain as potatoes and as good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends, as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;

For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, and who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter;

For all these we give thanks.

Rain Ruin

Rain every day. It feels like we live in the tropics--warm and wet. The sun shines, then we have a downpour. Repeat two or three times a day.

The daily rain ruins flowers fast. The geraniums on my front step bloom, then turn brown the next day. A day without rain and suddenly the petunias look very pink and perky. Then it rains, and they droop again.

When the rain of our life falls on us, we may cry, we may spend a lot of time crying, yet with the support of the Dharma, with the support of meditation, we find an inner strength. We might not bloom exactly, but we can thrive anyway.

As Shinzen Young says, meditation is not a quick and easy fix. But it's a deep fix.

Water your roots deeply with daily meditation.

The Roots of Forcing Hyacinths

It's time to bring hyacinth bulbs up from the basement. By this time, they have a vase full of swirling white roots and an inch or two of green leaves sprouting. On a few, i can even see the buds of the hyacinth itself.

Although i collect forcing vases from thrift store, i really like carafes. They are large enough to show off the roots, which are fascinating all by themselves.

If we could see the roots of our actions, we might think twice before we speak or act. Knowing that we ourselves carry the historical trauma of our ancestors, how can we bear to send any of it downstream to the generations that succeed us?

I say "trauma" with a small "t," though many people have deep Trauma (with a capital T) from this very lifetime. I am talking about the ordinary trauma of daily lives. My mother was a child of the Great Depression and collected stuff in case the Depression returned tomorrow. By osmosis, i have "inherited" her pack rat tendencies.

The best way to clean up our act today is to commit to the 5 Precepts, which guide us to a life of integrity.

Today, i intend to

1. do no harm to anyone,
2. take nothing that is not freely offered,
3. use my sexual/sensual energy wisely,
4. speak truthfully & helpfully, and
5. keep my mind clear.

The hyacinth roots look so white, and clean and pure.

Daffodils in Pots

Last spring, i seriously focused on dividing daffodils and other bulbs (leucojum and lycoris). I gave away dozens of pots, but after the daffodils faded in May, a couple dozen pots still remained. The strappy foliage gave away to what looks like pots of naked dirt. I have now moved those "empty" pots into the garage for the winter. I know the pots are not actually empty, because white roots are sticking out of the bottom.

When we are well rooted in our spiritual practice, we too can bloom whole-heartedly.

Weedy Milkweed

Milkweed is living up to its name--weed. Suddenly it's growing in several of my flower beds. Wha-a-a??? I want it to grow where i want it to grow, not where it wants to grow. I want to support monarch butterflies, just in case there are any around, but i don't want a milkweed garden. Hoo-boy. What to do?

I'm pulling the milkweed out of my flowerbeds, though the roots run deep and are beyond the reach of my shovel.

Our own roots of suffering run deep underground. Take your pick--greed, aversion, delusion, or maybe all three. Don't despair. Begin by being mindful of what your particular "weed" looks like, feels like, what it says in times of stress. Get to know the habit and habitat of your "weed." No need to feel guilty or beat yourself up. That just fertilizes the habit of aversion. Simply notice.

Notice what's growing in your garden.

Hyacinth Roots--Full or Scraggly

The winter is feeling long. We've had snow on the ground for two months now. January has been cold, very cold. We've been hibernating here in the North Country.

This time of withdrawing into the dark is a good time to grow roots. My hyacinths have been growing roots of all shapes--short or long, swirly or straight, full or scraggly.

A couple of projects i've been intending have finally rooted: one garden manuscript has come back from the editor and i'm just starting another writing project.

In this time of dark and cold, what's been rooting in your life? Perhaps you don't even see a hint of green leaves yet. But something is gestating. Life does the doing without us doing anything.

What is Life doing, offering to you?

Beautiful Roots

I'm giving away the hyacinths I've been growing in the basement, even before they have bloomed. The swirling roots growing in the glass vase are beautiful all by themselves. We don't often see the roots of the flowers we're growing, but the hyacinth, suspended in its glass vase, shows us its white tresses of roots, all neatly "combed" into a whorl.

We don't often see the roots of our own actions. Once in a while it will suddenly dawn on us, I sound just like my mother or Oh, darn. I didn't want to do that again.

Yet the roots of our actions are right here in the present moment. Right now, we are laying down the habit patterns, the neural networks for future actions. This is just one more reason to act ethically right now.  The mind will want to cheat. Oh, it doesn't matter if I keep the change or I don't care what they think, I'm giving them a piece of my mind right now.

Watch your actions. watch your words. See the roots of future actions and future thoughts. See your future habits. Right now.

May your thoughts and actions be beautiful. Right now.

The Desert of Winter

This morning the temperature is above freezing--34 degrees. "Wow! It's warm out," my neighbors say to each other. Our coats are unzipped, and i'm wearing just a light fleece jacket. After a week or two of zero degrees Fahrenheit, 32 degrees feels like a heat wave.

Ice is melting, but we're not fooled. We're still wearing our yak-traks, our Stabil-Icers (studded snow tires for your feet), or micro-spike crampons, even to simply walk across the driveway.

My unheated garage is six degrees warmer than outdoors, so i take advantage of this heat wave to water the 65 pots of tulips and spring bulbs i have sitting in the garage. Winter is a desert of a sort, with water frozen and therefore unavailable to plants. The flowerpots have been frozen solid for the last 2 weeks, but now they are thinking of thawing. Just in case little tulip bulb roots are slowly growing in those flower pots, i don't want them to be parched.

Winter is a time when we ourselves feel parched--for sunshine and for warmth. Yet we all have a warm heart, if we simply take the time to notice, take the time to feel. Unzip the armor around your heart, and trust that your heart is indeed flowering.

If you need a reminder, check out my guided meditation A Flower in Your Heart.

Hibernating Hyacinths

The hyacinths i began forcing in vases at Thanksgiving have little pale green leaves, and i can begin to see pale green flower buds on some of them. I'm bringing them up from the cool, dark basement, two at a time, and placing them on the windowsill in the kitchen. Within a few hours, the sunlight greens them up so they look like spring.

We ourselves require the Vitamin D that we receive from the sun. The sun is our source.

Sunlight creates greenery. It's a miracle, isn't it? Right now, I'm living in a world of white--snow everywhere outdoors and, today, ice covering all the branches. In the protection of my warm house, which is heated by the sun, green plants are growing.

When you are feeling pale, what "greens" you up? Your houseplants? Some flowers? A bit of solitude and resting the mind in meditation?

We and the hyacinths are hibernating now, growing roots for the blooming season to come.

White Roots Growing Underground

"Honey, it's cold outside."

Even so, white roots are growing underground. I can see this when i go to my freezer in the basement and glance at those 50 hyacinths in forcing vases on the floor. Their white roots are slowly growing in water. The growing tips of the bulbs show tiny green.

Since i can't see what's happening with my tulip bulbs in pots in the garage, i have to trust that their roots are growing too. So far, the temperature in the garage hasn't dropped below the mid-30s--perfect for the bulbs, as long as i keep them watered.

Even just a little mindfulness meditation changes our DNA by reducing our inflammatory response to stress.

Ease your mind as this stressful season gathers force, and grow your roots of mindfulness.

Photo from morestylethancash.com

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Thirst-Quenching Iced Mint Tea

Every evening, after dinner, while my sweetie is doing the dishes, i walk out the back door to the mint patch. Last year's construction (and 2 trenches through the former herb garden) gave the mint free rein, so the mint patch is now about 8 feet long and 6 feet wide. W-a-y too big.

I pull up 5 or 6 stems of mint by the roots, clip off the roots, and bring the mint indoors to make iced mint tea for the next day. This year i've been adding hibiscus flowers and a touch of maple syrup for a truly thirst-quenching cool drink on hot afternoons.

When we pull up the roots of stress (greed, aversion, and delusion), our craving (literally, "thirst" in Sanskrit) will be quenched.

We could look at our inner mint patch and sigh in despair. Or we could put ourselves on a daily diet of meditation and mindfulness (and mint tea :). Little by little, the inner heat cools to a refreshing causeless joy.

Photos from parkswholesaleseed.com and republicoftea.com

Mint Spreads

Mint is still growing green in the herb garden. In the summer, i use it to make iced tea. Now that ice forms on the birdbath every morning, i cut mint for a cup of hot tea.

Mint is a spreader. It will take over, if left to its own devices. That's the reason i pull it up by its roots when i go out to harvest 3 or 4 sprigs for tea.

Our obligations and responsibilities, our anxieties and planning can spread over our day-to-day life. We cannot cram it all in.

We could pull each one up by the roots and look closely at it. Is it really worth our time, money, and frustration to read the newspaper? to stop and buy a cup of coffee? to race off to the supermarket for one or two items?

What--really--is most important to us?

I'm going to the mint patch now to pull 4 plants out by their roots, then sit down on the deck, have a cup of tea, and enjoy this beautiful sunny day.

Growing New Roots

Cold temperatures are keeping me indoors now that winter has truly arrived. Zero degrees this morning holds a few inches of snow on the ground, and the fishpond is well and truly frozen.

The only gardening available to me is my houseplants, so i water them and pick off dead leaves. I give several of them a haircut--begonias, geraniums, and wandering Jew--and place the cuttings in jars of water so they'll root.

What would you like to root in this new year of 2012?
Self-compassion? Joy? Being of service? Friendliness? Patience?

In order to cultivate these (or any other) beneficial qualities, we have to grow new routes by establishing new habits. And there's no better place to begin than with ourselves. Send well-wishes to yourself right now.

May i feel safe. (Feel around inside your body. Does some place "feel" safe? After a couple of seconds, move on.)
May i feel happy. (Does some place in your body "feel" happy?)
May i feel healthy.
May i feel peaceful. (Does your big toe "feel" peaceful?)

Repeat this phrases and allow them to gradually percolate into your mind and into your body. By the time my cuttings have rooted, you will have established some new routes yourself :)

Ode to Shovels

I needed a snow shovel yesterday to clear away the 2 inches of wet snow on the hot tub deck. However, the snow shovels were in deep storage, hanging on nails on the wall of the garage behind the stack of 8 snow tires.

I say snow shovelS (plural), because, in the winter, we keep a snow shovel at each door--the front door, the back door, and the deck door. But, of course, they had all been put away weeks ago.

I also have three D-handled shovels that i scatter around: one lives at the vegetable garden, one at the compost pile, and one in the lower flower gardens. (My house is built into a hillside.)

I prefer the D-handled shovels because i am 5'3" and shrinking. I do have a long-handled shovel just in case someone tall (ahem!) wants to help me. But it hangs on a nail on the garage wall 364 days a year.

I also have a spade that i love--a transplanting spade with a long, narrow blade that goes deep (good for planting bulbs), but is incisive because of its narrowness.

My latest acquisition is a spear-head spade--a shovel that slices through thick bundles of roots (hosta or daylilies, for example) and is easy on the back.

We dig into the Dharma with a mind that is as calm and sharp as we can make it today through our meditation practice. Some days, perhaps many days, the mind won't be all that calm or all that sharp. Nevertheless, after our 20 minutes (or longer) meditation, we can spend 5 or 10 minutes contemplating some aspect of the Dharma. Choose any page from The Meditative Gardener. Or a paragraph from the Dharma book or other inspirational book you are currently reading. Focus your attention on that teaching and roll it around in your mind for a few minutes.

A calm mind is an incisive mind that can dig right into the roots of stress.
Use the tools you have to dig into life--as it really is.