Tea Cup and Saucer

At the church bazaar last weekend, i bought a unique garden ornament--a cute teacup-and-saucer affixed to the top of a garden stake. Supposedly, the saucer is a bird bath, and the cup can hold bird seed. 

That might happen in a tame and civilized garden. Here, however, I can too easily imagine a squirrel jumping up to devour the bird seed and bringing the whole thing crashing down. I'll just let rainwater collect in the saucer and see if any birds partake of it.

How often am i seduced by a cute idea? And it's a beautiful garden ornament. Very unique. Oh, can i rationalize my purchase.

How often am i seduced into unskillful action or unwise speech? Oh, just this little bit won't hurt, i think.

It's cute. It makes sense in the moment.

Only later do i shake my head. What was i thinking?

Staking Up a Tall Amaryllis

My first amaryllis is blooming on a 3-foot tall stalk. I'm staking it up with a green bamboo stake from the garden and green twisty-ties.

Sometimes we need a little staking up in our meditation practice. Maybe we're the only meditator we know--alone by ourselves in a room. A sangha, a community of meditating friends, supports us in our practice.

Last Saturday, Vera came over, and we watched a day-long retreat with Shinzen Young via streaming on the computer. Vera said if she'd done it on her own, she would have sat for 10 minutes before she got distracted by something around the house. Ditto for me.

Vera came over and we meditated for several hours. We staked up each other's intention to meditate. Just the fact of the other person's presence staked us down on the cushion.

At the end, Vera and i were both smiling.