Earth Spirit Day

My skeleton has been sitting in the solarium for the past two months, having a cup of tea. I just wasn't ready to bury her in the basement.

The earth spirits go to ground on Halloween. They bottom out in Hades at solstice. Now, at Groundhog Day (Candlemas), they're due to pop up and take a look around.

Well, maybe not on this snowy day.

The skeleton reminds us of our future. Meanwhile, she sits still, very still, and smiles.

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?

Opinions About Rain

It's raining today. Raining steadily. The forecast for the coming week is cloudy and rainy. I'm hearing lots of complaints. We want Spring! We want May! We want blooming flowers. We want to be outdoors in the garden.

Do you notice how we resist the present moment? This wet present moment.

The rain may be unpleasant--it's chilly; it's wet; it's raw. Not liking it only adds to our suffering and increases our stress.

We don't need to have any opinion at all. Imagine that! It's raining. Period. No opinion. No judgment. Only the feeling of unpleasantness.

I gaze out the window with a cup of tea in my hand. Raindrops dying in quick succession.

The Garden at Dawn

When i come to consciousness, around 5:30 a.m., it takes some intention to open my eyes, move my body, and stretch. I don't really need more sleep.

The thought that rolls my body out of bed is The garden! Now in the cool of the morning, i can feed the birds, feed the fish, drink a cup of tea, meander around the garden, and meditate. By 8:30, it's hot, and it's too late to garden. By mid-morning, it's time to sit in the shade, wearing sunglasses, and allow the day to run according to its own schedule.

But now, just after dawn, all is quiet, a few birds still sing, and the world is beautiful.

Orange Blossom. Oh, Honey.

My orange-tree-in-a-flowerpot is blooming. Oh, my. Orange blossoms (which are white) deserve their reputation for perfume, bridal bouquets, and honey.

We moved the three-foot tall dwarf orange tree from its summer vacation spot under the second story deck up to the deck where we sit morning and evening to sip our tea and admire the gardens and smell, smell the fragrant orange blossoms.

Seldom do we have the opportunity to practice smelling meditation. Well, sometimes we get to practice smell-y meditation. Pee-yew. Unpleasant. Get me out of here. Even perfume can be overbearing. Cough, cough. But orange blossoms are delicate and delicious. More. I want more orange blossoms. I could take a bath in orange blossoms.

The goldfinches are loving their new perch in the orange blossom tree near the bird feeder.

Sumac Tea--High in C

My friend Trudy gave me a staghorn of sumac 2 months ago, and i used it yesterday to make sumac tea, which is high in Vitamin C. Just the remedy for my drippy nose.

The flavor of sumac is almost lemon-y, and the color of the tea is pink. I'm drinking my sumac tea hot; i'm drinking it cold; i'm using it to flavor fizzy water. Hydrate. Hydrate.

Thanks to the generosity of Trudy, i can enjoy this cold remedy from the wild.

Sumac Tea

My friend Trudy served  sumac tea and stinging nettle soup for lunch the other day. She's a great forager, so her freezer is full of wild things. She sent me home with a staghorn of sumac so i can make my own lemon-y tasting tea.

To make the tart sumac tea hot, take the sumac "berries" off the stem. Otherwise the boiling water will leach tannin from the stem into your tea.

Sumac trees are often considered to be weed trees, but i have come to like their short height (8-12 feet) and lovely shape as a backdrop to the garden. And their fall color is spectacular crimson.

Birders also report seeing robins and bluebirds eating the sumac berries all winter long.

We all have "weedy" thoughts that we'd like to chop down and get rid of. Sometimes they form the on-going backdrop of our mind. "What you resist, persists."

Let's love those weedy thoughts.
Name one or two of yours right now.
Irritation. Impatience. Lust. Frustration. Procrastination.

Then say,
I love myself as i am, irritated.
I love myself as i am, impatient.
I love myself as i am, lustful.
I love myself as i am, _____________. (Fill in the blank with whatever unlovable qualities you think you have.)

Yes. I even love myself as i am, feeling unlovable.

This is one way to make lemonade out of lemons.













Photos from trustedearth.com and teaandfood.com

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.

Mint Meditation

With the uproar of construction this past summer, and the deconstruction of my herb garden, i got out of the habit of making mint iced tea every day.

My mint patch is supposed to be about 8 feet long and 2 feet wide, but mint oversteps its bounds when no one is looking. So i pull 4 or 5 mint stems out of the ground, cut off the root, smoosh the tall "sprigs" of mint into a big glass pitcher, and pour boiling water over them. My sweetie calls this "iced mint water."

The mint is still vigorous and green, and cold mint tea in the fridge offers variety to my attempt to drink 8 glasses of water each day.

In the uproar of your life, pull out your old meditation practice. You remember how to do it. It's sitting there with you right this moment, just waiting to refresh you.

Photo from tsflowers.com

The Proliferation of Mint

Mint seems like such a tasty herb to plant, but how many people have i warned? "Don't plant it!"

Mint is a spreader par excellence. When i started my herb garden, i wanted a mint of every type. But then i seldom used them. I actually prefer apple mint, which has a fuzzy leaf, to make iced tea with. Someone gave me chocolate mint, and that's a nice addition, but i think the apple mint has overrun it.

My method of keeping the mint patch under control is to make mint iced tea every day. On these hot days, i "pick" mint in the afternoon, which is to say i pull it up by as much root as i can and clip off the root. When i have a big handful of stems, i rinse them under the faucet and stuff them into a half-gallon glass pitcher. Add boiling water, and let it cool.

Put the pitcher into the refrigerator by evening, and the next day, you have cold mint tea all day long to cool you and refresh you.

This is how we work with our hindrances too. Sense desire, ill-will, sleepiness, anxiety, or doubt will proliferate and overrun our lives. We apply mindfulness every day. One by one, we pull back on desiring, expressing a zinger, collapsing, worrying, or doubting. We take a close look at the presenting circumstance, and in this way, we clip the root of that momentary hindrance.

We ourselves are refreshed and able to relax into the next moment. Maybe with a glass of cold mint tea in hand.

The Herb Garden

The herb garden has sprung back to life. I walk out the back door, and a pie chart of an herb garden stands at my feet.

Tonight i'm cooking spaghetti sauce. I cut 2-inch tall oregano, thyme, Egyptian onion tops, and garlic chives. So fresh that the bottled sauce revives itself into complicated flavors.

The apple mint is 2 inches tall. Well, that was yesterday. Maybe it's 3 inches tall today. It's sending out explorers to the nearby countries of Wormwood, Lovage, and Tansy. I ruthlessly pull those minty colonizers out by their roots in an effort to keep the exploding population within its own borders.

When i have a colander full of mint sprigs, i turn on the tea kettle. I stuff the rinsed mint leaves into a glass pitcher and fill to the brim with boiling water for a 2-day supply of iced tea. My honey calls it "iced mint water." By whatever name you call it, it's a cool drink for a warm day.

I love the herb garden, even though it is not showy. I've considered how i might age with my gardens. All the others may revert to woods or lawn or groundcover. The herb garden will be the last to go.