Pulling Garlic Mustard

Garlic mustard, a biennial invasive, is blooming its tiny white flowers this week. Last evening, while waiting to meet a friend for dinner, i spent 5 minutes pulling garlic mustard on the nearby rail trail. Someone stopped to ask me what i was doing. "Practicing random acts of gardening," i said.

It's a small thing. Pulling garlic mustard on the roadside for 5 minutes. Today, i pulled Japanese knotweed near a stream for 10 minutes.

Yet this is what we do when we pull the weed of impatience for a minute as we sit at a stoplight patiently. We weed an unkind thought and replace it with kindness.

What would you weed? Irritation? Desire? Resentment? Envy?

Simply being mindful of these unskillful mind states leaves us, for a moment, with the spaciousness of mindfulness.

Intending Kindness

Ardisia crenata

The hotel where we are staying in London is just switching out its Christmas plants for new year's plants.

The shiny green foliage of Ardisia crenata has tomato-red berries. Very seasonal for Christmas. And very invasive in the southeastern United States.

We think we can cheat just a little, lie just a little, or even hate just a little, and get away with it. In these small ways, we give ourselves permission to be unkind. These unkindnesses invade our heart-mind, and then we feel ill at ease. These unkindnesses can look rather attractive to begin with, but they are never worth it.

In the new year, switch out any unkindness--and i mean any unkindness--for the good intentions of your heart.

Pulmonaria is Blooming

Pulmonaria is blooming! In a very protected spot. That's good, because nighttime temperatures, which have been almost warm, are falling back into down to 20 degrees.

Pulmonaria, also called lungwort, is so-named because it's spotted leaves supposedly look like lungs. The lovely flower begins as a pink bud, but becomes blue as it ages.

A leopard may not be able to change its spots, but we, fortunately, can change our outlook on life.

Recently, my sweetie was recalling an incident from 20 years ago in which i behaved poorly. "That was cruel," he said. Gee, i never thought of such behavior as cruel; it was just the way my dad brought me up.

On second thought, i realized that my behavior had been unkind on that day so long ago. "Please forgive me," i said to him.

I'm trying to change the color of my mind, from unthinking to thoughtful.