Sweeping Teak Leaves

When i was on retreat in Thailand last month, the afternoon chore, at 4:00, was "sweeping" leaves. As you can see in the photo, my rake looks more like a broom--a rather thin and ratty old broom, with just a few stalks of hard straw to do the "sweeping."

Our cottages were situated in a grove of young teak trees, which grow straight up quite fast. Teak leaves are larger than rhubarb leaves, and they are the consistency of a brown paper bag. February is the end of the dry season, so the slightest breeze brings more teak leaves drifting (crashing?) down to earth. Every morning, i awoke to find yesterday's clean sweep littered with more brown papery teak leaves.

Needless to say, i didn't look forward to this raking/sweeping chore. I tried picking up the gigunda leaves, but i quickly discovered red fire ants trooping along them, over my toes, and up my leg. I resumed sweeping.

After a few days, i realized that sweeping teak leaves is really what i do all day long in my every day life. I straighten up the living room; next day, same thing. I clean up the kitchen; next day, same thing. I make the bed; next day.....

Teak leaves keep falling in our life. Leaves fall. We sweep them up. They decompose.
Just like our lives.

Sweet Calmness

One sweet orange blossom on the 3-foot tall orange tree spreads its delightful fragrance throughout the living room and kitchen.

One calm person can spread their calmness, without even trying, in a frantic workplace or an emergency on the side of the road.

Can you be that calm being?

Earliest Harbinger

I drove by a wetland yesterday and stopped to pick some pussy willows. The furry gray catkins are the earliest harbinger of spring.

What was your own harbinger of your spiritual path?

When i was 5, i knew life was a dream, but i couldn't figure out how to wake up.

When my sister was in the sandbox room at Sunday School (i.e., the nursery for pre-schoolers), she rebelled when the teacher said that people who didn't take Jesus as their savior were doomed to hell. What about all the people who never heard of Jesus? she thought. At age 4, she was already a progressive Christian.

What was your own earliest harbinger of your spiritual life?

Photo from guardian.co.uk

Not Letting the Grass Grow Under My Snowy Feet

The snow has melted off my neighbor Connie's lawn and garden, but not off of mine. She tells me she's planting seeds today, directly sowing lettuce into the garden and covered the area with clear plastic until the seeds germinate.

Not waiting for the grass to grow under my snowy feet, i decide to sow seeds also in my warmest, sunniest place--a little flowerbed that is 8 feet long and 2 feet wide. It faces due south and has a stone wall (i.e., heat collector) behind it. We could call it my heat sink garden.

Today i sowed a little bit of kale, a few chard, a pinch of broccoli seeds, some tat soi, and a "stir fry mix."

Our good friends challenge us to do our best. My gardening friend Connie challenges me to get going in the spring garden.

Our Dharma friends challenge us to live a wholesome life and to act and speak kindly and helpfully.

Lemon? or Orange?

When our friend David retired and moved, he gave us his 3-foot tall lemon tree because he didn't have space for it in his new home. Now his lemon tree has an orange on it. It's small; it's round;, and it's definitely orange.

Sometimes we follow a spiritual path that doesn't quite deliver on its promises. It says it will give us an orange, but we find ourselves with a lemon instead.

The Buddha's teachings can seem, at first taste, as sour as a lemon. The 5 Precepts, for instance. Speaking truthfully and helpfully can be hard work, and it's so much more fun to gossip. And refraining from intoxicants? A little glass of wine never hurt anyone, and I don't get drunk, after all.

There's the 4 Ennobling Truths, which begin with #1: Stress exists. Unsatisfactoriness exists. That just seems downright negative when, really, life is wonderful.

And that concept of not-self. How can that be true? I feel like i have a self, so i must have one.

The Dharma may make our mind pucker when we first encounter it, yet over time, we see the truth of the Truths. That's when we realize the fruit of the spiritual path is very sweet indeed.

Stressed Plants and Stressful Thoughts

I have tomato plants growing in 3 different houseplants. I must have added compost to my potting soil last fall.

The tomato plants themselves are winter-poor--pale green and leggy. Nevertheless, one of them has 2 ripe cherry tomatoes.

We know, theoretically, that stressed plants will bloom and fruit in order to reproduce before they die.

Our stressful mind states will also do just about anything to reproduce themselves.

Recently, my sweetie offered his concert ticket to a friend in a moment of open-hearted generosity. The next day he had second thoughts--and all of them were stressful. For instance, She is such a free-loader (Aversion) and Hey, wait a minute! I want to go too. (Desire.)

In order to reap the fruits (or cherry tomatoes :) of the spiritual life, we have to keep our eye on our wholesome, non-stressful thoughts and actions. My sweetie felt generous. Generosity is a noble, an admirable emotion. Let's grow more of that!

Wake Up to Surprise

Those forsythia branches that i cut just a week ago are blooming! Yes, i know that's what they're supposed to do, but somehow i'm still surprised to have spring springing in my dining room.

Brother David Steindl-Rast, on his website gratefulness.org, tells us to wake up to surprise. Amazement is the first step to gratefulness, and gratitude opens the heart and mind.

It's much easier to just go along in the adult world on autopilot. "Been there. Done that" kills surprise, amazement, and the liveliness of life.

What one thing can you be surprised by, right now?

Photo from whiteswanproperties.blogspot.com