State of the Garden


I was staying at a retreat center in Peru on 9/11. I was not with anyone else from the United States. I remember at the first meal after the planes hit, another guest suggesting that the United States deserved it. I also remember the brief moment of gathering sympathy that, as a country, we threw away with the aggressive response.
The best thing about the retreat center was that instead of tea bags, every morning there were fresh herbs from the garden for tea. I continue to make my tea that way as much of the year as the garden is able.


I love the tree sculptures by Roxy Paine. This one is in the Sculpture Garden on the National Mall. They are exquisitely beautiful and beautifully crafted. In addition to just appreciating their form, though, they make me think of the perils of society preferring the shiny, the seemingly permanent and indestructible, and the constructed over the breathing, shading, nourishing, life-sharing presence of real trees.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
In recent months, I have listened to the stories of a number of close friends and co-workers as they navigate the difficult process of saying their good-byes to the tangible, physical embodiment of a loved one and participating in the loved one’s own good-bye.
I find myself filled with memories of those I still love though the loved one is no longer embodied in the physical form in which I met them. For me and for those with whom I share my memories, they live on as such and. in greater and lesser amounts, in how I think, respond, and act to this day and beyond.