Open Sky Meditation
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Harvesting and Replanting
This weekend’s work in the garden continues on removing summer plants that are no longer productive to make way for cold weather planting (various greens and root vegetables).
The cherry tomatoes and a couple of the hot peppers are still flowering in addition to fruiting. Those I will leave in place as long as they are producing or until a frost, whichever comes first.
I ruthlessly pulled up all of the other pepper plants, gleaning the last of that cycle of the harvest (some years there are lots of peppers to pickle and roast and enjoy into winter, but not with this summer’s weeks of blasting, arid heat followed by the flooding storms).
With the limited space in my tiny garden, frittering away time or space from sentimentality, attachment, neglect, or lack of knowledge, has a significant impact on the possibility of flourishing. Sometimes I relish my ability to be ruthless in the garden–to tear things up that do not serve, let them go, and invite in new and more nourishing and productive things.
When thought about in relationship to the vastness of possibility, my life is not unlike a tiny and limited garden, the limits being space and time and the particular and peculiar collection of quirks, challenges, and talents that came in this incarnation. Oh to be as ruthless in discarding what does not serve in this life as I can be in the garden.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Monuments to the 330 Million Gods
Later today I will be boarding a plane to India with the intention of witnessing edifices, art, monuments, and practices inspired, created, and perpetuated in the name of god(s). We are flying together out of JFK airport. I came early to NY to see my family, though I ended up seeing only my older sister instead of the whole family as originally planned. My Dad was supposed to have had hip replacement surgery last week, but it was postponed because he had a bad cold–please hold him in the light as he gets ready for surgery.
Looking out my window last night at the gorgeous view, I wondered how many of those involved in the design, engineering, and building of the Empire State Building thought of it as an inspiration of or tribute to god.
I have yet to see a so-called proof of “god” that does not make a leap of reasoning unsupported by logic, and I cannot think of anything further from the recognition of universal spirit and worthiness in all beings than killing, oppression, perpetuation of social inequalities, and forcing conformity in the name of god. I have, though, time and again experienced awe and delight to the very depths of my being witnessing the outrageously and extraordinarily beautiful and innovative outpourings of human creativity in the name of our multifarious beliefs in some god or gods. What wildly interesting creatures we are–all of us.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Found Exhortation (Less Clearly Seen Than Would Be Most Optimal)
I cannot tell from looking at the image on my Blackberry whether the words “faith” and “hope” that appear on this statue can be discerned in the photo, but they are there when standing and seeing the statue in person.
This morning, when I was reading through the news, I came across a curious headline that averred that the killing of Osama Bin Laden had brought us a “rare moment of unity.” This saddened me, as did the reportage of spontaneous celebrations.
I am calling on my reserves of practice so that my sense of faith and hope for humanity, for peace, and for social priorities is not as faint as the way the words appear in the photograph.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
