Tuesday, March 1, 2005
John Gaston Fairey wrote, "A garden is a journey that seems to have neither a beginning nor an ending..."
An hour in the garden is what my heart and soul need right now,
after spending two hours of my life with computer problems.
Making Plans ...creating a poetic garden
Sometimes I come across a tree which seems like Buddha or Jesus: loving, compassionate, still, unambitious, enlightened, in eternal meditation, giving pleasure to a pilgrim, shade to a cow, berries to a bird, beauty to its surroundings, health to its neighbors, branches for the fire, leaves for the soil, asking nothing in return, in total harmony with the wind and the rain. How much can I learn from a tree? The tree is my church, the tree is my temple, the tree is my mantra, the tree is my poem and my prayer.
Satish Kumar, editor Resurgence magazine, though this quotation is likely from one of his books
In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
Tao Te Ching
Nature can be trusted to work her own miracle in the heart of any man whose daily task
keeps him alone among her sights, sounds, and silences. Gene Stratton Porter
We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time:
How much is enough? Wendell Berry
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. Kahlil Gibran
Wednesday, March 2
Tom Spencer will be conducting a
Soul of the Garden retreat at
Omega at the Crossings on the
first weekend of April. Among the preparations for attendance are reading items on his website and two amazing poets. The
ordered books arrived yesterday and are being devoured with such relish. The poetry of
Mary Oliver in
New and Selected Poems and of
Wendell Berry in
A Timbered Choir along with an extra personal favorite,
Sailing Alone Around the Room by poet
laureate,
Billy Collins. What a feast. Preparing for the retreat is filled with such pleasure already. We can hardly wait... I signed
up both of us... it is an experience we can share, as different as we are from each other.
...an excerpt from The Summer Day
by Mary Oliver
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Late at night I draw my inkstone close;
Flushed with wine, I put my worn brush to paper.
I want my brushwork to bear the same fragrance as plum blossoms,
And even though old I will try harder than anyone.
Ryφkan
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden...
You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of
the Garden.
Rudyard Kipling
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