An Hour in the Garden
There is a little plant
called reverence
in the corner
of my soul's garden,
which I love to have watered once a week.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes
A garden is a journey
that seems to have neither
a beginning nor an ending...
— John Gaston Fairey
Tuesday Morning in Early June
There is a soft rain falling this morning.
As I poured my coffee and looked out,
one agapanthus in the front garden and my favorite,
was leaning askew and almost kissing the foliage of its buddy.
The cool liquid saturated deep into its iris-colored blossoms,
making it too heavy for itself... a visible human allegory.
These lovelies are prone to falling upon their neighbors.
When reaching for the light, they lean off-center.
In the open, they stand straight and righteous,
but don't reach the same heights.
We don't want to lose this precious plant.
It's our summer delight and the reason
we fell in love with the property.
Heading to the garage for a stake and plant tie,
I gave it the support I thought it needed.
Then found myself waiting for some assurance
That it just couldn't give.
— Granny
A little too abstract, a little too wise,
It is time for us to kiss the earth again,
It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies,
Let the rich life run to the roots again.
— Robinson Jeffers
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
Meditate.
Live purely. Be quiet.
Do your work with mastery.
Like the moon, come out
from behind the clouds!
Shine.
— Buddha "The Enlightened One"
We learn from our gardens to deal with
the most urgent question of the time:
How much is enough?
— Wendell Berry
It is only when you start a garden - probably after age fifty -
that you realize something important happens every day.
— Geoffrey B. Charlesworth
AND any of you can come help me in the Devic Garden anytime - just be willing to meditate sometimes if the Devas ask you to, and also to ask each plant where it wants to be planted;
and if you're weeding, hold the consciousness of 'Thank you for your energy gift [you're going
to make great compost]' and 'please release.' Most plants will easily release their roots from the soil when thought-to in this way. If they hold on, then they may have a message for you and you need to tune-in at a deeper level. Each person deserves at least as much respect as the weeds I talk to.
— Carolion
Man was not made to rust out in idleness.
A degree of exercise is as necessary
for the preservation of health,
both of body and mind,
as his daily food.
And what exercise is more fitting,
or more appropriate of one who is in the decline of life,
than that of superintending a well-ordered garden?
What more enlivens the sinking mind?
What is more conducive to a long life?
— Joseph Breck
Even if I knew that tomorrow
the world would go to pieces,
I would still plant my apple tree.
— Martin Luther
More Quotes
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
