January 23, 2013
Part of the border plants died. The Martha Washington geraniums have
taken over the entire bedded area around the statue of the Buddha. Gardens teach us to let go. In science and nature, perhaps from the writings of Heraclitus
, the idea that “Nature abhors a vacuum” is a cornerstone construct. It reminds us that life is always
shifting around on us. Empty
spaces get filled in the real world.
Also things disappear, die or become dormant. You cannot be a gardener, or a naturalist and not know this
on a deeply physical level.
One of the subtle and persistent experiences of being
in the natural world is to relax.
We are small again. We are
just a piece in the bigger thrust and pull of the universe. Life out there is simple. That which adapts and gets the
right nurturance survives, until it doesn’t. Simple. Dying
isn’t scary, wrong or evil, it just is.
It is part of it. Part of
the wide screen, the molten apricot sky, or the water dropping thousands of
feet down the hillside to the deep caverns and cool riverbanks below. We belong. We are here for a piece of that long time, and then we are
not.
Some of our borders will be dying off right now, and
other parts of us will be taking over a zone of our consciousness. We do have the ability to prune things
back and to replant, but sometimes it is just interesting to see where the big
spin is taking us. We spend so
much of our time trying to control things. We get used to comfort. We want things our way. Nothing is wrong with that. Work it. Get some things you want. Make some space for yourself. But don’t let that take over your
experience of things. Learn to sit
back and watch. Be still. Give time for things to emerge, for
relationships to develop, for ideas to reach maturity. Let time edit the process. Meditation helps with that,
because it is scheduled reverie but reverie nonetheless. It is a moment of not acting, but just
observing. 
Oh yes, that border plant has died. And look at those geraniums!
