Emerging
June 24th, 2006
SO, I’VE UNRETREATED once more, and it feels funny. Reading The Week is confusing, folding blankets is delightful, and doing one and a half things at once a disorientating old habit.
There are the tomatoes in the garden, despite a month’s neglect, and swallows roosting en bas. My overdraft has grown, and there are more unanswered emails in my inbox. The vine has green grapes and there are wild strawberries nestling up the outside steps. It’s also hot, and difficult to be inside from 11 to 5 (one day I’ll learn to close the shutters in time). Two days ago the alteia began to bloom and we learnt that it’s its own kind of purple.
Sometimes I find my breath, perhaps after an hour of frog-ness, and experience disappointment in myself. Othertimes my breath wells up to my awareness of its own accord, to say hello, like clean water refilling the toilet after a flush - surprisingly fresh.
October 25th, 2006 at 7:45 am
Reading your beautiful entry here reminded me of a book, “The Zen Environment” by Marian Mountain, I read years ago. Searched and found it, worn and tattered, in an old bookcase. It will be a lovely reread. If I recall, she was a student of Suzuki Roshi at Tasahara, Big Sur, and she had a gift for observing and telling the natural world, like you. A rare book, I believe, as I have never come across another copy in all my book loving days.
October 25th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Wonderful.