Some days the trek through the garden is quick –a passing glance checking in everybody. (The garden and its plants feel like a community of friends so the reference to “everybody” seems accurate.) Something unexpected stops me in my tracks–often with an exclamation of joy! This morning’s discovery that yesterday’s 70 degree heat brought the dwarf tulips into full bloom is one of today’s treats. And the lungworts –just buds the day before–are opening! And the mertensia (Virginia Bluebells) have lengthened and the buds are showing color. Maybe tomorrow they’ll delight me with their soothing blue.
Other days its more like a meditation–a slow passage with noted reverence savoring compelling plants and combinations, views, birdsong, breeze, sunlight or shade–a sensual mediation bringing me into touch with my body, the plant bodies, earth body and beyond. Perhaps its not a “body” at all in the physical sense. Perhaps its an energy body that we all share. It’s the connection that I let my scheduled life ignore or turn-off or allow to operate below my current level of awareness. The garden trek–the daily tread–reconnects all that (its like a reboot!) and infects me with joy no matter what the stock market is doing.
With great fortune I wake each morning to a breath taking dawn. Literally, I take in a deep breath and release a breath of thanks. I’m amazed how the tree framed sky I see is always different–similar some mornings but varied patterns of light, colors, cloud form, whatever. That observation coupled with an internal nod of thanks begins my day. Lately I’m a bit more intentional about taking that waking gratitude into my daily tread and breath that reminds me what a miracle simply living in this body is. These thoughts help me cope. Though I continually wonder at the disconnect–the beautiful earth and the economic mess and the war mess and the environmental mess that threatens the very miracle I’m reminded of each dawn and with each garden trek.
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