Sunday Dinner: Waiting for the Mud to Settle

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“A good traveler has no fixed plans

and is not intent on arriving.”

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Lao Tzu

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“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.

Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow.

Let reality be reality.

Let things flow naturally forward

in whatever way they like.”

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Lao Tzu

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“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”

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Lao Tzu

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“Do you have the patience to wait

until your mud settles

and the water is clear?”

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Lao Tzu

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“Doing nothing

is better than being busy

doing nothing.”

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Lao Tzu

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“I have just three things to teach:

simplicity, patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.”

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Lao Tzu

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“The Way to do is to be.”
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Lao Tzu

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“Your own positive future begins in this moment.

All you have is right now.

Every goal is possible from here.”

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Lao Tzu

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“Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.”

Lao Tzu

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2020

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Some photos from the Williamsburg Botanical Garden May 1 and May 3, 2020

Illuminations: Walking in Beauty Every Day– a daily photo of something beautiful and a thought provoking quotation

WPC: Change

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“If you realize that all things change,

there is nothing you will try to hold on to.

If you are not afraid of dying,

there is nothing you cannot achieve.”

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Lao Tzu

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Change is the constant in our garden. 

We, like everyone else, watch the seasons come and go.  We watch for the first green leaves to push through the frozen soil in February.  We watch for the lizards to wake up in early summer, and for the butterflies to magically appear in the garden sipping from their favorite flowers.

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We watch for tender green leaves to unfold from bare stems and for those same leaves to yellow and fade, finally blowing away on autumn’s wind.

We witness ice flowers growing from a frozen stem with awe and wonder.

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“To see things in the seed,

that is genius.”

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Lao Tzu

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Yet gardening teaches us to work with change in deeper ways.  We work in longer cycles of time than the changing of a single season.

We weigh the potential of a site before ever moving in.  We build the soil over many seasons, nurturing those living microbes so tiny we will never see them.

We can visualize the vase of flowers inherent in a packet of seeds.  We see the tender petals already forming in a rough brown bulb.

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We plant trees, knowing it will take decades for them to mature, and that we may never taste their fruits.

Time is a constant in our algorithms. 

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We take into our accounts the potential of passing time.  We understand the richness of the wait.

Like thoughtful parents, we understand the profound power of love and attention.

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“Change will not come

if we wait for some other person,

or if we wait for some other time.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

We are the change that we seek.”

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Barack Obama

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We inhabit this Earth for such a short time; and yet we are witness to uncounted change. 

We contemplate those fruits which ripened centuries before our birth.  Myths and paintings bear witness to those fruits and flowers of another age.

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We wonder how the span of our own lives might enrich the harvest in those years to come.

What seeds may we plant now, trusting them to still blossom and bear fruit in a future we can barely  imagine?

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“Become totally empty
Quiet the restlessness of the mind
Only then will you witness

everything unfolding from emptiness”

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Lao Tzu

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Perhaps some of us are drawn to gardening through our fascination with the process of change.

We can watch endless cycles of change play out  just beyond our doorstep.  Our garden is our laboratory, where we tinker with the unfolding of life itself.

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We watch and we listen, smelling the wind, noting the comings and goings of every thing as the seasons unfold.

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And perhaps, if we are very observant, we might learn a bit about life, and maybe even about ourselves.  What things will change; and what will seem immune from its endless transformations?

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Woodland Gnome 2015

For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge: Change

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Wednesday Vignette

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“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”

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Lao Tzu

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Here is another of the ‘accent plants,’ grown in a shallow Bonsai style pot, I’ve been working with this summer.  The two main plants were sold unnamed, but I believe they may be a cultivar of Alocasia, another of those plants commonly called ‘Elephant’s Ears.’  Tropical, they prefer warmth, high humidity, filtered bright light, and moist soil; a winning combination for a houseplant!

I fell in love with these striking leaves and adopted both plants on the spot.  They came in tiny 1″ pots, and have been growing in their new, more spacious pot for almost three months.

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Mid-June, right after planting up this arrangement

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The ground cover plant is Sellaginella, or ‘Spikemoss.”  Spikemoss also appreciates constant moisture and high humidity, but indirect light.

These little ‘accent plants’ require the frequent,  close attention a proper Bonsai requires to keep them hydrated, groomed, and in good health.  It only takes a moment or two, but the plants must be checked every few days.  I feel more comfortable growing the little ‘accent plants’ because they don’t require the frequent pruning woody Bonsai need, and can grow fairly happily in their shallow little pot for a long while.

They grow on a windowsill where they never get direct sunlight, but have bright light all day.  This has been a good windowsill plant as it never drops a leaf or petal and fills its space elegantly.

Caring for little plants such as these helps us cultivate mindfulness and patience.

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Our little Alocasia after a summer of growth.

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“Time is a created thing.

To say ‘I don’t have time,’

is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.”

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Lao Tzu 

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My appreciation to blogging friend Anna at Flutter and Hum for hosting Wednesday Vignettes each week. 

Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015

 

Wordless Wednesday

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“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.

Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow.

Let reality be reality.

Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
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Lao Tzu

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015