Gardening Lessons

We can prepare the soil, plant the seeds,

weed and water –

that’s what we

can do.

All

the

worried

watching won’t

guarantee growth

in our gardens, our children, or in us.

                                                                             JDG

The Trips They Take

An unaccustomed 

quiet descends as grandkids

journey – some far, some

close to home and some only

in the regions of their minds.

                                                                  JDG

 

Women Of A Certain Age

What they’ve done they’ve done,

this gathering of women

seventy years and older.

With nothing left to prove,

they are open to themselves and each other.

No topic is too large or too deep

(world peace, life after death)

or too small

(vitamin B12 , comfy shoes)

for their contemplation.

They hold these concerns as tenderly as they hold each other.

                                                                                                                          JDG

 

Summer Hibernation

As the temperature

creeps toward ninety, we start to

creep toward air conditioned caves.

                                                                           JDG

Self-Starters

Those golden squatters

planted themselves

in the pots on my porch.

They knew to seize the clay

and not to wait

for me.

                                                                     JDG

Zent Over The Edge

I got a zen phone

hoping its technology

would be zen for me,

but koans didn’t bring me

the zen I was looking for.

                                                    JDG

While Meditating

Our minds will stray, he said, but the moment

we notice that,

they’re on their

way back

home.

                                                                                       JDG

( with thanks to Bodhipaksa of “Wildmind” )

 

A Moving Experience

Over thirty years of stuff,

 saved and tucked away,

has been drug out of hiding

and is now on full display

’cause in no time at all

 it’s office moving day.

The sorting quickly slips

into professional life review,

and, though tiring,

is filled with wonder too –

(“I wonder why I kept that.”

 “I wondered where that went.”

“I wonder when I wandered

from my first intent.”)

All this sorting helps me see

what mattered then,

what matters now,

what never mattered but I kept somehow.

~

 Moving into a smaller space

can have some big advantages.

                                                                                JDG