tend the earth, plant the seeds

(a haibun)

August, third week. I watch the earth hungrily swallow the water as I put the hose on very low and leave it in the garden. Above me the tree branches are reaching out for even a hint of breeze. The day is seriously hot, and clear enough that I can see snow on the mountaintops of the Sierra Nevada, far to my east. Another month until the start of autumn, so there's still time to grow a few tomatoes, a few cucumbers. 

Tend the earth, plant the seeds,
shower with water and love -
life is a garden.

-james lee jobe

One might argue that the whole purpose of Zen Buddhism is to wake you up to this simple fact: this is your life. This is it. And that’s not a depressing thought, but a joyful one. This is it! This is my life! 

-Taylor Plimpton

The pilgrim moves with a gentle grace. His eyelids are the door to the other side, the astral plane. His flesh is the iron that the angels beat into a fine steel for swords, swords that fight the darkness, swords that shine like a kind thought. And behind those eyelids, his eyes are starlight, moonlight, sunlight, dreams, compassion, and mercy. The pilgrim moves with a gentle grace through this world and the next, through the days and nights of time. He moves, and he does not stop moving. He does not return.

-james lee jobe

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James