see what they didn't see.

i have a new thing added into the morning sequence. go into the garden and find a couple of roses. roses that are approaching full bloom but not past their peak. behold their beauty for a day. soak them in hot water in the evening. together with split cardamom pods. but this is about something i discover in the garden this morning. first it catches my eye that the hydrangea bush is loaded with gigantic blossoms. in fact the entire bush looks like one big flower. seriously. the branches are so heavy that they bend like the plant is in a full forward bend. some of them are almost touching the african violets that are across the narrow pebble path, while others have found their way into the bamboo grove which is now a luxuriant jade green fence all the way down the path to the garden gate. morning lights play off the fresh dew over the contours of the pink and blue hydrangea blooms. i, being someone good at picking bones from eggs, spot some withered blooms deep inside the hydrangea bush. somehow i just can't stand it. i dig my way into the rich explosion of flowers and clip the dead ones off. i take them to the green tub that is outside the gate, turn around, steps across the open gate, locks it behind me, turns around, and my gaze leisurely looks up and ahead. wow. somehow, chaperoned by the bamboo grove, the pebble path seems to stretch forever into the golden morning brilliance hovering above and around the hydrangea. i'm looking at this heavenly bouquet that fills up the other end of the path. if i were to enter the grounds for the first time i would have thought that that is the end and there is nothing beyond. but i know it is not so. i keep walking, following the curvaceously laid pebbles. in a few moments an expansive vista opens up. a whole garden of roses, figs, lemon, peony, plums and so much more.

indeed, the physical eyes can be so deceiving. they don't mean to but truly there are only so many things they can see. they need guidance. then their vantage point shifts and, wham, now they can see what they didn't see before.

this body is a temporary garment

hwubby and i take a walk basking in the afternoon sun. it's so nice holding hands and feeling the warmth of each other. one warmth. it's been such a long time since we've been able to do that. i remember something my teacher say when she was a teenager. as an indian and knowing little english, she was given the task to translate her teacher's teaching talks in front of large audiences of foreigners. she asks her beloved teacher, why do you give me so little time to prepare? he says, to the effect, then you can truly appreciate the power of grace. as the question and answer appear on the screen of the bright and quiet mind i realize i am having just that, an experience of the power of grace. there are so many challenges and uncertainties in our lives. yet my inner space is sweet, warm, pristine and permeating the fragrance of freedom. from this vantage point it is clear, without a doubt, that everything in the physical universe, circumstances, situations, are simply reflections in the mirror of my pure consciousness. this body is a temporary garment sheltering the ever-great, ever-full, ever-fresh inner self.