the liver's for planning, and kidneys give you skills, and follow-through. the spleen is the rhythm of thoughts, thoughtful thoughts that arise of themselves (like clouds condensing) and drift through transmutations effortlessly. the lungs are learning with each breath the lessons of holding in and letting go. and the heart sits in the center, keeping the time and reposing in the sightless palace.

life is carrying a kingdom around, swimming within you... without jarring it too much like waterbells, without overindulgence or starvation. somehow, taoism (in its truest sense) works for this inner kingdom, so long as we are not ridiculous in our search for the extremes of its capabilities. somehow everything goes without saying...

***

the trick in life is to find the right amount of force to apply to it. too much, and we leave our own imprint upon things, breaking the nature of what we touch. too little, and the weeds and the wildness take their mile and acre from our own cared-for territory. we are, and we are not, apart from/a part of our world. we must exercise gentleness (or at least be sensitive in our violence) or we destroy the thin skin holding everything in its right place...

***

i am re-learning how to be a gardener. gardening is patience. it is the holding onto a vision of what is as yet unseen. it is the love that patiently endures the seed's slow growth and the stem's unseemly directions and strayings.

some day, when the time is right, the investment of soil and water and sun (and, sometimes, attention) will reveal itself in a form that is lovable (and that loves you back) with each full leaf and shy blossom.

some day, when the moment is full, a plant will find its shape, somewhere in the interface between its own wild and blind seeking for the light, and the gardener's corrective pruning. no one knows the final shape; it is found, and lost again, and refound, with each passing season.

gardening is like parenting is like teaching is like life. it is patience. it is holding onto a vision of something as yet unseen. it is the love that is faith, for faith and love, in their essence, are one and the same thing.

deep within the seed, and beyond the straying stems, the gardener will find his garden.