Recently we went on a trip to visit an organic farm in Otsego county with whom we have a CSA. It was a long trip, the whole length of Herkimer county really, and then some, but it was a beautiful day and the golden rod and purple aster were in full bloom. We bought tomatoes for sauce and saw all the gardens, the lovely open views of the hills and valleys what you don’t get in the Adirondacks unless you climb a mountain.
On the way home I decided to drive by my old house, the house where I grew up. It is a small house on the top of a hill, two acres of land that my father turned into two huge gardens and a nice lawn. I have a picture of my father and me standing in front of what would be one of the gardens. He has a large scythe in his hand and I’m looking up at him adoringly. He is still my favorite of all people on earth, even though he isn’t on earth anymore the way I knew him, he would have been 109 this year. His birthday is near the equinox, the time when we celebrate the equal length of time in daylight and in night. A time for slowing down. A time for letting the frost take the garden without much fight on my part. Though I did get almost of bushel of green tomatoes in before the plants were reduced to mush by the cold. A time of balance - to get our selves in a place of harmony. Letting the business of summer go, and welcoming the cooler days of autumn.
Anyway we drove by my old house, first I was accosted by a sign that said something about Jesus and hell, then many harsh political signs. The driveway was a mess, the garage looked like a hoarder lived there, and well, it just wasn’t like it should be. There goes all those thoughts of peace and harmony.
I planned to go back and pull-up all the signs, make those people move, clean up the yard, bring it back to the way it used to be, even though I know there is no going back. Things do change. But how do I get that feeling of not-nice-person living in my house out of my head? As Eckhart Tolle says this is a reaction, our reactions need to come out of our state of consciousness, or in other words, figure out where that reaction is coming from and deal with it.
I constantly am preaching that we are all one, the earth, its people, all of creation, and yet there is such a disconnect with that thought when a reality hits you that you really don’t like someone, you can’t stand their views, you can’t stand the way they live, you don’t think they are fit for the earth.
This is where meditation comes in, it is only in the silence and stillness of centering down that I can become myself again, my true self, the one that doesn’t need to control everything, own everything, oversee everything according to my small will. Of course, there is a time and a place for dissent and for righting injustices but not without trying to understand and listen deeply to the one we consider the ‘other’.
In a recent email Richard Rohr asked his readers:
“If you will allow, I recommend for your spiritual practice for the next few months that you impose a moratorium on exactly how much news you are subject to—hopefully not more than an hour a day of television, social media, internet news, magazine and newspaper commentary, and/or political discussions. It will only tear you apart and pull you into the dualistic world of opinion and counter-opinion, not Divine Truth, which is always found in a bigger place. Instead, I suggest that you use this time for some form of public service, volunteerism, mystical reading from the masters, prayer—or, preferably, all of the above. You have much to gain now and nothing to lose. Nothing at all. And the world—with you as a stable center—has nothing to lose. And everything to gain.”
That Richard always knows the right, calming things to say. I will tend to my own garden, get it ready for winter, make sure it is mulched and watered so that in the stillness of winter the earth can renew itself and in the spring bring forth new lush life.