Chop wood, carry water

"Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water."
--Wu Li

Substitute deadhead and weed and you have a gardener’s version of the old Zen proverb.

Deadheading offers a chance to drift in a stream of consciousness, ponder a problem, or simply be out enjoying the early morning. This morning offered a brew of all three. It was a particularly beautiful morning with lots of clouds, a light breeze from the south smelling of rain, and some bickering hummingbirds flitting around and chittering. The problem solving kept drifting away into some bizarre Rorschach dreaminess with shapes emerging from the seedheads of the Heliopsis. It soon became apparent that it was time to let said problem drop into the subconscious to be solved by the “little gray cells” as Hercule Poirot so succinctly put it.

Weeding is another matter, confirming that enlightenment is light years away. Weeding is adversarial. Weeding is a personal vendetta. Weeding is an entrenched refusal to let go of old wrongs and perceived transgressions. Every memory of weedy triumph is burned into my brain, growing in hindsight. But it is my relationship with quack grass that really brings out my inner bitch. I swear at the long rhizomes, ripping at them with an unbecoming vengeance and sending dirt flying everywhere. Enlightenment indeed.

I suppose it is something to strive for. When I can approach weeding with the same equanimity as deadheading then I hope it will signal that new level of mindfulness. Yeah, right. The day I can approach that vile monocot without a significant spike in my blood pressure is the day you can stop the presses because I will be at the Vatican applying for sainthood.