Haibun: The Tao of Flowers
Here in the great Sonoran Desert spring is beyond the bud, spring is flowering. I’m finding here that life first shows up on the ground, almost as an announcement for the coming glory of the different cacti to flower.
I’m glad I am aware of this. Sometimes in life, I’m not aware till afterwards. It was only afterwards that I realized I was falling in love as we walked the trail. Another time, it was only afterwards that I realized it would be the last conversation I ever had with my Grandmother. I have missed her since.
But realizing it in the midst, instead of afterwards, can be hazardous in its own way. I tried too hard to impress and took a situation that was going well and turned it into them never wanting to meet again. To be fair, I’ve been part of something nice, only to watch the other person trying too hard and it becoming a train derailment.
I want to tie this together with this: I’ve been rereading the Tao Te Ching. In it, Lao Tzu talks about the way of the Tao, or universal ways, does without doing. That seems contradicting until I think about what I was saying above. So I think it means for me that I can pay attention without forcing a diversion away from my fears of being discovered, I can listen to the person in front of me and not the regrets of my past, and I can stay present and trust that good will shine on it’s own and not having to force it.
flowered yellow flows… as dots.
spring begins to show
