chapter ten - garden well

Overflowing Clarity

"It is the story of all life that is holy and is good to tell, and of us two-leggeds sharing it with the four-leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things; for these are children of one mother and their father is one Spirit." - Black Elk

"When you are not disturbed by blue jays, blue jays will come right into your heart, and you will be a blue jay, and the blue jay will be reading something, and then the blue jay will not disturb your reading" - Shunryu Suzuki

"Tell them I say the heart forgives
The world. Yes, I believe. In love." - Stanley Kunitz

A star of understanding
makes the nation over holy:
this rainbow coalition of the loving.

"Against this background, artists are once again turning to the garden as the pre-eminent site for the interrogation of the relationship between nature and culture, wilderness and order, freedom and control. The garden is not a neutral space. It is not merely a space to spend leisure time, or a retreat, safe and secluded. Nor is the garden just a place to let escapism run wild. No. In the garden, life is reflected and manifests itself." - Erik A. de Jong

Now you shall see the Temple completed:
After much striving, after many obstacles;
For the work of creation is never without travail;
The formed stone, the visible crucifix,
The dressed altar, the lifting light,

Light
Light
The visible reminder of Invisible Light.

- T. S. Eliot

chapter eleven