Wax On/Wax Off

A week of the kitchen garden experiment and this novice has yet to feel a moment of deep satisfaction. "Just what did you expect?" you might ask.

I confess that I did anticipate a bit of enlightenment by now. What could produce more joy and energy than co-creating with nature? But since I'm still awaiting that epiphany, and since I must resist the urge to poke about in my fragile seed pods, I guess I'll clean carpets. We have, after all, established that I am more of a "human doing" than a "human being." More later...


Two and half hours of carpet shampooing and it's time to take a break. I have been rereading (and restruggling) with Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now. Tolle says that true enlightment happens only when we are able to disconnect our concious thought patterns, the noise inside our heads, from our real nature--the Being within. He states that when we are able to find peace and joy in the mundane, only then have we reached enlightenment. Apparently I'm not there yet. Two hours of focusing on the Now, emptying my mind of nothing but the strokes of the carpet steamer, and I have nothing to show for it but carpal tunnel.

I tried the techniques I'd learned, listening to my own breathing as I worked. The steady "inhale/ exhale." But my mind wandered. Even when I jerked it back to the task at hand, I could not stay in the present. I found myself thinking about how great my carpets were going to look after I'd finished. I couldn't help remember that film, The Karate Kid...you know the scene where Daniel comes to Mr. Miyagi to learn karate and the master sets him to washing cars.

The student still has much to learn. And so it is with my little Zen garden. As I wait for the sprouts to take root and grow, I fight the desire to focus on the results. Is it not enough to take joy in the sprouts as they are right now? Wax on/wax off.

The Kitchen Garden Novice