The Art of Zen Living

My original plan had been to write about “enough” tonight.  The best laid plans of mice and men, well, you know the rest.  Or I hope you do, because I don’t, exactly - something about aforementioned plans going awry.

Instead I’m going to share with you a bit about my day.  I was over at my mother’s house, planting some ground cover and shrubs for her.  In the flower bed in the back, there is a small palm tree of some sort - I believe it’s a date palm.  What it is doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that it’s fronds have razor sharp spikes that can impale a man and cause him to bleed to death in a matter of seconds.  OK, that’s a slight exaggeration, but they are sharp, and they hurt when you’re trying to work around them while digging holes to plant in.

I’d been trying to figure out how I was going to deal with this situation since this weekend when Mom asked if I could plant these for her sometime this week.  In the past, I’ve hated this tree.  Now I’m practicing the 5 precepts, so acceptance is important.  So picture, if you will, a 5′8″ bald man with a shovel, being stuck repeatedly with sharp spikes while trying to dig in a flower bed that has been replanted so many times it’s more roots than dirt.  Picture this man trying to be happy, peaceful and accepting of this situation.  Picture him failing miserably.

I was ready to give up.  I wanted to give up.  There was a nice breeze (which is rare in SW Florida) that I would normally enjoy - but right then all I could think about was that this breeze was making things worse by blowing the tree around.  I took a deep breath and asked myself what I could accept.  I could accept that I wasn’t skillful enough to have true acceptance of this situation.  I could accept that I’m a beginner, and as a result I’m not going to handle every (any) situation with the ease and subtlety of a master.

It dawned on me that I didn’t really need to accept the situation or the tree.  It was enough that I accepted that I didn’t like that tree, and that it was an annoying and painful situation to be in.  It was enough.  Attitude adjusted, I finished my task with a bit of joy rather than the frustration I would have had in the past.