New Decade.

An elderly Italian man who lives alone in New Jersey
wants to plant his anual tomato garden,
but its very difficult work as the ground's hard.
His only son Vincent who helps him
was in prison, so the old man wrote a letter to his son
and described his predicament;
'Dear Vincent,
I'm feeling pretty sad because it looks like
I wont be able to plant my tomato garden this year,
and you know what a sanctuary and pleasure that has been for me.
I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot,
I know if you were here my troubles would be over,
I know you would be happy for you to dig the plot for me,
like in the old days.
Love papa.'
A few days later he recieves a letter from his son;
'Dear Pop,
Don't dig up that garden!
Thats where the bodies are buried.
Love Vinnie.'
At 4 am the next morning the F.B.I and local police arrived
and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies.
They apologised to the old man and left.
That same day the old man recieved another letter from his son;
'Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now,
that's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you.
Vinnie.'

Taken From an Insight Meditation talk called Loving the Earth
by Tara Brach:

Who then goes on to ask;
'What stops us from taking care of our earth
our body
our larger body
the source of our life?
What stops us?'



I entered this new decade re-listeneing to the talk I link you to above.
It takes 45 minutes,
as new years resolutions begin to become overwhelming and mere lists
and you're wondering
Where to begin, where to begin...?
Maybe
begin here
with accpeting what the situation is
and giving yourself more room to change.. . .






'By consuming unmindfully
whether its oil, the earths resources or meats
by over producing, by over consuming
we destroy life for future generations'
Tich nhat Han