filled with zen…

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper.  Without a cloud there will be no water; without water, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, you cannot make paper.  So the cloud is in here.  The existence of this page is dependent upon […]

climbing the tree

 A teacher was watching her students as they all climbed on the big oak tree in the play ground. “Be careful,” she shouted. The whole class room was on the tree. Some were trying to climb to the top while most settled for a perch on the lower branches. When play time was over and […]

The full moon of zen

I was feeling big, and rather strong in my car and driving home. When I saw the full moon peeking through the tall timbered pines above the road that twist and whined.   It made me feel small and rather meek a spec on this earth, where I squeak I bowed to the moon’s ancient […]

cutting the grass

(psst… this is not me in this picture) Like most, I have to manicure the yard. Cutting the grass is like giving the earth a hair cut; prune the scalp (the yard) and let the rest of the body go. My Father-in-law, like most, has a riding lawn mower and finds any reason he can to ride […]

Ka-ching

Shania Twain “Ka-Ching” We live in a greedy little world,  that teaches every little boy and girl, to earn as much as they can possibly, then turn around and spend it foolishly. We’ve created us a credit card mess. We spend the money that we don’t possess. Our religion is to go and blow it […]

….you mustn’t quit

A few years ago, at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win. All, that is, except one […]

the seed

Once upon a time, there was a seed and because it was only a seed, nobody cared to notice it. Thus, gripped by a sense of inferiority, the seed gave no importance to its existence. Then one day, a wind picked him up – randomly or otherwise it didn’t know – and threw it mercilessly on an […]

this is not Jabba the Hut

I am almost certain that this is not a statue of Jabba The Hut, though the resemblance is uncanny. I am almost certain that it is a statue of Daruma, the Japanese name given to the Bodhidharma, known as the founder of Zen. Bodhidharma is believed to have been an Indian monk who took new […]

zen’s dying…

  Zen’s dying… A famous zen master was lying on his death bed. A line of people trailed out the door and across the zen garden of those who had come to pay their respects to the master before he passed. They had come from all over to see the great zen master one last time. The zen […]

slow down (a poem)

  Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round, or listened to rain slapping the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight, or gazed at the sun fading into the night? You better slow down, don’t dance so fast, time is short, the music won’t last. Do you run through each day on the fly, […]