Zen Moments

“…I saw how it bends, flowing with the wind…” newborn – we are tender and weak in death – we are rigid and stiff living plants are supple and yielding dead branches are dry and brittle so the hard and unyielding belong to death and the soft and pliant belong to life an inflexible army [...]

“The Earth laughs in flowers” Some restful meditations on the beauty of flowers – chosen from Youtube by Zen Moments “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.” – The Buddha. “Nobody sees a flower — really — it is so small it takes time — we [...]

A man surprises people at a gas station and offers to pay for their gas. He selects his target cars almost at random and tells his amazed recipients: “Just do something nice for somebody else…”

“Mooring on Chien-Te River” The boat rocks at anchor by the misty island Sunset, my loneliness comes again. In these vast wilds the sky arches down to the trees. In the clear river water, the moon draws near. Meng Hao-Jen Translation from the Chinese by Gary Snyder Photograph kindly contributed to Zen Moments by Sam [...]

“A tree, would be enough Or even a rock…” …A tree, would be enough Or even a rock, a small creek, A bark shred in a pool. Hill beyond hill, folded and twisted Tough trees crammed In thin stone fractures A huge moon on it all, is too much. The mind wanders… Excerpt from Piute [...]

“He has a lot of personality, but he couldn’t possibly defend himself in court…” Angry fishermen in Scotland wanted a grey seal shot for eating valuable salmon stocks. The hungry grey seal found his way into in a shallow stretch of the River Leven near Balloch, south of Loch Lomond, and appeared to get trapped [...]

“It’s about brightening up people’s lives and putting a bit of green and flowers into the grey areas of London…” ITV news joins Richard Reynolds and guerrilla gardeners on the London lavender field in March 2006 “When Richard Reynolds began planting flowers secretly at night outside his tower block in South London he had no [...]

“…it is quite possible for a 4 year old to humble an adult to ‘scum under shoe’ status…” Before finding an Art Teaching position, I worked part time as an Assistant Preschool Teacher. The pay was lousy, but I got to eat popsicles and graham crackers every day, rub backs at naptime, and sing the [...]

“It’s a pretty fun day actually…We’re good. We’re real good.” Today as it was going to be when I went to bed: Get up, make breakfasts and lunches, get kids to school, go to BJ’s for big grocery etc shopping, library, Walmart (unfortunately) some xmas shopping. Get kids from school, do dinner, go to a [...]

“I felt the forest growing, heard it growing…” The magnitude of life in the rainforest is incomprehensible. I couldn’t take it all in. Everywhere life stacked upon more life. Clinging orchids. Feathery tree ferns. Climbing lawyer vines. Tiny, delicate, creeping plants with green crinkled leaves. I felt the forest growing, heard it growing, inching forward [...]