gardener Archives - A Life of Practice

I’ve been taking instruction from weedy plants now for some time.

Dandelions tell me where the topsoil is depleted of nutrients.

Blackberries and creepers teach me close and diligent observation and pruning.

Plantains reveal the paths that heavy rains travel across the surface of our back yard, a low point into which the whole block drains.

Every plant – and every human being – makes its characteristic gesture.

The plants remain single-minded in their praise-fest of life.

We humans, not so much.

Instructions to a gardener

by Sara Eisenberg

Let the dandelions

root

and carry buried nutrients to my soil

surface.

Give the thorny blackberries room to spread, increase their fruiting.

Let-be the creepers to shade

an interior

life.

Prune

the

mind.

Follow the plantains as they

follow the

water

path.

Every green thing is pre-

occupied with,

gestures us towards

redemption.