Living several months here at Green Mountain
Monastery, I am one with nature and learning from the Earth Community about
change. So many changes to deal with in coming from a very different culture -
changes in language, food, customs, new ways of acting and being, very
different from what I am used to, from the ways that keep me in my own comfort
zone. I am learning to stretch and adapt like all the beings in the natural
world.
Nature in all its beauty also has to adapt to constant
change. When I arrived from Indonesia at the beginning of April, this land was
white and covered with snow. The ground, the leafless trees and the temperature
were all so unreal for me, as I come from a tropical country. When the
summer finally arrived, it gave me lots of energy! I began to work in the
garden and take care of the life community here on this land. The softness of
the soil and rich smell of earth gave me a feeling of aliveness. I looked in
wonder at how the landscape went from snowy white to vibrant green!
Change requires patience! Tending to the seedlings
and working gently with the baby plants has taught me patience. Weeding too
requires patience! The weeding has become part of my meditation and connects me
with the deep silence of this land. The sound of the birds in the wind gives me
sense of oneness with them. Harvesting also calls for patience, to wait
until the plants are ready and know when to take them from the earth. All
through this growing season I have felt so humble to find myself in the middle
of the abundant grace of the fruits that mother Earth gives to us. The whole
summer has energized me and all of us here. “Gratitude is the memory of heart”.
Fall is upon us now and change is in the air! Leaves are beginning to
fall and soon the garden will be put to rest for the winter. It is going to be
hard for me to say good bye to the garden and to allow the soil to rest for its
winter sleep, as the garden has been so much a part of my experience these
months, and it has given so much of itself. I am full of gratitude for this
garden. Yet it is really true, everything is changing and moving. There is no
such thing as staying fixed.
We are in the new decade of the 21st century.
Living in a world of interconnectedness. Our aim is to bring about the vision
of one earth, one world. All – is – one. We are challenged to be
creative and dynamic in bringing about change. We are changing and we are
moving...... bringing about something new by witnessing with our lives what we
want to proclaim.
