Life is such a rush! How do you find that still, quiet center amidst the onslaught of social media, TV, email, relationships, pets, messy kitchens, and gardens that must be maintained despite droughts.
I like that last metaphor. How do I maintain my spiritual garden when I don't feel like it (drought) or when I'm overwhelmed by the onslaughts of physical life? The Bible addresses this in the story of the person who built a home on sand (and other things). To apply that story to our inner garden, think about this.
If your garden has too much sand, the water you pour on it will run right through it and your plants won't be sustained. If your garden has too little sand, then the water will be maintained so much that plant roots will rot. So, you need to keep working on the soil in order to maintain a spiritual garden. Yes, you need to plant and fertilize and weed, but most of all you need to take a long-term view and consider the soil.
What IS spiritual soil? It's the inner gunk (the sacred shit)--the compost of life events, the soil you inherited (is it littered with rocks, clay, sandy, what?) in the spiritual practices you were taught, and the little bit of effort you put in everyday to enrich and stabilize the dirt. Every morning, I get up early and water my lawn and garden. Every night, I do the same. Every year, I add some fresh soil and nutrients. These are the daily and long-term efforts that create and sustain strong soil over time.
To sustain and create my spiritual soil, I should get up and meditate for a few moments; I should do the same at night. At least once a year, I should take stock of my spiritual status and see what the overall sacred shit needs. Maybe I need to go to a workshop or retreat. Maybe I need to read or study a spiritual work.
If I did that work regularly, it wouldn't take much. With a rich, well-balanced soil full of nutrients, the garden would maintain itself despite multiple onslaughts. In the spiritual world, if I maintain my center in little and regular ways, the times when frayed edges are eating away at me won't have as much effect. And so it is. Roxie
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