The Art of Being

My husband has been very busy this summer.  This torii gate has become the entrance to my Zen house.

The effect of building a space within a space is very powerful.

This is the path of stones to the entrance of my Zen house.

Line becoming object becoming space.

My husband built this Zen house (green house) several years ago.  Graced with bonsai outside and bird cages,

bird nests, buddha, rabbit vane, rocks fill the space within.

The effect of the Zen house is to give form to the surrounding gardens.  Within are

sweeping gestures of light and space.

Small pots of bonsai, help fill the space like a coloring book.

Here I am making boundaries, defining a space just to be.

Simply creating a space, enclosed and separate from the wild: a niche to feel safe inside of.

A moss ball I made earlier this summer with a rabbit fern.  It is sitting on white rocks in a lovely flat pot.

Some of my nest and rock collections.

More nests.

Another moss ball I made earlier this summer.  It is a rabbit fern and is attached to a piece of bamboo.

Back outside the Zen house...  at the entrance.  

My husband built 3 bamboo gates this summer.

Closing the gate, building the wall, we shut out the wild but still maintain the wild within.

The intent is to be at one with our environment.

The Art of Being

The fern in the rain breathes the silver message.

Stay, lie low.  Play your dark reeds

and relearn the beauty of absorption.

There is nothing beyond the rotten log

covered with leaves and needles.

Forget the light emerging with its golden wick.

Raise your face to the water-laden frond.

A thousand blossoms will fall into your arms.

-- Anne Corey, from A Measure's Hush