My Garden Life

There's something about 
caring for a garden,
the effort to plant, water and 
bear witness to the way it grows

At some point you get beyond
the how-to of gardening -
not that you know everything
there is to know 

But you begin to understand your relationship
to the garden and what it is
you're really doing here.

Sharing the space with creatures
who come to feed, to rest, to find shelter,
or are simply curious about who you are
and what you're doing

There's a neighborhood cat
who has claimed some space and
chosen a clump of blue grass for his litter box

Remember the late summer
Monarch butterfly who perished
caught in a spider web

And left you wondering 
how many other life and death events
are happening here.

You think you come here to work,
sometimes to rest,
always to shift from the busyness
of your mind's life

You find yourself tending your garden
while tending your mind.

The latter, always and forever,
being the far bigger project.