an active silence

apple blossoms

The silence of meditation is not the silence of a graveyard; it is the silence of a garden growing. --Linda R. Douty

Today the rhubarb is ripe, the apple tree is blossoming, the spinach has sprouted, the peas are deep in the soil, and the plum flowers have wilted and died. Every step in the cycle of life, death, and rebirth is represented... all in the same yard, on the same day. In one yard, as in one life, some things have just pushed up their first seedlings, brand new and fresh in the damp earth. Other things have fallen dead to the ground and lie dormant there, hoping for rain and sun to do their redemptive work. Still others have bloomed and now wait for fruit to appear and ripen as the days grow warm.

All of this - all the life and death and rebirth, all of the sprouts and blossoms and fruit - it all happens in the God-filled silence of a garden growing.


apple blossom buds


the remains of a plum blossom