Posted by Loulou on Apr 18, 2014 | 3 comments

Well, mama has new gravel in her garden and it’s great for me because it’s better than before and my patty paws are more comfortable walking over it, but here’s the thing. Mama’s garden is pretty off the wall, haphazard, intuitive, and she throws (well, plants) seeds wherever it FEELS right and then she’ll put some basil in next to a favorite tomato and then she’ll put in nasturtiums next to little seedlings to attract bugs and things that might eat her little baby plants and sometimes she just turns her back on the planting area and throws the seeds over her shoulder and waits for a surprise. You get the picture. As for laying down the stepping stones through the gravel, she just pus them down every whichaway, whatever FEELS right at the moment and moves the stone around to get it happy where it is and voilá, the path is laid.

So here comes this guy to spread the gravel, the garden-maker, designer, what have you, a very nice man (he petted me, so he’s cool) but pretty set in his ways, and he is to lay the stones for mama because they are quite heavy, being schiste, the stone from around here, and so he says, “Well if you want a correct Japanese path, it must be 60 cm on center from each stone and they must be laid as footsteps fall, off-set so that when you walk, you move easily from stone to stone.

Mama just looks at him.

Okaaay…she says. And then, hmmm, she says to herself, I can change, I can open my mind to new things so maybe I’ll try that. Knowing full well it’s NOT what she has ever had or wants in her garden now. And so the guys put down the stones (most of them are squarish and ugly, not free-form the way mama likes them) and mama says, you know what—let’s just turn this over to me and I’ll place the stones and you guys settle them in and we’re done. The garden man looks really funny because it means HE has to change and let the client do what she wishes, not what he feels is the ONLY way to set a path and so finally, mama lays the stones and the two guys settle the stones, get paid and leave and we all move on.

Thank heaven, mama says to papa, I followed my intuition and my heart and listened to my stones.

And as for me, I love the stones this way because they are because my little paws fit perfectly as I leap like a cazelle (haha, get it?) from stone to stone and can you imagine me trying to leap 60 cm each time I just go for a casual stroll? So what do you think? Is this a nice path or what?

The path of Zen goes in many directions. I said that.