gardens of earthly delight

today's topic here at communitas dies
(that's Dee - ayss)
HAPPENS TO BE GARDENS

somehow i think it wise that a discussion
for any sort of community start with the idea of
the garden
the first question perhaps should be
"are we going to have a garden?"
or
"do i crave a return to the garden of eden?"
or
"if the heavenly banquet is a given don't we need to presume
that a garden is in the picture somewhere?"
or
"just what does the earth know anyway?"

i love gardens but i also love the places where
water washes out of the mountains the places where
rivers start and i love rivers

gardens require water and sunlight and love i would guess

what happens to food when we dissociate the human concept of love
from the garden

i recently encountered a woman and i won't say her name
but she has written a book and and the book's title
well if i say that then then i give away the name don't i
let's just say i'm mulling it over
i'm letting it mulch in my soul
anyway
this woman is a sort of missionary for the life of gardens
i guess she sees gardens as the path to possible peace in the world
so she launches herself into the garden agenda with italian gusto
with all the intensity of mother cabrini on a bright day

my immediate sense is
this girl is correct in saying gardens are very important
reclaiming urban disaster zones with gardens is a very good idea
an idea whose time has come
it would also be a good thing to make huge community garden projects
in the suburbs and then designed into new subdivisions as well
garden mania should take over the country

this absolutely brilliant and beautiful girl out of amherst
this damsel of amherst as it were
at least seems to have a sense that benedictines are entrenched
in the old idea of sustainability
one might go so far as to say we are the prototype
for western culture..but agrarian traditions were taught to the monks too
and the nuns....copies of virgils' georgics date back to the 7th and 8th centuries

garden life is a way of knowing community
it's a way of knowing how a variety of growing things
can exist together quite well and it is a way of knowing
that people like food

the problem with communitas dies
is that at this point it is merely rhetorical
still i propose the garden as the UR image
for this little project
which i guess means if someone has some shit
to throw down on the ground
we may just have to consider that

but my bigger hope is that it would be a place of seeds
this disturbingly stunning beautiful vivacious passionate
woman on a mission to whom i obliquely refer is a believer in seeds
she's a seed girl

so she has planted a little seed in my garden thoughts

you too - when you feel the urge to embrace the garden
embrace the simple need for clean water and bright sunlight
embrace the stirring of birds and the flying flitting things
do feel free to plant here

do you have a thought about how a community could exist
in a dignified and noble way like a plentious garden in a place
where once there once was no hope

here i wish to offer a little personal story

at what now appears in retrospect as
the worst and darkest days of my monastic formation
i was assigned to work in the garden
day after day i did simple tasks of weeding
pulling yanking weeds hauling dirt tilling soil
stretching lines making rows dropping seed
being rather dusty and dirty every day
and looking back now i am conscious of a few "life giving"
awarenesses that came into my mind during that time
one was
there is life in working the complete cycle of a garden
marching through the whole pattern of waking from winter
preparing the soil planting the seed cultivating the rows
bringing the water to bear
harvest storage offering eating and putting the plot to rest
going through that whole cycle is important
i think i would not see the world the same had i not done that
over the course of ten yrs or so year after year
there's something to be said for
the GARDEN...

this veritable force of flowers from the garden
is something important
she is a lady of extreme critical importance
she is a planter and a gifter of seeds
she so wants to restore the intimacy between
the garden and the table and the human mind in its
goodness

already i'm returning to dream of the garden cycle
i am being drawn back in
i can feel it...

plant seeds not bombs

St. Fiacre don't be far away from us

communitas understood

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communitas

something like this could be useful

humans are the only creatures it would appear
who actually think about living in community

a beginning

why today
why would i want to start a new blog
one of little or no interest to just about everyone i know
just about

i intend to write here about community life
what it is from my experience
what i think it could be
and various contributing ideas regarding
ecumenical discussion
and perhaps insights from various disciplines

you
do you know who you are
you are welcome here