Life in the rural area where I live has many opportunities for quiet contemplations -- meditative moments, if you choose to interpret them that way. Vegetable gardening offers those moments for me. I lose myself in the dirt, the sun, the primal joy of growing food to eat. One of the best rewards of that meditation (although there are many), is the first ripe tomato of the season. Huzzah!
Creating mosaics also provides me with a Zen-like experience -- hours pass by as a work of art reveals itsel, piece by piece. How long did it take to make -- to design, cut, and place the hundreds of shards? Who cares? It's the making of the work that fuels my imagination and enlivens my spirit. When I finish a project, it's almost an anti-climax. And so on to the next one!
