Forgiveness: giving up all hope of a better past

In the first year of growing I found it sad that all the work that goes into the kitchen garden seems to be brought to nothing at the end of the year - beds covered up, all the glory gone. Now I appreciate just how forgiving it is, the cycle of the seasons. You can let things go bedraggled and tough, forget to sow in time, be erratic with watering. You may suffer the consequences with diminished harvests. But then you can clear it all back and start again with new packets of seeds, growing plans, art pads full of rough sketches and diagrams of the rotations. Inevitably it all gets a bit more throughother as the year goes on, but just now it’s like going back to school - in a nice way - with a new pencil case, fresh notebooks and a rucksack full of good intentions.

I love this definition of forgiveness; it is from a very mellow Buddhist mentor on the fantastic Zencast resource - here you can download everything from mediation timers to talks on compassion, loving-kindness, and those well known afflictions sloth and torpor...