I am reminded of the passion we have for what we can contribute to nature as though unhinged. With plants we have started just waiting to go outside for their turn to 
flourish. Growing plants for others as they too look to nature and what they too can contribute.
While our yards literally scream with what we have planted in years past now ready to take center stage.
As though we are emulating the great painter Monet and his gardens of Giverny in France… 
creating our own lasting impressions.
Two entries in my book, An American Journey through the I Ching and Beyond, now appearing as The I Ching / Voices of the Dragon, come to mind.
When I wrote this in February 1994 while in Massachusetts, we had had several snowstorms and were confined to the house unable to even get out of the driveway because the snow kept falling. All I could do was plant more seeds indoors and write. I was a master gardener in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island at the time.
To Be a Master Gardener
Confined and under the weather, weariness sets in. The dead of winter. Everything is 
covered.
Snow several feet deep. Hibernation. Waiting, waiting, waiting with listless passion. All things waiting for Spring. As the spirit is in its deepest despair, yang ebbs into nothingness and yin springs forward. The ice melts and the crocus begin to bloom as the mother robin appears, harbinger of Spring.
Casting away the cobwebs. Shunning aside shackles of mind and body it’s time to find our gardens again. Blinded by the sun in your mind’s eye you begin by sorting through implements reluctantly put away last autumn. Sorting through seeds and preparing small plants the task begins in earnest.
Arise early, refreshed finding yourself in the garden soon to be basking in the midday 
sun. Do not delay showing only diligence and respect for nature.
Plant wisdom and know the freedom to choose. Plant clarity and soon understanding comes to the surface. Plant harmony and be at peace with the fruits of your labor.
Startled from sleep still listless, you are dreaming. A look out the window confirms. The snow is still several feet deep, but your passion is beginning to return.
An original composition and interpretation of the Chinese Classic the I Ching (16 WEARINESS / Thunder over Earth). 2/12/94
A few days earlier that year I was busy writing and thinking of my youth and times with my grandma and her farm in Lamar when I was only eight or nine and time spent helping her in her garden… Our place in history and the I Ching. The book of change and how we are here to grow ourselves.
My Grandmother’s Garden
She comes in peace knowing utmost harmony. Nurturing.
Receptive and forgiving, restrained yet uncomplicated. The dragons flying through the 
sky disappear into the clouds retiring, once strong and assertive now retreating and finding a secure place.
Looking down Mother Earth comes into focus with new growth and new beginnings. Differences occur but a connectedness of all things with the seasons begins. Yang becomes yin. Strong becomes weak, hard becomes soft, male becomes female in the oneness of Tao.
Leaving the clouds behind and finding the earth beneath my feet, I discover that I am here to find clarity, to focus, to listen and most importantly to learn. To find the ways of 
my garden. To know the earth as my grandmother taught me. To know beginnings and endings. Simply to know and remember what my grandmother taught me.
An original composition and interpretation of the Chinese Classic the I Ching (2 EARTH / Earth over Earth). 2/5/94
I have the gate to what was my grandmother’s garden now in my backyard at the entrance to my chicken coop I pass by regularly. I often think of her, and times spent with her and her garden and the stories she loved to tell all those years ago.
As I remember what my grandmother taught me that comes forth as I nourish and plant my garden anew every Spring. I’ve been a Master Gardener here in Greene County in Springfield, Missouri since 2021.
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