Where miniature buddhas take a deep breath
It was one of those quiet week-end mornings. I was cooking. I had not yet switched on any music. Just cooking.
I glanced out of the bay window in my kitchen for a moment, and couldn’t help smiling. The buddha statue in the backyard is always a serene sight for those wishing for a quiet moment. It is doubly so in spring and early summer. The little statue is surrounded by sweet smelling star jasmine, making it look like a spot where miniature buddhas take a deep breath.
That particular morning – there were two doves feeding each other. Probably fruit from the trees nearby. It was the most heart warming sight.
Do we notice the quiet moments only in contrast to something else?
Usually, when I notice moments like this, it is in contrast to the busy things going on in my life just then. I’ve always wondered whether I appreciate moments like these because of the contrast. But this time, it was different. I had a slow morning. I got up in a leisurely manner with neither alarm nor sunrise giving me the slightest nudge. I was feeling well rested, and savored my coffee as I pottered around the kitchen prepping for the cooking.
The birds were having an equally relaxed loving morning by the looks of it. It did not even occur to me to get my phone and take a picture till they had started to flit away from each other.
I remembered a passage from one of Miss Read’s books, Village Diary by Miss Read , in which she noticed the starlings as she was going about her domestic tasks.
Quote:
As I ironed, I amused myself by watching a starling at the edge of the garden bed. He was busy detaching the petals from an anemone…
This short scene, I thought as I pressed handkerchiefs, is typical of the richness that surrounds the country dweller and which contributes to his well-being. As he works, he sees about him other ways of life being pursued at their tempo – not only animal life, but that of crops and trees, of flowers and insects – all set within the greater cycle of the four seasons. It has a therapeutic value, this awareness of myriad forms and the varied pace of other lives.
Doves in Love
The sweet interlude of the doves in love done with, I started cooking. The pace and labor of human food preparation is always so much more frenzied and complicated.
I glanced at the Buddha statue nestling amidst the star jasmines, and found his sweet contented smile still in place, like he remembered the doves playing around him that morning.