INSPIRATION from a COMPOST PILE

Discovered an enjoyable, perspective-changing read today ~ ~ Edward Sylvia's Sermon from the Compost Pile ~ seven steps toward creating an inner garden. 

Had never thought of my mind as a compost pile, all the scraps, the bits & pieces of life not simply decaying, but transforming into rich fertilizer. 

Not all scraps or bits & pieces.  Most people don't bother with composting.    The eensiest weensiest bit of our planet's organic material ends up on a compost pile. Too much time, too much bother, too little space for most people.  Way easier to spin organic material down the garbage disposal. 

What a woeful analogy for the human experience - how many of us take the time to tend the bits & pieces of past experience, putting them in a place where they can transform into rich fertilizer for life rather than just decaying garbage?  

Nature is the master composter.   Plants, like humans, have their life cycles, with essential uses served at every step along the way.  It might not look that way, but they are as useful at the apparent end of their cycle as they are at the start.  When they follow the cycle originally intended, they compost into a rich soil.

Interesting to think of my thoughts, lessons learned, events experienced as composting in mind, ideally serving as rich nutrients for my here & now.  

Am blessed to have remarkable gardeners as friends.  I think of the wonderful compost bins they constructed, material carefully added & moved forward at various stages.  Something that surprised me was learning the importance of turning the collected material so it composts as effectively as possible. 

It's been several hours since my first gander at Edward Sylvia's book, and I find my thoughts keep going back to it.  There's nothing new in seeing ourselves as the caretakers, the "gardeners," of our personal mental & spiritual processes.  What won't let go of my imagination is the image of tending it, giving it the space & time & care to become rich nutrients for future growth.  Not sure if that was the author's intent, but it's stuck. 

In spite of being fairly flinty with available funds, can tell that I'll be heading back to the book center for Sermon from the Compost Pile.  What comes next?  Can tell this is going to be a longtime ponder, especially its implications for my older friends.  

Expect to hear more!