Dear Sangha,
I’m writing this from the relatively cool downstairs library, because it is two in the afternoon and close to 90 degrees outside. There are thunderstorms forecast for later this evening, but sometimes they blow past us without giving any rain. We’ve reached that part of the summer where the air is heavy with humidity, and the whole valley feels thick with life. It seems like everything—birds, plants, insects, animals—is throwing all possible energy into growing as much as possible in the next few months.
I was in the city this past weekend, and was shocked at how much the garden grew in the three days we were gone. We are officially out of the cool spring season (peas, spinach, rabe) and into the season of full summer heat. The tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and squashes are all setting fruit. The first flowers are now reaching full bloom and are decking all our altars. Early lettuce plantings are starting to bolt, so we’ve been eating them in abundance. I stand in daily awe of the abundance and fertility given by this land to feed and heal us in so many different ways. Living close like this to the cycles of the year and the labor of planting turns every vegetable that comes to the table into good medicine, grown in love and given completely.



If you’re a BZC member, please save the date for the upcoming AHZM Sangha Day, here at the monastery on Sunday, August 15 from 12:30 to 6pm, right after the end of the Watershed retreat. You don’t have to be sitting the retreat to join the party. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to gather again in person and catch up on each other’s lives for the past 18 months. There will be potluck foods (probably featuring something that we’ve grown) and I’ll be giving tours of the garden. We can give thanks together for everything we’ve come through, for everything we’ve been given, and for everything that’s brought us here, warm heart to warm heart.
Lots of love,
Sansei
Letters from the Garden: Digging, June 25
Letters from the Garden: Harvest, June 4
Letters from the Garden: Warm Days, Warm Nights, May 23
Letters from the Garden: Permission to Be, May 8, 2021
Letters from the Garden: Work Week, April 17, 2021
Letters from the Garden: Planting Good Seeds, April 3, 2021
Letters from the Garden: Dharma Blossoms, March 20, 2021
Letters from the Garden: The First Birdsong, March 6, 2021