Your Inner hermit

 

Go with your Inner Hermit

Having to live with problems in today's world--war in Europe and a lot of conflict between people in society--I would prescribe gardening for anyone who wants some inner peace and quiet. Go with your Inner Hermit, the eremite gardener, the almost-recluse, the walking in society but not of society... and a few birds along for the journey. Even a tiny garden, a few containers on a balcony, is escape from the world and an invitation to birds and insects to visit. 

Spring Gardening About to Begin

What gives meaning to life? Family, fame and fortune, creativity, and gardening. Said with tongue in cheek... 

The garden survived another winter, soon buds will appear on trees and bushes, the grass will begin to grow and turn green, birds are already at the bird bath (a big red cardinal yesterday), and life returns to our frozen north which is thawing, warming, The Good Earth, is that what Pearl Buck called it?

Sometimes winter seems a short intrusion in life, a few months we don't want off but are forced onto us. After the fact it seems a short intrusion.

So, here is my retreat from politics, war, and the world outside of home.

I have no real desire to go anywhere, I have everything I need, at home. 

Here are photographs I took this morning of the garden, making its appearance as the snow melts and the days grow longer and the sun stronger and warmer. 

On the Solitary Life

I wanted to be a part of something and I thought I was. I thought I was on the great journey of individuation, that I was a part of something connecting me with the great ideas and experiences shared by other people. But, in truth, I wasn't a part of anything. If you believe nothing then all of the old constructs of life, the scaffolding that supported your existence, have collapsed. Belief is, in retrospect, nothing real or lasting, it is a pretence or an illusion of belief—mostly it is a pretence. The doctors are wrong in their diagnoses, the Ivy League educated poets and intellectuals have fooled even themselves with their self-importance, the imams, priests, and gurus are deluded, politicians are obviously liars, social workers want to break up families,  teachers are selling preconceptions based on their idea of what they stand for, intellectuals are filled with book learning but no wisdom or practical knowledge; even shamans are fakes and out for money and fame. I hear Buddhists chanting in their temple and it seems delusionary, what fools! I want to tell them that their hypocrisy appals me. There is no satori, no heaven, no hell, no enlightenment, no god, no prophet, there is nothing and on this basis we begin again, we look for something that transcends the everyday; this is found in poetry, in the fine arts. I asked myself, what if nothing I believe is true? What if all of my beliefs and assumptions about life are wrong? The Emperor has no clothes! He's naked and everything he stood for is a lie and a cheat of belief. I did not decide to believe nothing, I accepted it with difficulty; it was a huge disappointment in life. But then, one day, the scaffolding of belief collapses, there is no free will, there is no certainty about anything except that the Emperor has no clothes. Believe what you want after this, but for now, believe nothing.

Moving towards spring 2021

Back walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course a few days ago, it is a favourite walk because for a few minutes you feel you are in the country. It's + 11 C today, overcast, and rainy; it's not spring yet but we are moving towards spring and all that means (more walks, gardening, birds in the garden and bird bath, longer days, no winter coats or boots, and so on). Two Russian girls were walking ahead of me and this reminded me that there are many Russian immigrants who live near here. I was walking through Montreal West and just as I turned the corner to walk to the golf course a man said Good Morning; this is a community where people say hello to strangers. Maybe there is some winter left but this rather mild winter will soon be over. Unlike some, I believe in the predictable life, I like where I live, I like the people who live here, I like the most conservative, quiet, inward life that is possible in today's world. 

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course on March 1st, 2021