Sodden Summer, མི་རྟག་པ་, and Just a Buddha Cup with a Tomato

I noted to a friend this morning that we’re living the swamp life in Connecticut this summer. There has been an absolutely insane amount of rain this season. Nothing has dried out completely in weeks. This morning, I went to pick some beautiful Violetta Italian beans for a friend, but couldn’t navigate through thick, wet grass in good shoes to get to the vines. No beans today for my friend.

The grass is also growing faster than my husband can cut it. The lawn is shaggy, like a thick, wet beard. Things I can’t even identify are growing out of cracks and crevices everywhere. Peach tree branches are so waterlogged, they’re bent to the ground.

Cucumber plants rotted weeks ago. We have to pick tomatoes while they’re green: if we wait until they begin to ripen, they rot on the plant. A thick fungus has taken hold of the squash plants. And finally, the bean plants are now showing signs of extreme stress.

The only things in our gardens loving this apocalyptic weather are the tropicals. Papaya trees are towering, with huge leaves. Banana trees are spreading wide. Our turmeric and ginger plants are thriving. But that’s about it.

I’m reading reports of devastating flooding in Pennsylvania, not too far from here. Consuming wildfires in California. Drought in the middle of the country. Record-breaking heat in the south. Incredible rainfall in Italy. Weather records being broken across the globe.

I’m not going to wax on about climate change. Really, if you’re still doubting the truth of it at this point, I just don’t know what to tell you. We can’t be friends if you’re still willing to ignore the overwhelming evidence that this is becoming a red-hot and deeply troubled planet.

The 2018 growing season in Connecticut is, in many ways, a bust. Another lesson on undeniable and inescapable impermanence - Anicca - the mark of our existence. Nothing on this earth remains unchanged.

Completely unrelated: I perched one of our garden tomatoes on top of my Buddha tea cup at my work desk this morning to keep it clean until lunch. Catching glimpses of it, I thought how cool it looked, so I Googled ‘Buddhism and tomatoes’ and ‘Buddha tomato’, but alas, there is nothing at all in the online lexicon. So, this is just a Buddha cup with a tomato. I still like it.

Barbie xo