Where Are We Going?

I’m off to Omaha tomorrow for a weekend sesshin and looking forward to seeing Nonin and his students. In June, I forgot my oryoki (major Zen teacher faux pas). And come to think of it, when I went to the Boundless Way sesshin in July I forgot to bring a napkin and the only replacement I could find was a white cloth with big bright carrots and tomatoes. I got to feel a little silly at every meal.

So my mind is going. And here’s a David Budbill poem for ya from Writer’s Almanac on the same theme.

The Woodcutter Changes His Mind

by David Budbill

When I was young, I cut the bigger, older trees for firewood, the ones
with heart rot, dead and broken branches, the crippled and deformed

ones, because, I reasoned, they were going to fall soon anyway, and
therefore, I should give the younger trees more light and room to grow.

Now I’m older and I cut the younger, strong and sturdy, solid
and beautiful trees, and I let the older ones have a few more years

of light and water and leaf in the forest they have known so long.
Soon enough they will be prostrate on the ground.

“The Woodcutter Changes His Mind” by David Budbill, from While We’ve Still Got Feet: New Poems.

Where are We Going?

The Woodcutter Changes His Mind