Contradictions


The day was so splendid,
so warm,
with white puffy clouds
pasted into the blue, blue sky
that I ventured out
into my garden
to enjoy
the little piece of paradise
I've created
with lots of help from Mother Nature.




As I rounded the corner of my house
and started down the path
of granite stepping stones,

I noticed my feet moving from one stone to another




and I thought to myself,
"I am traveling on a sacred path."

"Everything is part of the Divine."

"Everything is Sacred."

I was feeling quite satisfied
with my exalted self
(well, at least my inflated sense of it).

And then,
Coyote just had to serve me a dose
of contradiction and comeuppance.

"Look here," said Coyote,
pointing with his rainbow paw
and shining a laser-light
on my tender young hostas.

And I followed his gesture
with my eyes.
And there, I saw




HOLES in my beautiful, finely-veined hostas.

Incontrovertible evidence that
a slug was dining in my garden.

How dare that slimy little @#*&%^
treat my hostas like a salad bar!

Out went the "everything is sacred" thought.

Exceptions were made for slugs.

And I became a single-minded killer
of a hosta-eating piece of the Divine.

Take that, I said, sprinkling pet-neutral slug bait
in a ring around each clump of newly-emerged hostas.

Life is full of contradictions.




But even if we step off it
for the briefest moment,
we can reclaim our place
on the Sacred Path.

How do you confront contradictions
in your beliefs?

How does Coyote
poke holes in your inflated
sense of importance?

I can't be the only one.
Can I?


Comments

will said…
Here's a post I did about slugs.
http://billstankus.blogspot.com/2009/01/slugs.html
ELK said…
each day is a contradiction of sorts...the images here helped to weave a delightful post
...
elk
I love the stone step walkway.
Bagman thinks you have beautiful ankles...
He has a one-track mind for sure.
Delwyn said…
Meri
what a wonderful pathway to meander down at your home...I want to come and visit one day...

and those ubiquitous crocs have bred like slugs all over the world...

Tell me about the 'coyote' connection... It's not something I can remember...

Contradictions - of course they are always there - they make me me and you you, and they remind us that that is the fundamental essence of life - inconsistency and change - the yin and yang, the swing of the pendulum - and it's all good...the important thing is to know that you have veered from the pollen path and to make you way back...many people don't even see the pollen path let along know that they have taken a wrong turn.

Happy sacred path walking
Delwyn said…
Meri
I rushed that typing and see two errors at least, but I trust your fine intelligence to make sense of it...
Reya Mellicker said…
How funny. I've had experiences just like that.

More and more I try to think of the world as paradoxical rather than conflictual (is that a word?)

Sacred and profane, all at once - that's life.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Bee said…
Last weekend, we had my daughter gather up all of the snails . . . and I'm afraid that we, ah, disposed of them.

I love garden paths . . . yours is very nice indeed.
deb did it said…
when I am confronted with the slugs of life, I try to embrace BOTH sides... from the hunger of a slimy creature to the selfish desire of mine to create flawless fauna. then it makes me smile to realize that we are both simply trying to balance our existance. whew....I need a drink after all that profoundness....

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