The Philosopher's Garden
Return to my main site - or my personal site - or the Search for the meaning of life site
Thoughts on life while gardening
Two hands, some soil, and seeds
--------------------------
Contents
- Ten - Bursting
- Nine - Simplicity
- Eight - Connectedness
- Seven - A little bit at a time
- Six - The Real value of things
- Five - Human being
- Four - On Weeding
- Three - Squirrel and me
- Two - seeds
- One - beginning
Six - The Real value of Things
Out for a walk yesterday I spotted a package of seeds in the street. They looked like they had been run over a few times. As I reached over and picked them up I saw a women in a passing car snicker at me. "look at the wretch picking trash out of the street" was what I perceived her to be thinking. Don't really know what she was thinking but that is probably a good guess.
Anyway, the package is for squash seeds and it is labeled 5 for a dollar. So this package is worth twenty cents. - nothing, a mere pittance. No wonder somebody threw it to the curb and forgot about it. Right?
Wrong! It's a topsy-turvy world we live in and it is very difficult to see what is of real value. We are bombarded by things and messages all the time. But I am proposing to you that for the most part it is all wrong. All these dollar values have nothing to do with the "real" value of things.
I propose to you that this modest little package of seeds is more valuable than all the cars that ran it over.
As you are going through your day try to see things in a new way. Try not to look at the dollar value that has been assigned to things but instead ask yourself how much this "thing'' you are looking at will enrich your life. How much simple joy does it bring? What is the real value of this thing?
Try to see things with your own eyes and your own heart. Try to ignore the messages that have been instilled in your since birth.