CORNERS OF THE WORLD

Living up here you get much closer to folks than you do in the crowded city, getting to know someone takes time and there's less time in the city, each person gets a picosecond if noticed; involvement is deeper when there are fewer, as there are up here, we're sort of united by our scarcity.

What got me started on this was a recollection I just had about Mr. and Mrs. T., who lived in town where they had an old family business, but had a house up here in the mountains where they spent most of time after he retired. I often used to see them out in their sloping garden by the pond, a beautifully detailed garden in every season-- they were out there planting, trimming, raking, picking tree litter out of the moss, taking care of their place, making it elegant, keeping it neat like a clear mind, which such activity helps impart to the doer.

When we first bought this land I used to see them walking all around up here. They'd walk very slowly arm in arm, leaning on their canes because they were quite advanced in age, but a couple times a day they'd go on long walks together, often passing through our property, and I miss seeing them. They took good care of their little corner of the world, which is one of the things we should all do while we're here in this tremulous paradise...

'Taking care of my little corner of the world'... I know that's a bit naive, I know that there are problems with crowding, hunger and poverty, but the solution that is equity and peace can only be achieved by each of us honoring our little corner of the world, taking good care of it, sharing what it gives us and leaving it better than we found it...