What is Real

The butterfly (or is it a moth?) prefers the less-than perfect flowers. Just when the flower loses its pink newness and starts to slump, the bees and the butterflies circle and land. The sweetness has become more potent.

I have been reflecting on how I would like to offer an ideal, a "perfect" yoga class, a flawless dharma talk, and an exemplary retreat experience. Then I look into the garden, and I see how everything is in a state of change. Another way to say that is that everything is in a state of aliveness that depends on so many conditions and is subject to the natural processes of growth and decay. How can I even know what is perfect? And perfect for who? The flower that is sublime for the picture is not so ideal for the butterfly. What is "perfect" may not be useful, true, or real.

This urge to create something (or even be something) that will look good in a picture, that gets the A+, that matches a fixed image in our minds of how things should be, misses the point! Life cannot be corralled or riveted into place. It is often messy and never stagnant. I am learning to be like the butterfly, seeking sweetness from what is real.