Homemaking
Home is all about three things: Love, War, and planting Gardens. If you’re not skilled at these arts, don’t get married. You may dream, but if you have children before you’ve mastered the three arts of Homemaking, your children will suffer. Love is all cool during the honeymoon, but there will be red lines and boundaries that no one should ever cross. If you don’t know how to spar, your family will suffer. If you don’t know how to love, you will become a bully. To learn the arts of Love and War, go plant a garden! It’s better to fight weeds and kill some seeds than torture people.
Both grass and weeds are a network. Both plants and people need sunshine. Water both species with Love! Learn to bear the stings of nettles and pick out thorns left by roses! Gardening takes time; it will teach you patience. There will be attacks from all sides, including the air. You’ll have to keep all fronts. So, start small and take it slow! Let your seeds grow, tend to their first needs! As long as you stay devoted, your garden will grow and bear fruit. Some seeds will die, you’ll lose some crops. Sometimes, it’s just because of the weather. There are dry spells and storms beyond us. Sometimes, there are floods. But as long as you stay devoted, Love will bear its fruit.
Don’t invest less if the garden isn’t yours. It may be your parents’ or boss’s. The roses belong to God. You’re lucky to be an apprentice; you’ll learn the arts of Love and War. Some day you may lose this garden, the one you’ve given your heart to. But if your heart is truly buried there, you’ve buried all sorrow as well. You may never see this garden again, and there is no need to. The garden is always with you, it’s taken root where your heart used to be. You buried your heart in the garden; and the Garden sprouted in you. Now you’re part of the network. You’re grassroots. And those are stronger than weeds. No matter what the wind blows, grassroots will be there for you.
Even when you are alone and in pain, grassroots will be there with you. Just put your hands on your chest, right where your heart used to be! You’ll feel all the sunshine and rain. You’ll feel the grassroots reach out. There will be a sweet-cherry tree, growing through your limbs. Your feet will be rooted firmly in the ground. Your core will sing for the Sun. Your arms will hug the Universe, and Love will blossom in you.
Give your heart to the Garden; and the Garden will walk with you. Wherever you settle in the future, your Garden will settle with you. It will take time to build a new home, but grassroots will help you; you’ll see! Once you’ve helped them, they will help you. Together you’ll manage; together you’re Love. If anyone threatens you, you aren’t alone. You are many; you are an army. Let the foes come! You will embrace them; you’ll flood them with Love. Neighbours will laugh at them; they’ll have to flee. Your birds will chase them Far-Far-Away. Once you’ve replaced your heart with the Garden, then you are ready to marry. But if you choose to remain all single, know the Beloved is with you. You may have children, but they are still young. What you know is not what they live. Give them time and let them fall! They need to get dirty to want a garden before they’re ready to start. Once they grow up and ask you for money, show them a plot of land and teach them how to garden. Just like you, your children need tears. They have young hearts that need to be buried. They need sorrow to bury in soil, so soil can sprout the Garden in them.
And if you are childless, don’t worry. You are grassroots. We’re rooting for you. Whoever needs you, whoever asks for your help is part of the Family, too. If they have hearts, not the Garden as cores, teach them to garden, teach them to plant. Hearts can be wounded, turned into stone. Let them be buried, help them be safe! No one can get them when grassroots stand guard. All are your children; all are your Love. Your job is to open and be their plot of land. Let them plant, help them sprout! You are now a sweet-cherry tree; you are their Home.