Cultivating beauty, cultivating love

Living in Japan, I'm amazed by the bonsai displays of local people who keep their collections as a hobby. One of my favorites is a treasure trove of about one hundred chrysanthemums in the yard of an older gentleman. Some of the plants stand close to five feet tall and have one massive bloom each. Other varieties are short and dense and have been shaped to look like colorful clouds.

I had strolled by my neighbor's garden many times over the last few years, and yet the elderly gardener had never once looked up from his plants, so intent was he on his work.

Out for a stroll one day, I noticed the flowers looking more robust than ever. My neighbor was bent over inspecting the leaves of a large, blooming chrysanthemum, and I finally decided to strike up a conversation.

"Hello!" I called out. "Your chrysanthemums look lovely this season!"

The old man straightened up quickly, looking to see who was calling out to him. Soon we were talking as if we were old friends.

Mr. Suzuki said he was eighty-one years old and had been tending his flock for thirty-five years. I asked him what motivated him to take on such an ambitious project. He told me that he did so shortly after his son was killed in an auto accident.

"The beauty of the flowers," he said, "reminded me of the warmth of my son's smile. By tending the flowers, I felt that I was continuing to cultivate the love I felt for him."

I was deeply touched by his words and stood there in silence not knowing what to say.

"You see," he continued after a while, "the flowers helped me appreciate that even though I was feeling very sad, there was still great beauty in the world. By recognizing and responding to that beauty, I was keeping my heart open to life."

"Now I realize life has much to offer me, both plus and minus. My flowers taught me that it's important to balance my sorrow by cultivating my joy. Without my flowers, I would have lost the sense that there is beauty in the world. In trimming my plants, I play a small role in helping life express it's beauty."

Sensing that our time together was complete for today, I bowed and offered my thanks.

It occurred to me as I continued on my way, that by nurturing our relationships, we nurture ourselves. By cultivating the beauty that we see in others, we also cultivate love. The beauty and love that Suzuki-san had been cultivating in his flowers for so many years was reaching out and touching the hearts of his neighbors.