It's a Christmas Cactus, but it has other ideas--always has. Every year it is in full bloom by Thanksgiving.  It spends summers on my deck and then gets moved into the house to be admired over the holidays.  This year I brought it to my studio in full bud thinking I might slow it down.  No luck. When I came in this morning it was lush with the first blossoms true to it's own timing.

Timing is a slippery mystery. We've learned to regulate a great deal of daily life and it's easy to believe we are in charge of all of it, until inevitably we learn otherwise. Enjoying the long graceful blossoms this morning I thought of how simple all this seems and how complicated we have made it. All the striving and organizing and planning now runs like a virus everywhere eating away at our ability to recognize the natural fullness of living. My lovely friend was a quiet reminder our lives are meant to open up and bloom in their own way too.  

      I leave behind even 

my walking stick. My knife

is in my pocket, but that

I have forgot. I bring

no car, no cell phone, 

no computer, no camera,

no CD player, no fax, no

TV, not even a book. I go

into the woods. I sit on

a log provided at no cost.

It is the earth I've come to,

the earth itself,....

Wendall Berry, "Look it Over" from Leavings