A Hibiscus Flower Teaches Me - By Diederik Wolsak

Every day I walk the 72 steps from my room to the dining room or our circle space. It is a beautiful stroll, often accompanied by the songs of many birds or the lively communication from the monkeys.
Halfway up the walk there is a hibiscus branch which overhangs the path. Right above the 

centre of the path the branch supports a magnificent, bright red flower. Every day I look up and smile recognizing how amazingly wonderful life is and continue up the walk.
One day as I walked up I felt the desire to see the flower. I looked ahead, it was not there. I turned around to look behind me and it was not there.
A hint of irritation came up and I wondered when our gardener would learn how to prune properly. After all I had shown him often as had other staff.
I then applied forgiveness and realized that cutting that branch was exactly what I needed to bring up and correct a lingering attachment and I was at peace.
Just at the moment when peace returned I happened to look up…. I was standing beneath the flower as splendid and generously red as ever.
Peace is not ahead or behind it is right now. I was reminded of that challenging teaching:
if you are not happy now you will never be happy.
Love,
​Diederik