Karnamrita das:<\/p>\n
Before enlightenment
\nstacking wood,
\nAfter enlightenment
\nstacking wood (with Prema).<\/p>\n
That time of year–still hot,
\nthough change is in the air,
\nwhispered by Krishna\u2019s Nature
\nthru the plants and living things.<\/p>\n
We try to order wood early
\nso it can stand and \u201ccure\u201d,
\nthough sometimes our wood guy
\nlives up to the slow country image.<\/p>\n
Still, it is cooler now to stack
\nthe wood, and this time my wife
\nis helping, to motivate me
\n(the procrastinator) to get the job done.<\/p>\n
This is the first year she
\nhas helped, and it is much
\nbetter than solo,
\nmore gets done, and it\u2019s fun!<\/p>\n
We chant Hare Krishna in our
\nmind, or out loud, discussing KC
\nor a therapy case and joke
\nthat we aren\u2019t frontier folk.<\/p>\n
We live in the country but usually
\nher allergies force her indoors,
\nthough now she discovered masks
\nso she works like a doctor (or bandit).<\/p>\n
So we go for an hour or more
\nevery few days–I bring
\nher logs, and we both stack,
\nand I go back, and forth.<\/p>\n
The smell of hardwood,
\nsweat wetting me,
\nmixing with dirt, coloring
\nbody and shirt\u2013covering my soul.<\/p>\n
Evening Sun casts a glow,
\nbugs looking for skin,
\nspiders, bugs run for cover
\nas their home is moved.<\/p>\n
The Earth at our feet– another
\nworld busy with searching, hiding,
\nvictims and victors–
\nnow we giants disturb both.<\/p>\n
Gradually slowing
\nmy arms and wrist aching–
\nouch!, as I drop a log on my knee
\njust a bit of pain, the wood tower rises.<\/p>\n
Visible progress made, closing one door
\nto open another, feeling satisfied
\nat the dignity of simple, outdoor labor,
\nenabling us to lead a life of devotion.
\n(and stay warm in the coming winter)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karnamrita das: Before enlightenment stacking wood, After enlightenment stacking wood (with Prema). That time of year–still hot, though change is in the air, whispered by Krishna\u2019s Nature thru the plants and living things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}