Ikebana

Over the last, gosh, six or seven years, I've been going to the Durham Shambhala Center to meditate. I've experienced a lot of great Buddhist teachers and training. I've also sat alot. One of the things I learned to do was to play with flowers and do some Ikebana arrangements. Six months ago members of the Center agreed to do flower arrangements for a wedding. It sounded fun and several folks said yes. Well, as time got closer it seems as if it was just two of us. A couple of weeks ago, I was dreading it a bit. I hadn't really worried about the logistics and details. I had been talking with Judy of Harland Creek Farm, where I get my weekly box of fresh produce (CSA share) about getting flowers from her. She was excited.

The plan was for the two of us to go to the farm on Friday evening, pick flowers, and go to the site where they were having the wedding. It was good fortune that the wedding site was literally 10 min away from Harland Creek Farm at a place called the Inn at Celebrity Dairy. At the beginning of the week, I was worried that we'd be there all night arranging flowers. Mind you that neither of us had ever done a big event like this, the most arrangements either of us had made were 3-4 for an event.  However, over the course of the week, I realized that it was going to be absolutely lovely. Things were falling in place and I knew that we'd have plenty of time if we simply let time be our ally.

So yesterday afternoon, at 4 pm, off we went towards Siler City. I've had a subscription to my CSA for three summers, but had never visited the farm. It was an amazing experience to visit this beautiful place where organic food is grown and harvested. Then we got to pick flowers, and pick we did, we got four five gallon buckets full. Some had already been cut. The one thing we knew was that diversity was key. The more diverse options we have the better. As we were tallying the flowers up to pay, Judy was looking at some of them, saying, "Are you sure you want that?" "Oh, yes," we said. Some of the flowers clearly were not up to market standards. However, that is the beauty of Ikebana. You use what the natural world gives you and, in this time of year, some plants are turning a bit brown and are starting to go to seed. Some seed pods are as gorgeous as the flowers, particularly when you mix them with other things.  

We got to the farm and were felling a bit intimidated, but we started about 7 and simply let the uplifted nature of the wedding reception dinner which was outside close to where we were assemblying the flowers and the upliftedness and beauty of the flowers and greenery we had cut simply move through us. We had 20 arrangements within a period of 2 and a half hours. Some of the arrangements were the best work I've ever done. If I have the opportunity and the flowers have still held up, I'll try and take some pictures, but it is unlikely.

Anyhow, the lessons about imperfection and the beauty that can be created when coupled with what some believe is perfection is really in my mind this morning. As is the fact, that we didn't need a lot of one type of flower, but a variety to choose from. So many of the arrangements we do when we do them one or two at a time, we strive for perfection, however, when you have a lot to do and you let your intuition take over the creativity that emerges is absolutely amazing.

It's hard to tell this story.