Koan

this morning

a glass jar full of lavender

which had been sitting on the tank

of my toilet in the bathroom

fell, as it has so many times before.

.

usually, not stopping to think

as the day moved at its insistent pace

I would pick it up and replace it.

.

today, however, the jar shattered,

glass and seeds strewn across the tile floor.

as I considered my options, it was hard to miss

how the lavender’s fragrance now filled the air,

freed from the confines of the jar that once seemed

like such a natural choice for its containment.

.

my relationship to the task at hand changed

in that moment, becoming

not what new vessel to find to replace the old

but how to stay here, in this sweetness,

filled with remembering the possibilities

of open air:

allowing.