You're Too Late

by Nina

“From contentment, the highest happiness is attained.” Yoga Sutra II.42 (Edwin Bryant)

“This sattvic happiness does not depend on external objects, which are vulnerable and fleeting, but is inherent in the mind when it is tranquil and content.” Edwin Bryant

Too Late by Brad Gibson

We started out with an agenda. The plan was to go to the Japanese Garden in the Seattle Arboretum to see the Japanese maples in their brilliant fall glory. But we we arrived, the garden was closed until February. We peeked in through gate—what we could see through the bars looked gorgeous. The arboretum itself was open and we could see from the road that mixed in with the evergreens there were still trees in brilliant scarlet, orange, and yellow, so I asked the gardener just outside the gate of the Japanese Garden where we should go to see the best fall color. But he just waved his hand dismissively and said, “You’re too late. It’s over.” I said, “Not to us. And what I can see of the Japanese Garden through the fence still looks beautiful.” He shrugged and said, “You should have been here last week.”

  

On our late fall walk along the Azalea Path, we not only saw beautiful fall leaves, but also mushrooms and berries and moss and even a few late flowers. Look!

Moss and Berries by Brad Gibson