We see the world not as IT IS, but as WE ARE.  That summer the garden became my mirror, my friend, and teacher. I discovered that life and death are not separate; everything is living and dying all at the same time. For every hibiscus flower that shrivelled at night, a new one opened the next morning. Change, loss, and decay are not the enemy of life, they are the very humus in which life flourishes. Slowly, day by day I came to embrace my loss and allow the tears to water my inner garden. This was written in August, 2021.