Tzen

I hate, really hate, the stupid japanese beetles. I hate them so much they don't even deserve the capital "j". During WWII, the Japanese invaded my country, and they were BAD! They uprooted our rice fields. As a result, a lot of our people died of hunger and famine. One of those people was my paternal grandfather, who was only in his early forties.

One night, years back, I had a dream about my grandfather, though I had never met him before. I got to know him through pictures and an occasional story told by my dad. In this dream, I saw some people placing my grandfather into a wood-box coffin. Since he was tall, they had to break his neck to fit him into it. When I told my parents about the dream, my dad told me that when his family was running away from the war zone, my grandfather was separated from the rest of the family. Later, my dad found out that he probably died of famine. And, indeed, his neck was broken. Did my grandfather visit me in my dream? I don't know.

Damn those Japanese who killed my grandpa back then! Damn the Japanese beetles that have been munching on my flowers and plants over the past couple of weeks. There are just so many of them! They eat and have sex at the same time. All the rose buds are GONE! I've been so excited waiting for my roses of sharon (hibiscus) to come out, and they are also gone. They also ate almost all of the leaves on my cherry blossoms, persimons, Japanese maples, and many others. How dare them eat even the Japanese maples! I'm disgusted by the sight of them. But, I just can't kill them all. I have so many plants.

Jim thinks I overdo it on the plants. I beg to differ! I want to make my house a home, a center of Zen. Well, I don't know much about other people's Zen. But, I invented my own Zen; I'll call it Tzen (T. + Zen)... :) . In Tzen, plants and flowers play a very important role. They can create Tzen. They can also destroy Tzen. They can lead you to different levels of Tzen.

Here are some examples of the different levels of Tzen:

1. Planting flowers/plants--non-Tzen
2. Planting flowers/plants in the summer--non-Tzen Absolute
3. Enjoying the sights of beautiful flowers and scents of fragrant flowers--Tzen
4. Enjoying the flowers while Jim plant them--Total Tzen
5. Enjoying the flowers while Jim plant them in the nude--Tzen Absolute
6. Enjoying the flowers while Jim plant them in the nude then get me drinks--Tzen Nirvana

LOL!!!