Just Enough

Bee

a bee staggers out

of the peony

enough

Matsuo Basho

Yesterday I took this photo of a bee whose legs were covered in pollen and nestled right into the columbine. It didn’t move, so I wondered was it just resting there, having exhausted itself? It seems so because later it was gone, probably having staggered out with enough.

Basho's poem reminds me of the oryoki bowls often used for meals served during Zen retreats. Oryoki means the "vessel that contains enough.”

When we realize this vessel we call our life contains enough, that we are enough, that we are perfect, whole, and complete as we are — we see there is nothing more to do, and yet we continue to refine this life.