Decisions…Decisions

Autumn is the time for celebrating the 9th month of the lunar calendar with paintings of chrysanthemums. This is the sumi-e way. Personally, I don’t grow mums in my garden, but I do love the stark frankness of ink as it incisively brings the closing comment to summer and growth and possibility. If embraced, it accents the melancholy of golden years and, as the Japanese say, the “beautiful death” of all finite things. The artistic expression is not sudden, brash or defined by sharp edges. Dying is a process, a process of many unfolding decisions. The two old friends in the tops of the mums- the grasshopper and the katydid— face one another from the two sides of the path. Approaching one another one final time in the cool autumn morning is a possibility that seems appealing, but it is not without danger— the mindless sparrow looking for breakfast is in the way… Decisions…Decisions.