I had bought the white peony in the foreground, selected especially for fragrance. I have a cut one in teacup by where I sit and it pleasantly scents the air around it.
The others are from my mother who left her body 33 years ago. My sister-in-law sent me some divisions a few years ago from the flower bed where her and my brother live now, the house we had moved into when I was about 6 years old.
I never remember there not being peonies there. I don’t know if there were there when we moved in, or if she planted them, and if she did, where had she gotten them. In country families, sometimes plants are passed down like heirlooms generation to generation. I can say that these peonies have been in our family for at least 50 years.
Seeing peonies is a transient pleasure, but a nice contrast to other transitory states, and something I look forward to each year.
So peonies got the day off to a good start, but the best part was yet to come. I ended up meeting with an Indian gentleman and discussing setting up a trust with cows as the beneficiaries.
I would summarize by saying, he “gets” it. While many agree philosophically with cow protection, “getting” it is something else and not everyone one does.
I am consciously not mentioning his name at this time, as he is serious about his commitment and I will let him make his own explanations, but it was a pleasure to talk to him as he readily grasped the concepts of a trust without having to give detailed explanations.
He wants to set up an online discussion group and hammer out the details of a trust. This is something I have advocated for a long time but have lacked the skills set to pull off and I am optimistic that something good can come out of this.
While New Vrindaban has consistently been able to care for their cows out of cash flow donations, by taking it to the next level, a whole world of options open up. I will be discussing this more later.
One interesting thing he said was that his initial involvement came about when his 8 year old son saw a cow protection brochure and took an interest in it.
“You say we must have a gosala trust, that is our real purpose. krsi-goraksya-vanijyam vaisya karma svabhava-jam, [Bg 18.44]. Where there is agriculture there must be cows. That is our mission: Cow protection and agriculture and if there is excess, trade. This is a no-profit scheme.”
Letter to: Yasomatinandana — Vrindaban 28 November, 1976
