Liber Terrae - Chapter 73

Verses

A child asked the old woman, “Where does Earth begin?” She pointed beneath his shoe.

“And where does it end?” She pointed to the same place.

The child said this was cheating. The old woman said, “Most good answers are accused of that.”

She kept seven cats, though only four admitted living with her.

One slept in the garden, one on the wall, one under the stove, and one wherever work had just been placed.

“These are the four directions,” she told the child.

“There are more than four cats,” he said.

“There are more than four directions too, if you stop drawing maps for soldiers.”

She planted beans beside the grave of a man she had once hated.

“Why feed him?” asked the child.

“I am feeding beans,” she said. “The Earth handles the accounting.”

When rain ruined the laundry, she cursed the sky. When it filled the cistern, she thanked the Earth.

“That is inconsistent,” said the child.

“Yes,” said the old woman. “You are ready for religion.”

Years later the child traveled across oceans and deserts and learned many names for holy ground.

When he returned, the old wall had fallen and the cats were gone.

He knelt where the garden had been and found one bean growing among the stones.

Then he understood that home is not what stays. Home is what teaches you how to return when nothing has stayed.