Rengetsu was a rare women.

She was on a pilgrimage and she came to a village  at sunset and begged for shelter, lodging for the night.

The villagers slammed their doors.

They must have been traditional Buddhists and they would not allow this Zen women to stay there.

They threw her out.

It was a cold night  and the old woman was without any lodging...

and hungry.

She had to make a cherry tree in the fields..... her shelter.

It was really cold and she could not sleep very well.

And it was dangerous too with wild animals.

At midnight she awoke, very cold and saw in the spring night sky, 

the fully opened cherry blossoms,

laughing to the misty moon.

Overcome by the beauty,

 she got up and made a reverence 

to the direction of the village and through her, 

an expressing took place:

"Through their kindness
in refusing me lodging;

I found myself
beneath the blossoms
on the night of
the misty moon."

 

 

Life is immense and each moment 

it comes with a thousand and one gifts.

But being so engaged, preoccupied,

so full of thoughts on how it should be and how it shouldn't be,

the gifts are missed.