48” x 36”, oil on canvas

Surely one life should be enough.

One life in this body to wake and live.

For several years, I sat in Zen meditation. Outside the zendo (where you meditate) there is a wooden block. It is struck with a wooden mallet to call you to meditation. There are usually Chinese characters on it, or now, English letters. “Great is the matter of birth and death. Life flows quickly by. Time waits for no one. Wake up! Wake up! Don’t waste a moment.”

The shadows cast by a tree fall across this painting.