I splurged and bought myself a Mini Desktop Zen Garden at the Dollar Store yesterday for, of course, a dollar. I suspect they were Dollar Store Stock in part because while the box clearly said, “slate base”, it’s even more clear once you open it that the base is terracotta painted with two shades of flat grey paint – and the paint was flatter than the actual base, which wobbles a bit. But for a dollar I can live with a slightly dynamic zen garden. (Hmmm, “Dynamic Zen” – I could market that next to dollar-priced copies of Tae Boe!) It came with a goodly amount of white sparkly white sand, five polished stones, and two rakes, so I’m good to go.

So far I’ve had the most fun using the back of a rake to smooth out the sand as much as possible, but I’m not sure if using a Zen Garden to challenge yourself in this way is in keeping with the original spirit of the Zen Garden. I don’t want to be mocked by the Zenner Than Thou crowd, after all.

Right now the Zen Garden is the picture of purposeful disarray – I deliberately marked the sand so that it looks like a zillion people have walked through it, and have very consciously placed all the stones to look like they were randomized by nature. Perhaps I should also turn the base so that it’s not all right angles with the edges of the desk.

Ahhh, yes, masterful illusionist that I am – I will fool them ALL!!!!

[ahem]

In conclusion, I highly recommend having a Zen Garden. They are very relaxing.