The birds are singing into the fading evening. Overnight the trees are bursting into leaf. Could it be spring?

I’ve been working through a bundle of routine health checks since returning to England. Turns out I am healthy! According to the numbers and scans and x rays anyway. But all the checks do not stave off the fact of mortality. Or the numbers prove anything perminently true either.

My heart goes out to those known and those I don’t known whose test results, scans and numbers point towards serious conditions. My heart sinks at the thought. And waiting for ‘results’, just waiting, can be nerve wracking. I can run with fear phantasies with the best and have done so. And recently.

People often worry about their meditation practice. Is it deep enough, long enough, frequent enough, peaceful enough? Thank goodness spiritual practice cannot be measured, counted, analaysed or otherwise checked up on. But most of us have given that a try anyway!

So. Pointing our noses in the direction of travel is about the best that can be done. No gold standards, ultimately no ducks in rows. Mortality is mortality. Meanwhile, I’m with the ducks!

Tracking a whole lot of suffering tonight. Remaining still in the midst of life/death dramas unfolding thousands of miles away. Not distant in a very real sense though.

Let’s pour spiritual merit into the bottomless bucket of suffering. Somehow there are not individuals involved. Not separate sufferings, while at the same time there are.