Four young women came from out of town for meditation instruction this morning. I received a worried phone call about 45 mins. before they were due here at the priory. “We are lost, we don’t know where we are, can you give us directions”? It turned out they were about 7 mins. drive away.

As they were leaving for their home town I asked their navigator if she knew which way to go. She smiled happily and said, “I know the way back, now I know where I am”! I’ll remember them, and I’ll remember that statement too.

Getting close up and personal with a bear can be salutary. They look like an animated ‘teddy bear’ from ones childhood, a much bigger version though. It is all too easy to loose sight of the fact that they are creatures of the wild, when they look so cute and cuddly. One thing is clear when near one; they have big claws, big teeth and powerful rippling muscles under their soft coats.

After my close encounter I found myself getting really interested in bears; the danger they are drawn into by following their noses to human habitation for fast food, their wilderness home eroding and migration routes cut off. Yes, I really got into that. Somebody suggested I submit the photo, on yesterday’s blog, to the local newspaper, “hay, look what came to our place yesterday”! So I did, and it was published.

I wrote a piece to submit with the photograph, the words coming easily as I was inspired by the subject. Then, as we do within the Sangha, I ran the writing past a senior monk and I was brought up short. In a kindly way I was reminded that while the cause was real and good, my involvement was not. I deleted what I’d written and sat still. The ‘not good’ was connected to my vocation as a priest within my particular Order. We do not include overt social action in our practice, concentrating primarily on living a Preceptual life with Compassion and the offering of the merit of this to all beings.

The very many lessons I learnt arising out of this incident was that I enjoyed writing about matters that inspire me. And, I needed to look at the intent behind writing and run that past the Three Pure Precepts. Regularly!

Here is the beginning of a well-known prayer; it speaks of action. Each of us walk a unique path, the task is to recognize and respond to the path we find ourselves on…and not try and walk somebody else’s.

Here is somebody giving voice to what I experienced for so many years as a novice monk. I remember standing waiting for the moment to unscrew a light bulb in a lantern, all the while knowing I’d burn my fingers.

Since I am pointed at birds at the moment I thought I’d share these two photos taken in Montana in 2004 and 2001. The bear was after some fat in a feeder. It did climb up into the tree and afterwards it hung around the garden picking fruit and eating compost until it was eventually sent on its way. Such excitement!

That’s a Kanzeon statue on the feeder. The cat loved to perch there, thus ensuring birds wouldn’t!

Somebody left a comment yesterday asking that merit be transfered to the very many birds dying in Europe as a consequence of Bird Flu. I offered incense for them this morning at the Kanzeon Altar. Feel free to join in the offering of merit.

I’ve been in homes where there is an altar specially set up for remembering animal friends who have died. Performing a short ceremony to remember the creature can be helpful for children and adults alike. On the altar mentioned there was a veritable ‘farm yard’ of animals placed in rememberance. Perhaps I’ll buy a little bird for our Kanzeon Altar.

Edmonton woke this morning to twelve inches of snow. We have been out shoveling. As I understand it you can incur a fine for not removing the snow from the pavement in front of your house. Not a hardship for me to be out playing with the snow, I’ve been waiting for this since late October!

This morning, gazing out of the kitchen window at the wonderful white world I noticed a bird trying to land on the feeder. Of course I went out and removed the snow…and then refrained from loitering by the window waiting for the birds to arrive. Bird feeders can become like televisions, one can’t keep ones eyes of them.

I was here five years ago reminded by the flocks of birds swooping around the houses and trees. Together they make a distinctive sound, more than your average twitter. Something between a twitter and a squeak. There was snow on the ground then, lots of it. The people I stayed with put wood screws in the bottom of my shoes, now I have some fancy traction devices called ‘Yak Tracks’. Fine on snow but a disaster on the polished floors at Staples!

Yes, it is good that IT has happened at last, winter is not winter without some accumulation of the white stuff.