Yearly Archives: 2009

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A Messy Workshop

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swallows_in_nest.jpg

It seems that there is a direct correlation between how messy my workshop is and how depressed I feel. I have often yearned for an unmessy workshop – convinced that then everything in my life would be ok (and of course I would then also, miraculously, be amazingly well organised with my time and workload).

So I have great delight in sharing the fact that parts of my workshop are currently a real mess and yet I feel thrilled by it.

Swallows are nesting in the roof beams and there are four baby swallows making one heck of a racket. Swallow parents are in and out every 30 seconds or so feeding. All are totally unbothered by my bandsaw, drills or hammering of chisels.

Any moans about how busy it can be for us on the farm are firmly put into context by seeing the demands on the swallow parents by their four very large babies.

And I have had to remove all items from underneath the nest until they fledge.

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Garden Snapshot

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No matter what state of mind I’m in when I walk out into the garden on a sunny Sunday afternoon, at least one of my senses is lifted and brought to the fore. My breath catches as I hear the ocean sound shifting north in the changing wind and tide. At the same time my worry scanner is on, sensing garden demands. A plant here that’s a little too dry, sprawling raspberries that have broken free, artichokes colonized by ants. Joy and worry walk with me in the garden. Clearly, worry would like joy to butt out and mind its own business.

Now the sunlight reveals a late-summer slant in the colors it brings out on the zucchini leaves, matched immediately – if not preceded by – the slightly melancholic feeling tone of seasonal change. The wind blows a neighborhood argument in my direction, a dance of vicious words that trails off to be hidden in the ocean. A kaleidoscope of memories arises and focuses on the sound of Sheila Chandra singing: “The ocean, the ocean, accepts all rivers”.

Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

Like The Buddha’s Kindness

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Picture and poem for Alison and her extended family.

In my mirror,
birth and old age
sickness and death
reflect,
Sour and sweet
bitter and hot,
true sweet dew.

Into the four forms,
my body disintegrates,
earth and fire
water and wind;
emptiness.
But like the Buddha’s kindness

I am everywhere.

Excerpt from a poem by Tsung tsai, translated by George Crane from Bones of the Master.

…and for all those who find themselves in extremity.

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties

Comfort Zone

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High water mark – note tyre marks in the grass.

I asked someone the other day Are you applying for the new job being advertised?. She replied No, I want to stay where I am; I want to stay in my comfort zone.

It set me thinking about the tendency towards wanting to be comfortable; it’s understandable – why on earth would we want to be un-comfortable! Yet nothing stays the same. Everything changes. Buddhism talks of the impermanence of all things, so trying to create a comfort zone, trying to control our circumstances is bound to create yet more difficulties. There is no staying where I am, there is only change.

So I began to ask myself what comfort zones do I make vain attempts to preserve? And it was with this question in my mind that I went up to Northumberland with Nigel and our elderly greyhound, Lottie. As you can see by the photos posted by Rev Mugo, who we spent some time with, we were located very close to the South Tyne River. The photo in Rev Mugo’s post shows that it was lively, but shallow enough to allow two fishermen to wade out into the middle and stand there quite easily. We joked with each other about the river rising and the amount of rain; Rev Mugo wished us a dry night as she left to return to Throssel.

At 11 pm we awoke to the sound of the site owner banging on our door with the words ‘the river is flooding and you need to move! NOW!

And move we did…. as fast as we were able! With the very real danger of Nigel, who was driving car with the caravan in tow, sliding over the edge of the bank into the floodwater. The river had risen by 4 -5 feet in the space of 2 hours and, although it was dark, we could see the water clearly rushing past at a frighteningly fast rate. Thoughts like why is this happening to us? It’s the middle of the night, I don’t want to have to deal with this arose in reaction to this crisis, but I was able to drop all of that and get on with what needed to be done.

We finally managed to re-pitch on higher ground just outside the site manager’s bungalow and climbed back in our beds at around 1 am. We both lay awake for quite a while afterwards reflecting on the dangerous situation we had just gone through. It took a while to relax enough to sleep and we were both very glad that not all change is as dramatic as this. If ever I needed a reminder that nothing stays the same then this certainly was it.