The clouds have been amazing these past few days. Yesterday I ventured out for a longer walk than is usual for me on Renewal Days. Arriving at the top of the ridge opposite the monastery the Skylarks were singing their hearts out. Their song is not so clear on this short video clip unfortunately but thought to share this with you. To share in the delight I felt at being on the moors once again.

As most of you are aware the monastic schedule allows for rest/renewal time within each week. Monday sees us formally sitting at 7.15 with a Brunch at 9.45, Snack at 1.30 and Medicine Meal at the usual time of 6.00. Each of us may choose to sit informally in the evening or read or rest. There is ample time in the day to catch up on necessary personal projects such as; robe mending, ironing, laundering vestments or simply taking a longer walk, etc. As I did yesterday. Thursday afternoons are set aside similarly for rest/renewal activities.

During these days of ‘lock-down’, I’d imagine one day wafts or drags into the next with nothing much to mark the days of the week. I know some people are using the video of Short Morning Service to mark the start of their day of practice. Others who may not follow or practice Buddhism may have established a meaningful routine of their own. Pacing one’s day and weeks can be a real saving grace and helps many a person to keep out of anxious states and falling into depressions. At the moment I’d not underestimate how easy it can be to succumb. Personally I am so grateful for the monastic schedule but each reader will find their own, meaningful way to structure your time.

Worldly ups and downs
should be treated
as lightly as the clouds
gathering and breaking up.

Anon

This is an offering of merit post, for Rev. Master Teigan who died yesterday. Some readers will remember him, as I do, as a kind and benevolent soul. A true bass singer that had the floor vibrating under one’s feet! And for our earth. Mugo

The lovely, late, Emily Levine reads ON THE FIFTH DAY by Jane Hirshfield

On the fifth day
the scientists who studied the rivers
were forbidden to speak
or to study the rivers.

The scientists who studied the air
were told not to speak of the air,
and the ones who worked for the farmers
were silenced,
and the ones who worked for the bees.

Someone, from deep in the Badlands,
began posting facts.

The facts were told not to speak
and were taken away.
The facts, surprised to be taken, were silent.

Now it was only the rivers
that spoke of the rivers,
and only the wind that spoke of its bees,

while the unpausing factual buds of the fruit trees
continued to move toward their fruit.

The silence spoke loudly of silence,
and the rivers kept speaking,
of rivers, of boulders and air.

In gravity, earless and tongueless,
the untested rivers kept speaking.

Bus drivers, shelf stockers,
code writers, machinists, accountants,
lab techs, cellists kept speaking.

They spoke, the fifth day,
of silence.

This evening I received a Transfer of Merit request for somebody struggling to remain alive having contracted COVID-19 some weeks ago. They have been on and then off, and on again a ventilator and their organ system is struggling. I’ll not give the name for reasons of privacy. Merit appreciated. This is a doctor on the front line.
The following article is salutary:

On rounds in a 20-bed intensive care unit one recent day, physician Joshua Denson assessed two patients with seizures, many with respiratory failure and others whose kidneys were on a dangerous downhill slide. Days earlier, his rounds had been interrupted as his team tried, and failed, to resuscitate a young woman whose heart had stopped. All shared one thing, says Denson, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Tulane University School of Medicine. “They are all COVID positive.”

Science Mag – How does Coronavirus Kill?