Now we are days into 2014 and the country is awash! My thoughts for all those whose homes and businesses and land are already flooded or under threat. My news:
Activities have had
Me fully occupied.And to be honest
Posting inspiration
Has dissolved into
The damp and
Wintery nights.
Here photographs of the River Eden in her finest white dress. And some damp sheep for good measure.
Today the sharp crisp air of late December gave way to windswept soggy blasts. The weather is an ever-present changing phenomenon here on the moors. Commented on, pondered on, prepared for, and the anticipated effects of weather defended against. Water gathering up high on the moors eventually reaches critical mass and comes gushing down in foaming, gushing, bubbling waterfalls. It comes so fast the drainage system struggles to do its job effectively. And I’m now thinking of those in Britain who have lost their homes and livelihoods to the weather this winter.
Now is the time to stay indoors, settle down and be less physical active. But that’s not possible for everybody and nobody can stay in for ever. There’s shopping and driving and visiting to be done. Relatives and friends to see and people to visit who are stuck indoors. The elderly and infirm, the sick and those recovering surgery in hospital. I feel myself fortunate that all I have to do is walk from one building to another. That too will change.
What ever the weather and where ever one is be it indoors, stuck indoors, being blown about by wind (inside or outside!) always there is the choice to return within. Constantly.
Just in case you are a grandparent and need advice, support and a laugh, try Gransnet.
What a jolly bunch this morning as we pitched ourselves up the hill and onto the moors above Throssel. The wind behind us, the sunshine above and blue sky all around. The Trigpoint is a favoured destination for a more serious walk, boots and windproof clothing essential.
For me it has been a rare treat of a day in every way with companionable times aplenty. I hope that’s been the case for you. Yes, Buddhist can enjoy Christmas Day too. It’s the time of year anybody of any faith, or non, to light up the darkness.
Crowds walking, talking and some singing. Carols on Euston Station. Some laughing, pulling luggage, pushing wheelchairs and everywhere the phone.
What stays with me from the last 24 hours being on the road is a small boy in an all bells and whistles wheelchair. His mother so up-beat as she wheeled him onto a bus with two more children in tow. Likely that child will become a man – in a full sized wheelchair. In it for as long as life lasts. And then there was the man in the wheelchair waiting to be assisted onto a train via a ramp. Silently stressed yet still prepared to travel, with assistance.
Mobility, being able to move about freely on foot and on wheels as I have been able to do causes me to ponder. In gratitude. And in sympathy for those who can’t and may never leave their wheels. Some photographs in London. Post written on the train heading north. Uploaded via email from a phone….
The 8th of December has come and gone which is traditionally the date when Buddhists celebrate the Buddha’s Enlightenment. But, like the Buddha’s Birth in May, it is a movable feast and in the West Buddhists don’t tend to mark these events at all. In my tradition we do and here is an alter set up aglow with light and colour and may I say Love. It reminds me of times spent preparing festival altars, getting everything just so, standing back and taking it all in and then tweaking here and there. For me the celebration was all about the preparations. The care taken and then in the evening after the ceremony and the feast the sweet sadness of putting the altar back to its everyday arrangement. Such events marked the turning of the year.
Something in me wishes these important events in the life of the historic Buddha were more widely remembered and as in the monastery we could wish those around us Happy Buddha’s Enlightenment. There was genuine joy in that. So I was particularly happy to receive this photograph from Rev. Master Jigen based in North Norfolk who like other monks in smaller and larger temples ‘make the effort’ and join with others to sing and celebrate.
Happy Buddha’s Enlightenment even if a few days late.
