Did you ever stop
to appreciate
warm water
across your hands?When life’s
testing every
bit of you warm
water’s the balm.A woman confided
with glee (to me)
I had a bath
I washed my feet!So basic
so very simple
the soothing balm
of water warmed.
For a friend and anybody who would appreciate warm water. But there isn’t any.
They offered me a mug of Sweet Potato and Squash soup and to top that off, pudding and custard…in a really warm bowl. That’s hospice, they look after visitors as well as the patients they’re visiting. We should be proud of our hospice service in Britain it’s highly regarded, world wide. I know of one doctor in charge of a hospice in California who came here years ago to learn all he could about what we do. He then went back to build a hospice system, in-patients and out-patients, which has in turn become a model for new services around the country. And what a humble man he is too.
That’s it really. The gentle humility one encounters in such places. Genuine care and attention to detail. People come, come in for awhile, and then go home again. They follow through on a treatment plan
Devout Buddhist are ‘on retreat’. Traditionally December 8th marks the time of the Buddhas Enlightenment and the seven days leading up to that time are spent in intensive meditation or sesshin. In Japanese Buddhism the retreat is called Rohatsu, which translates as the 8th day of the 12th month.
This quote caught my eye as I thumbed through next years diary. Perhaps because I am retreating in another direction. Meaning that this is not a time of formal retreat yet there is a growing sense of turning within as the temperature drops and the light fades.
We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction!
Douglas Macarthur
Advancing in another direction? That suits rather well since while life has a direction, a flow if you like, each advances in a unique fashion. Water doesn’t struggle or strive, nor should we.
Internet connections have been a bit unreliable. Snow on the hills, snow in the valleys. But nothing too serious as yet.
As a teen and well into my twenties my private nightmare was being asked, What do you do? I so longed to answer with work I was proud of. That the enquirer, quite frankly, would be impressed with. I wanted to BE somebody when I felt like a nobody. I wanted to say I am a photographer! Then one day walking on the streets of Calcutta, 1979, I decided I didn’t. A short time after that I got my first job as a photographer. All a very long time and far away now.
Yesterday I was asked by somebody needing to fill out a form. What do you do? I responded, I’m a Buddhist Monastic. A unknowing shadow fell over the questioners face. By way of clarification I added, Err, I teach Buddhism. I could see the light go on, Oh, you’re a teacher! I imagined the enquirer thinking. Sometimes one needs to at least appear to fit into a box! For administrative purposes.
Do take a look at Alain De Botton’s TED lecture, A kinder, gentler philosophy of success. Thanks to Walter for the link to this talk.
And all the quotes on Alain De Botton’s Twitter page are, to say the least, thought provoking.
And speaking of stories and story telling. I recently heard of Spoken Word Poetry, or simply Spoken Word. It’s rather an attractive form. If we could understand what cats are saying I’d imagine it would be akin to Spoken Word Poetry.
Thanks to Julius for sending the link to this video of a rather talented young woman called Sarah Kay. It is a TED talk and they generally last for 18 mins. Well worth watching to the end.