TOWARD the SOLSTICE

TIME

Days for nights and nights for days rotate as I continue to endure this final phase of my 'Thanksgiving' surprise cold.

DEPRESSION

As a result of being at home for so long, I did listen to, plus randomly watched all the impeachment hearings and got quite depressed more than once. Fortunately,  because I'm exhausted, my response to depression these days is napping. It's cheap, temporary and effective enough to soften the sharper edges off distress.

PRACTICE

Soon I'll be well enough to return to the Zendo, meditation will be revived and that is a far better response really. My daily practice is not established enough to carry me through and being with my Sangha (group) has been much missed.

(Sensei Robert Chodo Campbell & Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison)

Treading the mountain path

The violets fill my heart
with indefinable gracefulness

Though no-one pays any attention to the violets along the path

They still bloom quietly beautifully elegant

-Basho-

1633-1694

~*~

SURPRISE CONTINUES

9.28.2019

Update

My refugee friends have not been able to get their Apartment back yet. Back to court again on October 7th!

They have to find money;

A LOT OF MONEY.
$2700.00
No money in the bank.
Credit cards empty.

Meanwhile the mother (X) is in the loft bed here and the son (Y) is being housed indefinitely in Queens with a 'friend' who just came through  and might take the cats too sometime this weekend freeing my 1st floor neighbor of the responsibility.
Another hope.

Sleep disturbed I'm stumbling on day three;
Grace of 'Windthread' commented
"this is the perfect moment for practice"
PRACTICING

 Outside three flights down to the street I listen to morning commence in scant birdsong. They too are practicing just being.

I have found out details one at a time over the last two days. They leak information a bit at a time.
If they lose the apartment entirely, which is a distinct possibility since they got a switch from the judge they were hoping for to one that is less helpful, then what? There's no plan, only a speculation to get 'someone' they kind-of-know who is a real estate owner and broker to let them have an apartment in Queens and allow them just to be there until they have the where withal to pay. Yet another pie-in-the-sky notion I fear.

 

I have fallen into their black hole and become a refugee myself.
 I want my life back.
~*~
Backstory
https://mscomfortzone.blogspot.com/2019/09/surprise.html 

LEFTOVERS

Maybe because I was a world-war two baby, thoroughly programmed in "Waste-not-Want-not" and 
"Don't forget the starving children."

Maybe because I just skim the plus side of poverty every month and cross over into the minus ledger fairly regularly.

 I'm Thrifty
 
I've mastered the art of leftovers, 
able to turn anything in the larder into tasty nourishment.

Stuffing Casserole
Follow simple directions to mix with broth, spices and butter, add cubes of pre-cooked leftover meats if you have any and bake at 350 degrees for forty minutes. Serve with a variety of steamed greens.  


Spinach Souffle

two eggs, three tablespoons fine breadcrumbs, butter, one cup steamed spinach, squeezed dry, nutmeg and salt. Bake thirty minutes in preheated 350 degree oven. If you desire prettier. Melt some cheddar on top or just add a scoop of whipped mustard/mayo before serving. A few sprigs of parsley and you can call it cuisine.

Celeriac Soup
(recipes in link below)
Warning: you will need a really good knife. 

~*~

I almost always have what I need on hand.
When I don't, generous friends have stepped in to offer aid leaving me in a perpetual state of amazed gratitude.

I'm Rich

Perhaps an illusion, but what isn't?  Everything dissolves into molecules and air eventually. Meanwhile, friends, food, fun, grief, rage, pain, pleasure and god-almighty chance rules.
~*~

I discover again and again that my default setting is doom.
 Patience is my practice, kindness my goal.

I'm Fortunate

Wise beings were there throughout, tripping me like stones in the road, reminding me that there's more to life than meets the eye, more subtle senses than the basic six.

Most things I might desire, I can do without.

I shop in my closet. It's a museum store with

decades of fashions for all seasons and moods on permanent display and the price is always right.

~*~

LINK

Recipe
https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/15-best-celeriac-recipes-article

GARUDA

"In Buddhism, Garudas are a mythical species of majestic bird-like deities with a wing-span of many miles, with which they can bring about winds with the force of a hurricane."

 "They have also been a long-term opposing force of the Naga, the species of snakes which protected the Buddha while he achieved enlightenment." Perhaps my current illness is my Garuda, while every conscious practice of patience on my part is support for my protector Snakes.

"Our most valuable teachers are our enemies. Not only is this a fundamental Buddhist teaching, it is a demonstrated fact of life. While our friends can help us in many ways, only our enemies can provide us with the challenge we need to develop tolerance, patience, and compassion ... three virtues essential for building character, developing peace of mind and bringing us true happiness."

-His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama-

~*~