Some of the kids are out back in the Epiphany Schoolyard, masked. It's a cheerful site though I am worried for them all. I still believe we opened commerce too soon and may have set ourselves back to five months ago. Only time will tell. A second wave of viral positives and the flu season soon to be added on. I worry, parents worry, teachers worry. Still, it is a pretty site friends.
Looking East out my front window to see the sun, breathing deep the crisp fresh air of Fall.
Longing for freedom, I turn back to another time and place and sing along just as I did back then.
In the evening, I sat with my Sangha via Zoom. After the "Heart Sutra and the dedicatios, we did a sort of 'Council' Session. Each participant gets 1-3 minutes to share what concerns them and how the Dharma is aiding them in being with that. A few take aways-1. "Refuge is everywhere". 2."Change Perspective" to others also suffering" 3. "Don't separate from even those that disagree with you." 4. "When everything is unraveling, be a student, not a victim."
Then the four vows and finally, Sensei Chodo read: "The Peace of Wild things" by Wendel Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
