Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I had my little getaway with my friend, and though it was slightly less that 23 hours, it felt like a relaxing, renewing time.  We swam, wrote, went to a bookstore and shoestore, ate a lovely lunch and dinner at the club, explored the architechture, and she played on two different grand pianos while I was her sole audience.  We really had fun.  We had two swims and she taught me some of the water aerobics she'd learned at the Y.  But mainly we reconnected, listened to each other, and enjoyed each other's company.  This retreat will stand me in good stead as the wedding festivities come up next week.  I feel reenergized.  We were careful in our speech, and it made the time together dear.  The effort and the risk was worth it.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We had to take in our elderly dog this morning.  She couldn't walk and wouldn't eat and cried out in pain.  She's there overnight tonight, and is having a pain shot and complete rest.  Each time we bring her in now we're afraid she won't come back home.  Our vet is such a compassionate and tactful doctor, and talks about the balance of her quality of life versus her pain.  He rules out surgery and invasive procedures, because she's at the end of her life.  But he makes us feel that he's giving us the truth and not sugar coating what is happening with her, so he's her advocate mainly.  We'll see if upping the dose of her pain and inflamation meds will help.  If not, it may be time to let her go.  Tough decisions, but we have a partner at our back:  our vet.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I finally finished a wedding quilt for our younger son and his fiancee, who are marrying in two weeks.  It's very imperfect, and the stitches are uneven, but it was made with love.  I remember when I was sewing my rakasu, and the sewing teacher at the zen center said it was meant to be not perfect, but rocky and uneven as the path we tread.  I had just struggled with learning about my macular degeneration, and I knew whatever I continued to do visually would be not as elegant as before.  Not that I was ever an amazing seamstress.  That was my mother.  I was a very sloppy imitator, but I inherited the love of making things with my hands.  It gives me such pleasure.  So I sew away, not oblivious to my lack of skill, but despite it.  And I believe my kids have appreciated the effort, if not the result.  A blanket made with love:  I've sewed one for each of the kids now, and they have their own families, and their own meaningful objects.  But the gift of it has been rewarding for me.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We watched the DVD of Wonder Woman last night, and I had tears in my eyes, as I did both times I saw it in the movie theater.  The truth of politics and posturing, the cost on ordinary men, women and children, the outsized egos and careless games the people with power play:  these reminded me of the fear of each of us about North Korea and how people can drag us into danger and death without any appreciation for a value of life.  Wonder Woman's faith in humans, at least some of them, and her belief in love, could not be more Buddha-like.  We see the world as it is, but we choose love and compassion, not despair and anger.  I hope some of our politicians can rise above greed and hunger for power and stand for us, like the NFL players today.  The truth is we must love our country while seeing the racial and gender inequities that affect us every day.  Stand with love and solidarity with all people and against destruction and nihilism.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We never watch the news, but last night we caught the end of the Newshour, and Shields and Brooks were discussing the possibility of Trump going to war over North Korea.  They were so depressed that fear shot up in me like a rocket.  We are in this netherland where a lot of us are waiting for something to cause Trump to resign before he triggers an apocalypse.  We petition, call our representatives, march, but yet, there seems to be nothing that stops or moderates his behavior.  I'm up to date, but I'm wondering what good it does.  The left watches its news and the right theirs, and a lot of people in between are just making up news like a children's fairy tale.  In the meantime, Trump is changing our lives in many ways:  from campus rape to health to immigrant status to a free for all on Wall Street to climate protection rollbacks.  Great damage has been done, and we will be, for the foreseeable future, repairing, not moving ahead, just like the hurricane and earthquake victims.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

A few years ago our neighbor asked to move a hot tub on our side of our house and if it wrecked our camelias and other landscaping, she would pay for it.  I said I had to think it over, as that is where our sunroom is and the wall is all windows.  I could see the glass crashing in.  She was offended that I didn't say yes instantly, and she ended up having it moved on the other side of her house.  Fast forward to two days ago, and her husband comes over and needs the NEW hot tub moved to their back patio and asks if he can bring it up our steps, but then get it up his own steps to the back.  We said yes.  The first request came like a demand, and this time it was more thoughtful and reasonable and didn't involve destroying our landscaping.  Now there still could end up being damage, even in this scenario, but the tone of the asking made all the difference.  Talk about right speech.  The wife demands, the husband is friendly and low key.  I imagine he has to mediate his wife's impulsiveness fairly often.  And I don't think she has a clue how she comes off.  But we try to be reasonable, and work with them when we can.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Fiery rhetoric from our President!  He seems not to believe in calmness, moderation or accommodation.  Evidently, threats have worked for him all his life.  But who pays the price this time?  The American people.  He belongs in Game of Thrones, not in the White House.  Along with the horrors of hurricanes and earthquakes, we have a man-made storm system just so he can feel powerful and potent.  Everything he does seems to be to prove his manhood.  How deeply insecure he must feel inside.  And he's making the rest of us feel as insecure.  It's like being besieged by the Wrath of Khan!  Let me out of this scenario!