Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

Not for the first time, I spent Christmas week at someone else’s house, looking after a beloved pet. This year I was in Emeryville at  my girlfriend’s house with Georgie the bulldog, while she was in Florida with her mother, brother, in-laws, and niece and nephew. Christmas Day being on a Monday seemed to warp the calendar a little, in that the week before already felt like Christmas, but it was mostly a week of work – and logistics as I ferried various bags, and  bikes, across the  bay.

With rain passing through several times this month, I was glad that the days running up to Christmas were clear and somewhat sunny. I took advantage of being in the East Bay to ride some different routes. I eased myself in after not getting miles in while I was sick, so on Saturday I went over the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island - which I wrote about more extensively on Patreon. The next day I followed the Bay Trail north to Richmond, which I had also done once before on a bike (as well as having run and hiked several sections of it); this time I made it around Point Richmond as well.

On Christmas morning, having pored over the map, I set out early and went north on a pleasantly deserted San Pablo Road, cut across some neighbourhoods I had ridden a few years ago, and ended up in Pinole on  the Bay Trail again. There was a lovely section through to Hercules, a deserted four-lane road through one of the refineries and up to the bridge. The highlight was probably the Carquinez Scenic Drive, winding along the hills above the strait. From Martinez I turned south on busier roads, then into the hills, also familiar, eventually rolling through to Lafayette – I knew my legs would not be in good enough shape to ride over the crest to Berkeley, and the four hours of riding I did were certainly enough. 

I am glad of having a fairly free week ahead – I postponed the roam scheduled for the 27th as rain would not budge from the forecast, and that will now be on the afternoon of the 1st if you want to get your year off on the right foot. My Dogen class starts in a couple of weeks, so I have a lot of reading and planning to do. And I was just asked if would offer the dharma talk on the 31st, so I shall start foraging for ideas… 

What I probably won’t manage to do is get my photos of 2023 all edited and organised (I still haven’t gone through most of the pictures from my trip to Europe). 

On another note, WordPress tells me this is the 3000th post on this site, which seems pretty mind-boggling. I know I have reflected at previous milestones, and I don’t know what to say except thank you, for making the effort to read what I share, however regularly you do it. My intention is mainly to offer some encouragement from the reams of zen writing, which usually serves to encourage me as well, and occasionally to share snippets of my life, which may or may not be interesting…

Thanks for reading, and a happy New Year, if it is New Year for you (I will write about that on Patreon too!).