Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

Miraculously, I managed to stay awake until midnight on New Year’s Eve – for the first time since my Zen Center days, I imagine. It helped that we had spent some of the evening planning an itinerary for April in Europe (I have also been wanting to fly east to see the eclipse on April 8th as the start of the trip, which is definitely adding cost and complication to the whole thing). In any case, there were enough local fireworks that even if I had drifted off, I would have been woken up again.

I also managed to wake up early enough the next morning to ride over to the Embarcadero and catch the first sunrise of the year again, enjoying a different variety of empty streets on the way back, including Columbus Avenue and Van Ness. In the afternoon, we had a nice crowd for a gentle and chatty roam along the water at Crissy Field, which was full of folks enjoying the sunny and warm weather.

Having rested a fair amount over the festive period, I realised I had to put my skates on to get all the reading done that I intended to do for my class, as well as putting a few hours into editing photos – I have worked through Europe, Tassajara and Wilbur, which mostly just leaves Las Vegas and New Mexico. It’s nice to remember the amazing adventures I had last year, even as those for this year take shape, and, at a couple of months’ remove, I can be a little more ruthless with my editing.