Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

We are still going through some turbulent weather – March has come in like a lion, and the wind is blowing through the budding trees as I write this on Friday afternoon. I had to cancel both of this weekend’s roams. I thought, as I was writing, that we might have got away with not being soaked on Friday, as the rain showers had been sporadic, but around 4:00pm we had some torrential downpours and even some rare thunder rolling through. Hopefully we will have a clear weekend next weekend, when I now have roams on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

It turned into a good day for cleaning though – I had neglected my place for a couple of weeks, and apart from a midday meditation, I had a day without obligations, and it felt good to get sheets and rugs washed, windows, surfaces and floors cleaned. I remembered the New Year’s Eve clean I did at the end of 2022; I was not so thorough this time, but I did more than I usually do these days, which is just to tackle the things that most need doing in a spare hour. I also have an eye on the fact that I will probably be moving over the summer, and so getting some of the deeper cleaning done now will help then.

With my class and talk behind me, and other projects out of the way for the moment, I have a lot of space. I will start putting ideas together for the talks I will give in England, and try to find some more topics for my next Core meditations. I should also get to my taxes, which always loom over me at this time of year, especially after last year’s unpleasant surprise.

We did have a sunny weekend last weekend to roam; Saturday felt especially warm, and Sunday was still pleasant. With the clear interludes between rains, flowers all over the city have been coming out to remind us that spring is here, with an end to the rainy season hopefully not long behind.