Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

All the cliches and jokes about San Francisco summer have come true in the past week. Blue skies have been a rare commodity, and it has been positively damp, to the point of actual rain on Tuesday morning (not enough to qualify on the weather apps, though).

Roaming picked up again last weekend after a few weeks off. There has been a lot of demand for places, even for a Friday roam around the Richmond district, which would be on nobody’s list of most striking places in the city, but which offers some lovely parks and gardens as well as the feel of a real neighbourhood. On Saturday I had twenty for the roam around Russian Hill, which certainly boasts some show-stopping views along with amazing parks and alleys. Usually I get anxious having to herd more than fifteen people around, but most of the attendees were experienced, and we managed okay. We had a rare window of blue sky for that one, though when we got to look west towards the Presidio, we could see the fog and cloud creeping in.

(I wrote all the above on Wednesday morning, and then Wednesday turned out to be a very pleasant day with sun, a few clouds and not much wind; perhaps Tuesday was the nadir).

I’m in pre-talk mode, ahead of offering the Saturday talk at Zen Center on August 9th; I have a basic premise, which may or may not remain intact, and am kneading various ideas around to see how they fit. With an offline weekend at Wilbur the weekend before, I am confident I will come up with something.