Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

Days around the solstice are quite simple here. When I get up it is starting to get light – or is already light if I sleep past six, which I have done a couple of times in the last week or so. Georgie gets her first outing while I check to see how grey or foggy it looks out (quite a lot at the moment). It’s getting dark when we take her for her last pee. Since she is walking less these days, we don’t take her up to the bench at the top of the hill in the evening any more, and with the wind and fog, we don’t have much desire to sit up there ourselves. Though I do miss encountering our neighbours as much as we used to.

I haven’t felt as strongly connected to the solstice as I often so, since the sun has been in short supply this past week. We did well on Friday afternoon with the roam, as it was quite lovely in the Presidio, especially in the sheltered community garden, where I was surprised to see a bumper crop of dahlias already, a full month before I have my roam to the collection in Golden Gate Park scheduled.

It was also fine for the weekend afternoons. After so many extra things since I got back, I was very glad to have two days free of commitments. Of course I went to the Ferry Building for the farmers’ market; the main blueberry stall only has one more week to go, so I bought extra to put in the freezer, as blueberries are the kind of thing I love to be eating at home. We also took ourselves out to sit in the TransAmerica Pyramid park, which is a relaxing spot to hang out it, before visiting the North Beach Festival. 

As last year (but not two years ago), it was nice just to wander around, grab some food, check out the stalls, and let Georgie have as much attention as she could want. We stopped by both afternoons. On Saturday I felt pretty sleepy afterwards, and ended up taking a short nap, which is pretty rare for me.

Somewhere in there I had an anxiety dream about my talk next week, which is also a rarity. In the dream, I had the notes I had been taking on my phone (as I do) but hadn’t tidied them up. Plus there were the usual issues of needing to find a place to change into my robes, trying to find a bathroom, and so on. 

In reality, I think the talk will be fine. I was re-reading the transcript of my talk at Tassajara a couple of summers ago, which is probably one of the best I have given, and that gave me plenty of confidence that I can find the right words (I will share that on Patreon this weekend).

I have been sewing away, getting another stage completed so I could hand it back for the next part to be prepared. I have been teaching in all the usual places, and enjoying the work.