Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

I think it was during the room on Friday that I noticed the change in the weather. I had been feeling very cold all morning in the house, so I had left in the afternoon wearing a sweater to walk down to Washington Square. In fact the day was sunny and warm, and the sweater went straight into my bag and stayed there. If anything I got too much sun during the two hours of walking around Telegraph Hill and the Northeastern waterfront. I had fun showing people many old photos of the streets, and the light was soft and attractive for photos.

On Saturday we were over at Mount Sutro right at the edge of the fog zone and while we were out, the fog itself seem to recede away from us to back towards the ocean. It was windy in places, but also pleasant where it was sheltered, and I enjoyed the more expansive views from parts of the mountain now that a lot of eucalyptus have been removed.

I had scheduled that Roam before realising that England would be playing Norway in the World Cup that afternoon, and I was determined to be able to watch it afterwards without any spoilers. As we got back to Cole Valley at the end of the roam, I could tell from the buzz of people in a bar nearby that the action was still going on, which told me that the game had gone to extra time. After getting off the streetcar at Union Square I was riding back up through the Stockton tunnel and heard a couple of people singing ‘Hey Jude’ which suggested that England had probably prevailed in the match, which they did although I got to watch it with no real sense of how it had happened.

There were several days of amazing sunset, the first of which we missed on Sunday evening; having seen pictures of it online, I was determined that we should go out and watch it on Monday evening, which we did, getting Georgie up to the bench which we don’t do so much anymore. A number of people walked by and everyone was dazzled.

Tuesday was even warmer and completely clear – such a transformation from the dreariness of last week. My flagging energy had also been replenished by a mostly restful weekend – since the roams are not especially strenuous or depleting.

It is one of my weeks with less teaching, but I have been having practice discussions, one regular, one someone who reached out a year ago, and also responding to enquiries received through the blog – which I am always happy to do if you have a practice question.

I also managed to watch the Spain – France semi-final after work without spoilers, and had time to watch the England – Argentina match with a little delay in the middle. I think we should have won, but that’s the way it goes. After my recent talk at Zen Center (where I referenced the World Cup, but did not get much of a response – and which is now up on the Audio Page), a fellow Englishman came up and asked how I felt about sport given my practice. I replied that I do tend to get a little less caught up in the highs and lows – which made Wednesday better than it would have been otherwise.