Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

Last weekend was one of the rare ones I try to build into my schedule where there were no roams. In fact I initially didn’t have anything on my calendar for three days, but I did end up having a Zoom meeting on Friday and then heading over to Mukunda on Saturday to offer a ceremony as part of the official opening day.

In the course of the days, we managed to get a lot done: I cleaned all the windows of our apartment, which has been long overdue, but which I only seem to get to once a year, and also cleaned my bikes, trimming the gears and brakes as the cables had stretched a little on my rebuilt bike (happily it was running very well afterwards). Ruth managed to finish off a big wardrobe prune, which she hadn’t wanted to do, but then got stuck into. 

Each morning I managed to get some riding in – ninety minutes of so on Friday, forty-five with some hills on Saturday, and to the summit of San Bruno Mountain on Sunday. Interestingly, I was more tired on Saturday, which was from heading out on my bike again a few hours afterwards rather than getting to rest completely. 

There was also the culmination of the World Cup: after the meek surrender to Argentina at the end of the semi-final, having been in a strong position that we should have benefitted from, it was fun to watch England and France with the shackles off in the third place play-off match. 

The final was more of an endurance test. It put me in mind of 2010, which I watched with some folks at Zen Center, or even 1990, which I remember listening to on the radio at a friend’s house, initially regretful that he didn’t have a TV, but when the match turned out to be  very dull, glad that we had not given ourselves over to it as completely. 

We also booked our flights to London in November; I picked up my new prescription glasses after a recent eye test, and had my annual medical check-up, where I was gently encouraged to lose the ten pounds I had put on in the sixteen months since the last one. I might have to recalibrate my life-long love of carbs.