A part of the violin is named after this
We could throw in a few exotic festivals to liven things up
One of my favorite lines I cut out of my novel What’s Left, was this quip:
I want some backbone in my religion. You can’t sit without it.
But as I looked at the flow of the story, I just couldn’t find a good place to develop some pushback from Cassia in her teens, where it would have been most appropriate.
Still, if you know anything about the practice of meditation itself — often called sitting — you just might enjoy the double-meaning.
Another way I thought of raising more color regarding their Buddhist identity was through rounds of Tibetan holidays. The names and special touches alone can be charming: New Year’s archery; incense to drive away evil ghosts; Sho Dun “yogurt festival”; the Meeting of the Eight Guardians (stay inside to avoid evil outdoors); Golden Star to wash away greed, passion, jealousy and to abandon ego; the washing festival. Think of the picnics and ritual bathing.
I might have also built something on the Eight Auspicious Symbols, including conch shell, parasol (crown), victory banner, golden fish, or treasure vase. The Endless Knot is the name of a chapter, though.
Beyond that, I kept looking for synonyms for Buddha or Buddhism. One of my favorites, which I didn’t use, is the hanging cliff-side wonders. Some of those monasteries are no place for anyone with a fear of heights!
~*~
Many traditions have special dishes for specific holidays — secular or religious. Sometimes it’s even a family thing, rather than something everyone does.
What’s your favorite “holiday food”?
~*~
A bird’s-eye view from the front
In sharp contrast
I recall two poet-friends:
One a public high school teacher, quite prolific as both excellent poet and gallery-exhibited photographer, did most of his work during the busy school year rather than the summer; he could never quite figure out why the pattern was exactly opposite of what people would expect.
The other, having all the time in the world to write, could produce only disconnected flashes – nothing sustained or full but wild all the same.
They were buddies.
Qualities I most like in a woman
In no particular order:
- Sensuality.
- Unconventional beauty. Think of waking up and opening your eyes in the morning and this is the first thing you see.
- Grace.
- Playfulness. Which I also sense as a dimension of creativity, which enlivens me.
- Scent.
- Intelligence. Extending to curiosity and an artistic awareness, in my mind.
- Understanding.
- Cleanliness.
- Self-control.
- Peacefulness.
~*~
Well, that’s what’s first coming to mind …
As for you?
Tight rendering, 1964
Some house maintenance that remains to be done
Good luck to the new owners. They’ll have their plate full. As I’ve said, we bought the place as a fixer-upper, and two decades later, after a lot of big work, it’s still a fixer-upper.
- The roof, again. If they’re really ambitious, they’ll go for standing seam rather than asphalt shingles.
- Replace the upstairs windows. Winter gets cold.
- Paint the exterior. We had a tradesman lined up, but he backed out after his wife died.
- Scrape and paint the hallway. Caulk the floor, too.
- Repaint the floors. The interior rooms could also use refreshing.
- Retackle the mother-in-law apartment. When we added it when we first moved in, it was the nicest room we had. But a two-pack-a-day habit took a toll.
- Downstairs toilet. Minor, but annoying.
- Regrade and repave the driveway.
- Minor landscaping issues, but they add up. I’d start by felling the trees next to the house.
- Improve the insulation. Seriously.
According to some owners, a boat is a hole in the water where you pour endless amounts of money.
In the same vein, an old house is a hole in the ground where you pour endless amounts of money.
Kinisi 52
Cause and Defect
Still possible, spring snow
Truly subversive
After his conversion in prison, Charles Colson held aloft Francis of Assisi and the early Quaker George Fox as his two examples of what happens when a person devotes his whole life to Christ.
Earlier, when Colson was in the White House, he oversaw the FBI creating subversives’ files for Fox and fellow Quaker William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, and anybody else whose name they found on public Quaker Meeting newsletters.
Yes, beware of true religion.
