The refrigerator purrs
and in the valley
a leaf blower announces
someone’s worry about their lawn

A backyard breeze
improvises a melody
with the chimes
hanging from the eaves

Winged seeds
spin from their anchors
in the presiding trees,
a first and final flight
that strands them
on the driveway

Late summer harbinger
of what comes next,
the newly unfurled
plumes of pampas grass
bend silver in the sun
still warm

Sad anthems close the day
with melodramatic
clouds, and twilight
hushes what we thought
important

The voice beneath the silence
isn’t yours or mine:
it speaks without syllables
or pictures in the mind.

Leroy Perkins

Note: from Leroy, ‘I wrote this with the intention to use as lyrics for a yet to be composed choral work.’

Tonight reading through old posts, glad/proud they reach back one whole fat decade, nearly two. Who was she who wrote and twiddled words and thoughts and photographs? Some of that was POETRY, of a kind. Where has she gone, where has she been and what has she been doing? Reading now, glimmers of memory emerge, Mugo then seemed to know, lots. And AI had not been born so content was all ‘Tofu and potatoes’ not click-click clever stuff.

The other day she ‘witnessed’ a skit performed before a small audience. An old woman escapes from a care home, through the open back door. ‘And the same to you with knobs on’ she bellows over her shoulder. Now, bent over, C shaped, she ever-so-slowly pushes her walking frame (a chair) noisily across a tiled floor all the time muttering. Encouraged to speak up, she does. She shouts, IF THERE IS ONE THING I CANT STAND is AGEISM!! Continuing, taking advantage of the opportunity to be finally heard, and SEXISM and TREE HUGGERS and HAEMOPHILIACS!! A pause: HOMOPHOBICS and GSBP’s. Clearly now confused.

Coming to her senses she slowly straightens to full height. Throwing off the sagging coat and multiple scarves, speaking up with passion. ‘You see, we (old people) are not what we appear to be’. Loudly now, ‘AND WHATS MORE I CANT STAND IT WHEN PEOPLE MAKE JOKES AT OTHER PEOPLES EXPENSE! And STEREOTYPING’. Then to the audience, ‘What can’t YOU stand? OLD PEOPLE! came the response from the gloom. Laughter.

And the take home from this madness?
Retaining a sense of humour is the saving grace of the religious life. Teaching comes in many forms and frequently doesn’t appear to be teaching!

Fooled by appearances? Please not.

We had a retreat a week or so ago when we celebrated Wesak, the Buddhist celebration of the birth, death and enlightenment of the Buddha, all rolled into one event. I will post some photographs soon, however these Haiku take precedence. Penned by Fred who came to the retreat.

It’s a red letter day, Rev. Master Saido’s personal business has been completed. I was happy and glad to act as his Executor, now happy and glad his instructions are completed. What better day to share these Haiku.

Early this morning, I was in the kitchen here at Telford Priory, and saw a couple of counters were awash with water! Briskly I mopped up, checked the cupboards below and mopped them up too. While down low, I removed the pots and pans in the cupboard and gave the shelves a thorough clean. With a bowl of hot water and still on the floor, the cupboard doors got a clean, and the floor and….well, I could have gone on forever. Cleaning, like just about everything else, can become obsessive.  After all, there is always something somewhere that needs cleaning! However, the priory cleaning has to be low on the to-do list.  Until the need is obvious, pressing and can’t be eclipsed by, for example, screen work.

This morning a woman wrote a comment having just discovered the Jade Mountains website. She landed on a post about cleaning and ‘accumulation’ and wrote a comment. Thank you and here it is.

I finally found your site, and almost immediately stumble on this! Cleaning is like my anti-forté, a nemesis of sorts. My fridge is constantly filled. I set my intention to eat up what is there, clean out what has passed beyond healthy consumption, ready for a deep clean. But every time I open the door to look again it seems more full than ever. And the more I consume, the more accumulates (both in the fridge and round my waist). And the smell grows. A self-fulfilling cycle. Until finally, the fridge shelf collapsed under the weight, forcing a wholescale clean out and reevaluation.
For now, the fridge smells fresh again, and is working so much better. Now the real work is to make regular checks, to leave space for the fridge to breathe, and only adding to the shopping trolley what is truly needed and not just desired.

I think there can be an accumulation of just about anything, internally within one’s mind and body and externally – you name it. Sitting in meditation regularly with the unspoken intention to ‘let go’ of that which has accumulated has a consequence, far-reaching.

Yes, far-reaching, and extending well past what we like to regard as ‘me’ and ‘my life’, extending to all beings. This is the Bodhisattva Path, as understood in Mahayana Buddhism. To live an altruistic life. There is much to say on this subject…for another day.

See this post ‘Accumulation and Cleaning’. Clearly, I’ve thought about this subject before!