I got back to La Ville au Roi last night. It is cooler than when I left ten days ago. Autumn has arrived.I shall have an easy day today after travelling. Unpack the car - I have brought various things back - a chair, a bed, some plates, other small items - do a load of washing (the aftermath of travel), and settle back into the silence of the French countryside.
Three rose bushes are still blooming. There are a lot of tomatoes to pick. I shall probably have a pumpkin for my dinner tonight.
I had a wonderful interlude in the low countries, attending the ITZI Conference which turned out so well, making new friends and seeing old ones, and then visiting other friends in the area and collecting Tara from Amersfoort where she has been since the end of July. She is very pleased to be back and is busy exploring all the places she knows here.
Replies
Yes, great memories. Not absolutely sure where I'll be when you are in France next year but I'm sure we shall manage to cross paths somewhere on the planet before too long. Certainly hope so. Thanks for all the stuff you have just put onto the site.
Spending some interlude time myself catching up on things that have gone on around me on the internet. I tend to be very myopic when it comes to being digitally connected. If I'm working a particular something that involves digital connectivity then that's all I do. So here it is now the season of 'tween. 'Tween Thanksgiving (US) and New Year's (both calendar and Lunar). In the days before ITZI I was trying to get two books published, one in French as well as recent medical diagnosis and sort out ITZI travel after returning from Japan. That's way too much travel. The rubber band that is my spirit was being stretch thinly in so many directions was fearful it might snap. The Belgium and Paris trip was tiring but oh so fruitful on many levels.
David after we departed Belgium as you may recall we headed to Paris. Besides meeting with French practitioners and some from Czech Republic I was able to have four interesting meetings around chaplain work or spiritual care in institutions. Two were focused on hospitals and two focused on prisons. I must say the final meeting was one of the best meeting with the IBF Head of Buddhist Prison Chaplains.
I digress. I do enjoy reading the brief summaries of Eleusis web goings on. I don't contribute as much as perhaps I should, and yet at times it is all I can. I'm sure you understand that quandary well. So, here it is and a third book is published only days ago and I'm nearing the completion of the writing of the fourth book for the year. Once my words are down my good editorial couple will make it better and in the end it will be a fine book because of the magic they work on my assemblage of verbiage ( I think I like the French word better isn't verbage a word? should be sounds nice.)
As I read this post of yours from back in September I image the conference just ending. I don't think as long as I am in full possession of my thinking cap I shall ever forget the kind connecting final moments of the conference. What you did was so perfect, so so perfect and I feel fortunate to have been the recipient of your embrace.
I don't know if it is logistically possible, yet I will be coming to Paris around mid March to mid April and depending upon the challenges of getting where you are I'd love to stop by and say hello, perhaps if you allowed we could even share a bowl of porridge, I"ll bring my own diet cola, lol.
Then I can tell you all about getting locked out of the Abbey on Sunday evening and climbing over the gate to get back in because no one would answer the intercom and I didn't know they locked up at 5PM on Sunday. It was nice to feel young and foolish for a brief moment.
Ok, this has rambled on far too long. David I wish you a most meaningful Bodhi Day retreat and a joyful Christmas and a fortune filled New Year.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
Namu Amida Bu
With Gassho,
ryusho
I am very glad to hear that...Family at home again!! I wish you enjoy peacefully the rest of the wonderful routine at Eleusis.