Christmas Shopping: Today we took the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping. I had several people to buy for and, of course, there were some I knew what I wanted to buy and some for whom I hadn't a clue. However, the gods were with us. The first shop we went into ticked two off my list within five minutes. Then I had to find out where to get a certain item (I can't say what because you never know who reads these social media things) and again we struck lucky finding it in a shop we had considered rather a long shot.
More Good Fortune: Feeling triumphant we went into town to what is becoming our favourite cafe for a tasty lunch, after which Elja wanted to visit the Piory Church. We were in favour gain as we walked in just as an orchestral group was starting a rehearsal of classical music. Beautiful to see people producing music live. After a while we wandered back to the temple. En route, we realised that we still needed wrapping paper for the presents and as we did so realised also that we were standing outside the stationery and arts supplies shop. So, altogether it was one of those charmed outings.
Birthday, Book Launch & Celebrations: We had also bought a present for our friend Adam Dunsby whose birthday it was today. So when we got back there were congratulations to give and chocolate birthday cake to eat. In the evening Satya and Kaspa gave Dharma talks as part of a launch event for their new book and afterwards we all ate mince pies and had a sociable evening. Finally we heard from the Amida sangha in the North East of England that they have just celebrated a wonderful Bodhi Day brief retreat which included the admission of Chris Earl-Storey into the Amida Order - more congratulations there too.
So, a rather wonderful day!
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