random journal entry, August 10, 2007

A rainy Friday. My last full day here. Woke early, around 6:30 am. Walked into town to Bread Alone for bagel and coffee. Spent about two hours eating and reading Glass Bead Game. Walked back to the Inn and took a drive up to Phoenicia, past Mount Tremper and the Zen Mountain Monastery. Came back to town and walked around. Stopped into Dharmaware to buy a small bodhisattva statue for Mom and Dad. Ate lunch at pizzeria (again!) Then walked back to the Inn for coffee and journal writing. Hoping the rain will clear so I might be able to go for a swim later, or at least tomorrow a.m. A lonely day, so far. Just got some good advice about swimming holes: Seven Waterfalls. And I learned that apparently bears are pretty much harmless. Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow. Did more walking in the afternoon. Bought a bottle of wine and got take-out from Joshua’s: a Middle-Eastern sampler. Watching sports on TV in the p.m. Hoping for sun.

back from the woods

Sorry to go all all Tanzan on you like that, but sometimes a guy just needs to get away. Where did I go, you may ask? The easy, but untruthful answer would be to say something like “I was swimming in Walden Pond,” or “I was busy becoming a Buddhist, Rastafarian, Gospel-of-Thomas Christian.” (This might actually be true, since that’s about what I am) But the real answer is that for the longest time I just didn’t have anything to say. Frankly, I don’t know how these professional bloggers do it. Something new every day? My mind doesn’t work that way, I guess. But for the longest time, there was something missing in my life, and I realized it was creative expression. So I’m going to try a new tact, and perhaps be a little more experimental with this blog. Maybe I’ll throw in some poetry or a few more photographs. We shall see. I’m working on a few things right now that I’ll hopefully be able to share with you shortly. As I look out my window right now, I see snowflakes swirling down from the sky. It’s mid-March, and somehow these snowflakes seem unfair. This has been a cruel winter. I can’t afford to heat my tiny house, the front end of my ancient Accord is making scary noises, and my feet are always cold no matter how many pairs of Smartwools I put on. But I have my health, my family, my Buddha nature, and now, once again, I have my blog. Henry’s back from the woods.