Just catching up on the emails from the last five days. Fumiko
and I completed the Mt. Shasta retreat, and it was a great
success. The funny thing is that we ran into 3 people who were
visiting Stonebrook Inn who had been in our Mt. Mitake retreat in
Japan in May. Synchronicity hits again.
I interviewed Hiromi Suzuki, the owner of Stoney Brook Inn. We
were sitting outside behind the Inn, as she was overseeing the sweat
lodge that was being conducted for our participants. It was late
afternoon, warm, crisp, the smell of wood smoke in the air and the
sound of tribal drumming. People would emerge from the sweat
lodge, to breathe fresh air, and drink water. Then they went back
in for more ceremony.
I commented on the beauty of the setting, including a meditating figure
of Buddha under a redwood tree. I told her I had been looking for a
Buddha as the centerpiece for my back yard. Hiromi said,
"Oh, you won't believe it but I got the Buddha in Redding at Target."
I loved the idea of getting a Buddha from Redding--from the Target
store. I love Target. I go there just about every week here
in El Cerrito. I grew up in Redding--which is just about as far
from the idea of Asia and Buddhism as a town can be.
When Robert and I drove home yesterday, we took our time driving.
I took him to Shasta Dam . We saw a very old film about the
building of the dam. All these years of living in Redding, and I
never knew that the engineers built a 10 mile long conveyor belt to
haul quarry rock to the dam site. It was quite impressive.
Shasta Dam is a key structure to the health and bounty of the Central
Valley of California.
We drove through Redding and I bought my own Buddha at
Target!!! We also drove past my old Enterprise High School,
and I even found the street and last house that my mother and father
lived in in Redding. Ironically, my father was a contractor and
built many homes in Redding. At the end of their lives, he and my
mom retired to a mobile home in Redding. I know they wanted a
"low-maintenance" lifestyle, so they gave up living in the homes they
had built and chose a (non) mobile home.
It was a good trip all around. My buddha is very happy now under
the tree in my back yard. The house is all re-painted now after
the insulating project.
Now I have to get ready for the trip to Japan.
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