House-sitting finished
I've been house-sitting for two weeks, and it's been taking pretty much all my extra time. The resident cat and I took about a week to figure out each others' schedules, but then found our way to get along. All is well -- the people returned today, I picked them up at the airport (with their car, which I had the use of for the 2 weeks) and they dropped me off back home.
Along the way I gave two talks, one regular Sunday Student Talk, which went well, though it took a lot out of me, and then the Term Student presentation, which went okay, and felt pretty easy, though I was unprepared, and went overlong. So, I still have stuff to say for the next Term Student retreat -- just go on from where I stopped. Eventually, I can put the two together for another Sunday Student Talk.
Tomorrow, no Sunday, I will do a brief presentation as part of our biannual Sangha Forum. This one is put on by the Dharma Council, and we talk about our scheduling, getting input from the community on such things as our liturgical year, classes they'd like to see, etc. We've gotten good feedback and ideas in the past and have acted on them, and it's always fun to show that we've been working, what we've accomplished, and what directions people might like us to go.
Prison work continues to be rewarding. There are really nice groups in both of the women's prison facilities: Medium and Minimum. I enjoy working with them, because they are really up against their karma in an immediate way, and have few distractions from working directly on it. Those who choose to check out our group are generally motivated to change their lives, and transformation is, after all, what I'm most interested in as an educator. I feel as though my life has been transformed by Buddhist practice, and if I can pass along some of that to others, that's the most rewarding of all.
Along the way I gave two talks, one regular Sunday Student Talk, which went well, though it took a lot out of me, and then the Term Student presentation, which went okay, and felt pretty easy, though I was unprepared, and went overlong. So, I still have stuff to say for the next Term Student retreat -- just go on from where I stopped. Eventually, I can put the two together for another Sunday Student Talk.
Tomorrow, no Sunday, I will do a brief presentation as part of our biannual Sangha Forum. This one is put on by the Dharma Council, and we talk about our scheduling, getting input from the community on such things as our liturgical year, classes they'd like to see, etc. We've gotten good feedback and ideas in the past and have acted on them, and it's always fun to show that we've been working, what we've accomplished, and what directions people might like us to go.
Prison work continues to be rewarding. There are really nice groups in both of the women's prison facilities: Medium and Minimum. I enjoy working with them, because they are really up against their karma in an immediate way, and have few distractions from working directly on it. Those who choose to check out our group are generally motivated to change their lives, and transformation is, after all, what I'm most interested in as an educator. I feel as though my life has been transformed by Buddhist practice, and if I can pass along some of that to others, that's the most rewarding of all.
posted by Genko at 2:12 PM
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