Got back from sesshin yesterday.

My knees are sore, my back is sore, my butt is sore, and the spirit is loosely goosey.

The sesshin was held out at Silver Wattle, a Quaker retreat centre located on the banks of lake George. The owners provide a beautiful & peaceful sanctuary for all contemplative traditions.

I won’t disclose too much about events of the retreat. Although two random bullet point glimpses might include:

• the retreat was marked for me by taking the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts, a ceremony known as Jukai.
• One of the other attendees would gather fresh flowers from the garden each day and arrange them in little bespoke vases. He would then leave them placed with care, here and there. A small thing, amongst vast small things, that reminded me of my recent post on flower power.

And now? It always takes me a little time to readjust to the sensory density of our ‘normal’ world when emerging from a week of Great Silence.

So. There is no hurry. Stirred not shaken. It’s a cool summer evening and I’m reacquainting myself with Kelly, Juno, Charlie Parker, and Nespresso.