Thoughts

Between the Community Dharma Leadership Program (CDL) at Spirit Rock and Teacher Development Group (TDG) at InsightLA, I am mentored by my dear teacher and friend, Diana Gould. For the CDL homework, we’re supposed to prepare talks. And for TDG mentoring program, my mentor is supposed to observe me teach. I have given talks before to cover Diana when she goes on her long retreats and enjoy doing it for the “Young Adult Practice Group” on Sundays every once in a while whenever their regular teachers are not available.

This coming weekend, we have the Oscars.  It’s early this year.  The week after Super Bowl?  Still, it’s that time of the year to reminds me of Riley, my kitty.  It was 3 years ago that we lost Riley completely out of the blue.  We went to an Oscar party at a friend’s, and when we got home he was dead on our bed.  I don’t have to talk about how devastating that was as I did plenty of that back then.  Other than that we knew he had a respiratory issue, we, including the vet, thought he was pretty healthy, but apparently, he had some undetected condition that took his life away.

It is Wednesday, which is the day I usually do my little writing to send out.  As I sit in front of my computer and ponder what I’m going to say today, I can’t help but think about the loss of Kobe Bryant, his daughter and the other families on board of that helicopter.  I don’t want to write about it because everybody else is, but it feels like that’s what’s on my mind and many others today – 3 days after the tragedy. 

I get to live in Santa Monica although strictly speaking my home address is in Los Angeles. The other side of my street is city of Santa Monica, and I did live in Santa Monica more than 10 years before my husband and I moved to where we are now. When I was a teenager, there was a Japanese pop singer who had a hit song called, “Come, Come to Santa Monica.” I didn’t know anything about the city, but I knew it was somewhere in America. I don’t know if I knew it was in California.

I finally got a chance to get a clipping of a persimmon tree from my friend, Donald’s backyard. I hadn’t been there for almost a month when it was just done bearing fruits. Now the tree was completely bare. Surprisingly, the branches were so high that I could barely reach one to clip. Donald moved out a few weeks ago, and there was no objects I can stand on. I figured I’d just take one to see if I can get it propagated, which I’m not so confident about as I don’t consider myself to have a green thumb.

So I had a fairly relaxing time in the mountains through the holidays and now back in the big city. I came back to LA to work on January 2 even though I’m “supposed to be” on New Year’s celebration until the 3rd with my Japanese tradition. I came back willingly on the 2nd because I was being of service to my fellow Dharma teacher who is buying a property. And the temptation is to get busy right away. It is that familiar grasping mind that wants more of whatever my mind thinks I need.

As the year draws closer to the end, it is time to pause and reflect, right?  It’s been so hectic – well, it seems that’s a given and increasingly so at any time of the year.  But I do feel like the last month or so was just so busy and stressful.  I really had to make myself stop from running around by Christmas so I can finally pause and reflect.

Here’s another story about a tree. Recently someone I know in the neighborhood, Donald, sold the house that he grew up in. This was a house in the family for almost 5 decades. The first time I met him while I was taking a walk, he took me to his back yard. When I saw the persimmon tree with so many fruits hanging from its branches, I exclaimed, “Wow, the persimmons” as it reminded me of the one I had in my childhood home. He texted me last week and told me to come by because he saved some persimmons for me from the tree in his backyard.

To be more accurate, it was taken down by the forest service because it was dying for some time. This is the Ponderosa Pine that some of us friends in the mountains estimate to be somewhere between 200 to 300 years old. It was probably 40~50 feet tall. More than 6-foot in diameter at the bottom. I’ve been visiting this tree as long as we’ve had our mountain house for the last 14 years. I’d often talk to it and ask for help. It was just comforting to look up at this tree and know it’s been standing there way, way, way before this area was developed into a little mountain community for us humans. It’s awe-inspiring to know it must have seen all the changes in climate, vegetations around as well.

We’ve had quite a weather for the last week or so. While I’m grateful for the rain and snow that provides the much needed water for our thirsty earth, I’m also aware of the perils that this weather, not just around us, but all over the country and the world, brings.