living dharma

I’ve met so many wonderful people the last few years. Mostly in the Plum Village universe. But not exclusively.

In the ten-day stretch just passed I’ve been blessed with a couple of great encounters. And, Canada being such a small place in terms of human community and who knows who and how we stumble across each other, both of the people I’m grateful to have spent time with hail not so distantly from pretty old chapters of my life.

My mum and I spent some time with a friend of hers in the Muskoka region of Ontario (classic Canadian cottage country….thousands of lakes, little towns, boats, fireflies, deerflies, deer, shooting stars, warm water). The friend had a friend with her. The friend of the friend (am I being clear here?) turned out to be the mother of an old much-loved friend of mine from high school (Auni). Which is now quite some time ago.

It was really great to be with Auni’s mum – sharing a house with her, cooking for her and others, talking a bit about where we are in our lives, where we’ve been and where we’re going. Given the cusp on which I am (off to the monastery to ordain) there’s a certain cocktail party tidbit exoticism to what I’m up to right now. So – we talked about my choice etc. This is a conversation that I’ve grown a little jumpy about over the last stretch – people tend to form opinions rather quickly and that can be unhelpful when one is trying to maintain one’s “up” energy for an unusual choice in life.

But it was all smooth sailing, with Charlene and with Earlene (no, I’m not kidding). They were interested in hearing about why and what and such. And I was interested to hear their why and what too.

Then there was Bill. Bill Shepherd. Bill, it turns out, is the father-in-law of the first woman I ever lived with, almost 30 years ago. Yes, small country. Anyway. Bill is retired (from what I don’t know – it didn’t come up) and spent a bunch of years building a simple lovely cottage on an island in one of the kabillion lakes. We spent a couple of afternoons together (he is a good friend of Earlene’s….flow chart to follow in another post). Bill is one of those great gifts. A gentle man with a good sense of humour. A good listener. A good story teller. A good boat driver. He and I just really clicked. Without knowing anything about Buddhism or monastic life, he seemed to “get it” viz my choice.

Acceptance. Understanding. Respect. Kindness. We use these words a lot. Or at least I do these days. But they are relatively rare in their pure, undiluted state.

So – here’s to Bill Shepherd and all the Bill Shepherds out there. May they flouirsh and multiply.

P.S. The picture is from the lovely cottage and lake belonging to my mum’s friends, Mel and Art….they generously loaned us their sweet spot for the last few days – about 1.5 hours west of Ottawa.