Waiting for Spring

I have been waiting for inspiration to arise so I could write about it. For the last month I have been sitting with a kind of dryness. Not anything terrible- just an ordinary silent dryness. One needs something liquid within for words and the spirit to flow. It feels as if this may have finally arisen.
My books came by way of my sangha friends in Vancouver who very kindly transported them to me on Saturday.
I have stacked them into a corner of the hermitage and picked out some of my favourites to look through- mostly poetry. It feels as if I have some friends sitting on the little wood bench waiting to speak with me when I come home.
This Saturday was a "day of mindfulness". Thich Nhat Hanh says the first days of mindfulness were started in the '60's for the youth social service society in Vietnam who needed a day of rest and meditation between working to help people during the war. We practice days of mindfulness in the midst of ordinary lives here- but I think no less important.
Every first Saturday of the month Mountain Lamp invites friends to visit us for a day retreat. We practice sitting meditation, chanting, formal lunch in the meditation hall, walking outdoors, total relaxation (a guided lying down meditation- also known as napping) and sometimes dharma discussion.
This Saturday it rained- as usual. Walking from the kitchen to the meditation hall with my lunch of carrot soup I watched the drops of water splash into the puddle. The ripples circling out in stillness- each drop particular and unmoving- just this drop and this one. I delight in these moments of perfection, of clarity.
I have also been practicing walking like a mountain- which has been a part of our practice period. I'm still not sure what it means to walk like a mountain but I have been enjoying the feeling. As I step I can see the vast rock, tree and snow of the mountain. It feels large and encompassing- as if I might harbour forests and giant rocks.
I enjoy our days of mindfulness because of the community of friends that show up just to practice their clarity. There is something truly precious about this. Meditation is better, the mind clearer and the heart more open. I think we are meant to practice together. Whatever is meant by individual wisdom, it seems to me to be nothing by comparison to even a handful of friends sitting together inviting the spirit of understanding.
Perhaps I am only clarified by others. I arise with others. And so it is with birds, bushes, trees and ferns. And so it is with the sky and dirt, chickens and horses. And so it is with daffodils and purple crocuses.
I'll post a picture of our spring flowers shortly.

Dear Friends may spring arise in your heart also.