Being in the NY/NJ area during this staff break at the Zen Center was a good idea for many reasons: it's easy to travel ROC->NYP by train, I'm seeing many dear friends, and it was unexpectedly good timing for my family. But in retrospect, as so often, I also doubt the wisdom of my decision! I've gone from structured days in a small city away from ( Read more... )

It's now been 10 days I've been living at the Rochester Zen Center, so it occurred to me that it'd be a good time to look around, gather my thoughts and feelings, then write about my experience of the first week ( Read more... )

Last Friday I had a clearness committee, borrowing from the practice of Friends/Quakers. In the community of my closest friends here in Philadelphia (plus A), I came to internally-official decisions that I had already felt drawn towards... I will leave my job (not take a leave of absence), and I will pursue plans to spend time at the Rochester Zen ( Read more... )

( Reflections on my parents' moderation of a fundamentalist church's impact, yet the possibility they strengthened its influence. )

I slept all morning. I concocted a plan for using all the vegetables that I found myself bringing home from the market yesterday. I made a cumin-spiced onion & chard omelette. I did some laundry. I unpacked my books! I suppose I'm in the mood to square away bits of my life today, although I'm still not convinced I have the energy for reading ( Read more... )

I worked all day at the Farmstand, dealing with boxes and boxes of spinach and yoghurt and glass milk bottles -- re-stocking, re-arranging the walk-in, cleaning up after all the deliveries. But as I was leaving, I just realized that I would actually have time and inclination that evening to cook some of the gorgeous food I'd been around, so I took ( Read more... )

Hang onto your hats, folks. The plan for this update is to be cursory but extensive ( Read more... )

Somehow, surprisingly, I received three seder invitations for this week! None of them are on the actual first or second night of Passover, two of them are in Germantown/Mt. Airy, and I am excited and honored to be invited to all of them. :)

At the one last night, as befits the youngest person present, I succeeded in finding the afikomen before ( Read more... )

This post is tagged 'religion', but my main point is not to discuss an element of Christianity or any other specific religion. Please keep reading if you're interested in friendship, insecurity, self-confidence, or any similar attitudes; I would like to hear others' thoughts or advice.

( Other thoughts I've recently had during religious services )

So. My summer plans. They are completely unclear.

For a few months, I'd been planning to do the Santiago pilgrimage with myalexandria. As of new year's, that's been off. I would have really loved to have that experience, but whatever. It's not like there's a lack of other ways to spend my summer ( Read more... )