donations ... blush

In hopes of getting the zendo roof reshingled, I jumped through the appropriate hoops today and hooked up with a new site to accept donations.

I dislike asking for donations almost as much as I dislike remembering that there was a time when I might have done the work myself. But that time is passed and, although I now live on a fixed income, I still feel a familial imperative to look after this old friend, a smallish out-building I once constructed and is now, like me, getting old.

Through the years since 1998 when I finished building "Black Moon Zendo," people have come in fits and starts to practice zazen or seated meditation. Zen practice is tough, so I never expected a lot of people ... it's too simple and always has been. But the building itself kind of grew around me like a pair of shoes that gets broken in over time.

Some of those who visited were surprisingly serious. Some were curious. Some were awe-struck. Some had term papers to write. Some hated my guts. My old friend watched them come and watched them go.

It was nice to have company, meet teachers and the like, but as Dylan Thomas once wrote, "Time passes. Listen! Time passes." I see little chance that the building will remain a zendo after I am gone, but I still feel some imperative to give it a dignified and well-roofed passing.

Here is a blog post with pix of the building period.