THE BLUES: AND A SMALL STONE

There is always a feeling of slight dread as the moment approaches for our return from our wonderful, quiet retreat in Laguna Beach to the perpetual noise of Los Angeles. And I mean noise not only in the literal sense. It's busy-ness, mind noise. I've noticed that feeling coming on in the past couple of days, and particularly this morning, on waking--and remembering that today is the day. After a two-week stay, a good part of the morning will be spent with the organizing and the packing, and then loading the car. With luck, we'll be on the freeway by eleven.

It's an exciting moment to be headed back to the office, though. I heard yesterday from Paul Gerhards at Parami Press to say that the first copies of "Mind Work" will be arriving in a week or ten days, and that he already has them on pre-order at his site. My work, in the next few weeks, is to get word out as far and wide as possible, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to ask readers of The Buddha Diaries to help me. I'll write more about that, and about the book itself, when the time comes. I know that I'm walking a fine line between legitimate information-sharing and making a nuisance of myself, so I hope you'll feel free to let me know if and when I cross that line!

Meanwhile, yesterday's small stone:

Late sunlight

slants low-angled

through the windows,

gilding the white marble

of the kitchen countertop.

On the I-Pod, Leonard Cohen

intones his melancholy

"Tower of Song." In

the teapot, Yorkshire Gold.

Oh, and as a special bonus, here's a link to a lovely story, sent to me yesterday by a friend. It's Judeo-Christian in origin and spirit, but I think it speaks as powerfully to those of us of a Buddhist persuasion! What do you think?