Easter

Well, it was Easter Day yesterday, and I missed my entry in The Buddha Diaires. Also missed sangha--Ellie and I did our sit out on the back patio of our little cottage, surrounded by the sounds of the birds and our Buddha fountain. And missed, to my regret, Than Geoff's monthly visit to our sitting group: we joined our friends for a family Easter lunch and it lasted until, well, seven in the evening... I had planned to take a quotation from the Ariyapariyesana Sutta (pronounce that one!) to ask about, but that will have to wait for the next opportunity.

We did, though, place Easter calls to my two sons--one in Iowa City, the other in the South of France, visiting in-laws with his family. We spoke to our three grandchildren. It's a pleasure that they're all old enough now--our granddaughter, Alice, eight, and the twins, Georgia and Joseph, five--to actually have a bit of a conversation. It's hard to maintain some sense of family connection when they're growing up so far away, in England. Having treased ourselves with the idea for months now, we're planning--at both ends--to explore the possibilities of video communication. We're so often told "it's easy." It's for such reasons that I wish I were more comfortable with the technological aids available these days. For the moment, we're having enough trouble learning how to get the I-Pod working properly for Ellie.

The headline in this morning's Los Angeles Times? Ten more American soldiers killed in Iraq. And anti-American demonstrations promised for today, the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. It's maddening, to see power still held in the hands of that tiny group of men who persist in believing that this misbegotten war is anything other than a national and international disaster...