Ruth: When I’m not working online in my office at home, I’m joining the new Covid craze for self-sufficiency. Once enough toilet paper and food stocks have been secured, I turn my attention to gardening, making masks, knitting and baking. Other than the making of masks, these are not new hobbies for me, but the daily routine of working to produce what our house needs ...
Our Garden Our beautiful cat Russell Street I have been working from home since Spring Break ended, and face to face classes were shut down for all, but the children of essential workers. I’ve been tuning in to listen to our Chief Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry for her daily updates. I am now hyper vigilante about following social distancing and hand washing rules. Non-essential ...
This morning we are packing up to leave paradise and return to a changed city. Living in the moment has always been easier on Valdes and yet even here I have been navigating intense emotions. I received an email from our friend Paolo in Northern Italy to let me know that he is safe. His only advice, echoed voices broadcasting from all over Italy: “follow the ...
March 17, 2020 The last rays of sun are illuminating the Straight of Georgia between Vancouver and Valdes Island. From my chair in our cabin, I watch a ferry gliding along in the pink light that bathes the coastal range. Mount Baker looks simultaneously solid and ethereal. We we’re supposed to be on route to Moncton to visit Gordon’s aunt and uncle who are 96 ...
Ruth: Until today we had one incomplete page in our henro stamp book, the one reserved for Koyasan. This morning we took two trains, a cable car and a bus and arrived at the final resting place of Kobo Daishi: Koyasan. I say resting place, because to his followers he is not dead but has been in a state of deep meditation since the 9th ...
Ruth: Thank goodness for these henro huts that are sprinkled along the route. As I write this I am sitting in one watching the first of the colossal monsoon rains sweep through. The news this morning said that Shikoku would receive up to 200 mm of rain today and I am beginning to believe it. When I spotted this lovely shelter I was filled with ...
Ruth: I would like to think that the reason I feel calmer and more serene is that my efforts on this pilgrimage are having an effect, that the hours of slowly pedalling around this beautiful island have helped me to stay present in the moment and let other concerns wash away. This is definitely part of the answer, but I have another theory as well. ...
Gordon: Temple 12 was unfinished business for Ruth. It is the first significant challenge on the Shikoku pilgrimage, and Ruth had been obsessively strategizing about it for weeks before we arrived in Japan. In the end, she and Geraldine took a taxi to it on our first encounter. Seven weeks of cycling later, Ruth is feeling much stronger and she wanted to cycle up. ...
Description Ryōzenji , temple number one on the Shikoku pilgrimage, is the beginning, end, and now the beginning for us. Unlike all the other pilgrimages I have done, Shikoku is a circle and people can start and finish anywhere, with the goal simply to visit all of the temples. After reciting the Heart Sutra at 88 temples before returning to Ryōzenji, I have been ...
The view from the ridge Gord climbed Ruth: Yesterday Gord and I climbed from the seashore to the Temple 88 on the Shikoku pilgrimage. I cycled on the road while Gord took a trail that climbed much higher. Before the big climb we met at the Henro Museum where we were each given a henro ambassador certificate (the equivalent of a Compostela on the Camino) ...