Connections

It feels like the end of the week and I'm in serious need of some warm sunshine to inspire and energise me.

A few days ago, I was really pleased to see that Woodpeckers' sister, TMLHereAndThere, had just posted an image of a Buddha's calm face. I immediately felt drawn to it and memories were evoked in me of being in buddhist cultures, when I spent nearly a year travelling in south-east asia in 1982. I felt grateful for being reminded of the inner life, which I've rather neglected in recent times.

Then she posted another picture of the whole statue, which is now in their relatively new garden in New Zealand. In the meantime, I'd gathered several of my small buddha statues bringing them down stairs and closer to my consciousness.
I am not a buddhist, but I think that like many religions, they can suggest essential tenets that can be helpful guides to being as alive as possible, to be living in the present. I have not always found that easy.

So in resonance with T. in Nelson, I am posting a small crudely hand carved buddha sitting in a separate circular wooden container, which I placed on the first available space I could find, where there was at least some light shining in. I took this photo earlier this afternoon and whilst I was transferring the files to my computer, I picked up an old jiffy bag off a shelf to check its contents, as I am about to have a major sort out of my working space.

Inside were five containers of transparencies, which I stopped using in the mid 80s. I found some pictures from my winter visit to Mexico in 1973, as well as some taken at Lake Toba, in Sumatra in 1982, including a valued picture I thought I'd lost. One of the last slides I looked at turned out to be from inside the fantastic precincts of the Schwedagon, the most revered buddhist temple in Rangoon, as the capital of Burma (now Myanmar) was then called. So some synchronistic connections seem to have appeared again, which I always take notice of.

I rather like the pure form of these cut glass stoppers for my old whisky and brandy decanters, against the rounded curves of the buddha. You also get some reflected inner light even if you can't manage to meditate.