Wildlife & Tree Brackets
Technically I’m still on Winter Retreat forest practice, but it’s getting pretty hard to ignore the signs of spring. The squirrels outside my kuti have been engaging in quite loud and sometimes shocking territorial combat. After meditating in the long stillness of the snowed-in weeks, with only the distant sound of coy-wolves howling, for me this is pretty exciting. Yesterday there was some sort of rodent-brawl that involved several of them; banging the door, running up and down the porch screens and squeaking with insane intensity.
I was a little afraid to go outside. It is not often I get intimidated by squirrels, but Spring is madness for them.
Along with all that commotion, one of our younger monastics, Vipassi, told me about a plan to build a tree-platform (gasp!) for outdoor practice in a little grove on the new land, and he wanted my advice about constructing it. Well, my mind took that up like a retriever takes a tennis ball, and would NOT let it go. I’ve been designing ‘tree brackets’ in mental space now for 2 days. Maybe it will calm down soon and I’ll get a few more days of peace and quiet before the work year starts up.… Read the rest