Got up early to go to the Zen Center with Steve. The zendo was cold and smelled like incense and the room was lit softly by sunlight from the windows and a candle on an alter opposite the doors. We were among the few not wearing their traditional brown robes. I haven’t sat for a meditation in forever, but kneeling with support from the zafu and zabuton wasn’t too uncomfortable. My legs only fell asleep twice.

Halfway through the 50 minute session there was the sound of a bell, a moment to move around and strech. Twice in fifty minutes there was a monitor walking around with a kyosaku, striking people twice on each shoulder upon request. It helps.

I discovered afterwards from Steve that I was doing something much closer to a metta meditation than the recommended practice – where you keep bringing your mind back to your breath and count to ten over and over again to stay mindful and stay in the present.

At the end of the 50 minutes there was kinhin, a few minutes of walking around the zendo and then out into the kitchen and back again. Then there was chanting and a teisho from the sensei, which was as strict and stern as it was was funny and insightful. I remember themes about fear and the way we are distracted by technology and very distinctly the statement, here paraphrased – “What are you going to put your trust in? Your thoughts and feelings? How’s that working for you? This practice is the only thing that helps.”

M____ says the people here are good and the community is lovely but also nobody goes to the hospital because they’re healthy.

And then there was breakfast. Bagels and vegan butter and jam and tea and coffee taken from a busy, crowded kitchen into a well lit room with a window overlooking a garden. We sat on the floor or on zafus around a table that was close to the floor.

I told Ducky about this later and he started making fun of us, joking around, chanting “ommmmm bagel bagel bagel…”

After bagels, we went to a local tea shop with a friend. M_____ poured oolong tea over a tiny tea pet shaped like a water buffalo. I tried a matcha. Steve tried a masala chai and enjoyed it very much.