Vipassana Retreat: Day 3

Sitting, walking, more lovely rain. Our instruction for Saturday was to contemplate our own beautiful qualities. Difficult for those of us raised in the Calvinist tradition. We were to imagine what others might say of us at a memorial service. I sat with a big blank for a long time. Then I took a walk in the rain, again with the camera tucked up against my chest under the rain jacket. Everywhere I looked was something to love. Maybe I can claim passionate attention as a beautiful quality, even if it seems to me that it's nothing to do with me, but is in what I see.

I did here what I almost never do: shot the picture on manual focus with a high aperture. I almost never choose manual focus because I can't see well enough to do a better job than the camera, usually. But the camera only wanted to focus on the rusty rooftop or the distant hills. I wanted to focus on the splendor in the grass. I took quite a few pictures Saturday and added them to the set for Great Vow Monastery that I started last November, on my first visit there.

P.S. One of those shots is especially for Giacomo and Earthdreamer, who both are sometimes frustrated by the number of hours they have to spend at the office (and who may never see this dedication because they don't have time to catch up on Blip, either). One of the memorials in the garden is to The Office: which is also impermanent. In fact the style of machines has already become obsolete. A wonderful reminder.