January 12, 2007
I've modified the email below, taking out some of the personal bits of the recipients, and while i'm at it, so it's a bit more readable...
From: John Wolford
Date: Jan 12, 2007 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: Just checkin' in with two dhamma bros and...
Hi guys :-)
It's great to hear from both of you, and to read both your newsletters!
I don't have a newsletter, i'll just "whip it up" right here. One draft. No proof-reading. Type-as-you-think and hope for the best! Here it is:
Timing is everything, isn't it? Dhalie & i have spent the last 3 months in India & Burma, and we came home just now, just in time for this email! We had the most amazing trip, which was 2 months in India visiting her family, doing the Buddhist ciricuit (we didn't have time for Lumbini, sadly), going to the inauguration of the Global Pagoda, the TSC, where Dhalie sat and i served - it's my first course serving Dhalie, and my first course serving Goenkaji, and i got to do them both at once, wow. Then off to Burma, where i got another opportunity to serve Dhalie at a 20-day - and believe you me, sitting/serving in Burma is like nothing else, that is such a charged country, wow. Then we served 2 childrens' courses - it's not like here with approx 10 children per course; it was 100+ kids and they were serious students, it was quite something to see. Gorgeous people there too, and we made really good connections with fellow servers. Add to that the Shwedagon pagoda; one of Webu Sayadaw's three monestaries, the one in kyaukse, that had his cave to sit in; a serious sanga dana at a serious monestary with ~120 bhikkhus, where there were monks who sat/sit under Goenkaji and where they've done children's courses before; escorted by our Dhamma brothers/sisters/servers into the Sagaing hills to another potential childrens course site and other pilgrimage places. Add to that sharing it with each other (Dhalie & i) and having this amazing land and time to use as a new & safe context to learn and grow for ourselves and for each other - and wow, you have an amazing trip!
We were waiting to hook up with a few more westerners, including my mother and her partner, both sitters, to spend another month there, and then i would go sit the 45 at Dhamma Giri; but just before Mom arrived we had to cut the trip short and come home to address new issues with this brain tumour of mine. We used Bangkok to investigate and determine that, and there were angels (devas) on high who helped us determine in very short order that i needed to get home right away. In very short order i was on the operating table, for the 2nd time, and now we are at home resting, relaxing, recovering, and enjoying. One step at a time, and the info to help with the next steps are the biopsy/pathology to tell us if the tumour has gone aggressive yet, and our meetings with our chemotherapist & radiation encologist. That should be sorted out by next week, or the week after, and in the meantime i will recover for about a month before going ahead with whatever is decided.
Being home is great, and it's interesting to compare surgery #2 with surgery #1. I'm recovering way faster this time around. My mother has turned from never having sat before into a serious, solid student, which is of huge help to her, and to us, in what could be challenging times like these. We are in different places ourselves, and i'm so grateful that i have Dhalie by my side and that she is as solid as she is. We stand right next to each other, so to speak, we are on the same page, and we both see the bright path of Dhamma going straight ahead, no matter what the thorns that may come up. It would seem that every thorn can be a blessing, if it is used as a tool - and the more critical the situation maybe, the more motivated we are to do the best we can with it, and the bigger a blessing it can potentially be.
So that's the scoop from this side of the continent! Again, good timing and great to hear from both of you!
metta metta,
jw
