Rain, Rain, Go Away

11 Jul 2012 1 Comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , , ,

Rain, Rain, Go Away - © Bridget Lemin 2012With the Meteorological Office reporting that June has been the wettest on record in the UK, I imagine that many of us are getting pretty cheesed off with the lack of a ‘proper’ summer.

Recently Wimbledon and now the London Olympics both rely quite heavily on reasonable conditions, so it will be interesting to see how the authorities cope with the unseasonal rain.

The economy could do with some fine weather too, the UK tourism industry needs a good summer to turn a profit, but the outlook looks rather bleak. Even our own holiday was not without a couple of days of rain, as you can see.

But we should all remember that life, in the form we know it, would not exist on Earth if it were not for water. Only weeks ago we were being told that there was a water shortage and that hosepipe bans would be with us all summer. For the poor weatherman, having to spread the news of doom and gloom each evening, it can’t be much fun either.

In the news today, the Environment Agency have issued a report, stating that the Government should plan for more ‘extreme weather’ brought on by man-made global warming. It cannot come as any surprise, we have been releasing increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere for decades, and we all know the connection between cause and effect.

But as with all things in life, this is all part of a longer cycle of events. Remembering back to my childhood, the sun shone every day during the school summer holidays, it was always roasting hot during exam times and the Wheel of Life will turn again.

So let’s look on the bright side. As someone once said, there is no such thing as bad weather, just a poor choice of clothing. Whilst I sympathise with the poor souls who are watching their homes get ruined by flood water, we actually need the water. So like the Boy Scouts, be prepared, carry an umbrella, and remember that every cloud has a silver lining.

You Have My Support

10 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

Apple TreeAt the back of our office, there is a small grass area surrounded by a wilderness of brambles and wild flowers. Last year, someone planted a very small apple tree which has a short piece of aluminium tubing next to it as a support.

Over the winter, and indeed into much of the spring, the tree was doing a very good impression of a dead twig. No leaves, no signs of life at all. But with the slowly rising temperatures, and all the rain, it has sprouted and is growing nicely.

The aluminium stake is only there to help the tree survive the worst of the weather, the wind and storms. It does not help the tree to grow, it is so loosely tied to the developing sapling that it does not influence it in any way, it just stands there and offers support when the tree needs it.

That is how we should be when we offer support to someone. We are not there to influence them or to change the way they are growing, just to provide additional strength when times get tough. We must show compassion when they go through growing pains, have wisdom to help them overcome their issues and use our courage when they lean on us.

Being their support brings it’s own challenges. We have to accept the path the the person we are supporting decides to take, whether it would be our choice or not. We must listen to what the person is saying, but not try to influence them or provide conflicting view points. We also have to have the strength to resist the forces that would otherwise cause us both to falter.

That is the role of a support. It’s not an easy role, but it does bring it’s own rewards. In time, like the tree, the person may in fact become stronger than us and no longer want or need our support. But the joy in seeing them grow and become strong is reward enough for the task undertaken.

When Reality Bites

09 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

When Reality BitesAfter a wonderfully restful, not to say enjoyable week away, it was time to return to the coal face and get back to reality. But with fully recharged batteries, the usual Monday morning drive wasn’t so bad after all. The weather was kind, the traffic was light and the chanting along the way, more than effective.

Getting back behind my PC was not the trial it might have been, the team had done a good job of minding the shop, and the usual pile of emails was not as high as it might have been. I was straight out of holiday mood and had my business head on.

Routine, at work, in life in general and as my practice gives me a solid structure with which to take on the challenges that life presents. Whether that is something as trivial as getting over the first day back at work after a holiday, or some of the more important problems, my practice helps turn the poison into medicine.

Slightly Sad Sunday

08 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

Narrowboat Bumble - A Goal For The FutureSo that’s that, the holiday has been and gone. After all the planning, all the talking, packing, organising and travelling. After a really wonderful week afloat, during which we all got on like a house on fire, as expected. After all those fun times, going through locks, under lifting bridges, dodging all the other narrowboats and picking beautiful places for the evening mooring up. Even after all the sunshine and rain, it’s over.

I’ve always been of the opinion that it should be obligatory to have a week off after each holiday, just to give you time to get back into the swing of things. Sadly I doubt that any political party will ever table such a motion, even though it would be a great vote winner.

For me, the day started very slowly. Bumble managed to sneak out of bed without waking me, which is quite a feat as I am rather a light sleeper. By the time I got downstairs, she had already had her breakfast, started the washing and was cleaning and tidying, I felt rather ashamed that she was doing it all on her own.

I was keen to help, and did so by cracking on with the gardening jobs. The wet weather had done a great job of watering the runner beans and Steve and Andrew, the next door neighbours, had done the same with the tomatoes in the greenhouse.

Sadly, as I’m sure a few of you have also found, all these wet conditions have been perfect for our little slug and snail friends and they had munched a number of plants. The peas in the trough next to the front door hadn’t escaped attention, so I replaced the victims with the spares still growing in the greenhouse.

I also retrieved the hanging baskets from next door. They had been moved so that the boys could water them more easily, but with the weather being the way it has been, they admitted that the baskets hadn’t need watering at all.

Bumble’s bike needs some TLC after her son Sam had borrowed it recently. The crank bearings need replacing, but despite administering some gentle violence in trying to remove the pedals, I was unable to get to the guilty parts, so it will need a visit to the bike doctor to get repaired.

B had also been running out of steam early in the evenings last week, and we had discussed the possibility that she has an iron deficiency. So with time running out, we set off to the farm shop, to buy some liver, and see if that might help. En route we stopped off to buy some brioche which we had eaten toasted with paté at the Dusty Miller.

In all the rush, Bumble forgot to buy the liver, but we did have a lovely meal of toasted brioche and paté, with the obligatory salad, for dinner. After clearing up and taking a quick look through the photos on the PC, we decided that we were both pretty pooped so opted for an early night, after all, Monday mornings start pretty early when I have to drive back to Ringwood.

So a slightly sad Sunday, with both of us suffering a little from land-sickness after being on a moving boat for a week, and missing the tranquillity of canal life. But it’s nice to be home again, and as we all know, nothing lasts forever, does it?

I do have it in mind to buy our own narrowboat at some point and sail off into the sunset. So some sweet dreams to end the holiday, and a nice target to aim for in the future, now all we need to do is make the causes for the effects we want to see.

A Delightful Detour

07 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , ,

Mom and BumbleSo the holiday is nearly over, the boat was returned to the marina first thing this morning, everything transferred to the cars and the account settled. It’s always rather sad when you have to say goodbye to those you have shared time with, but we had planned to take a detour to my Mom’s on the way home, so still plenty to look forward to.

The satnav decided to take us on the scenic route to Sutton Coldfield, rather than opting for the motorway, but even driving on the A roads felt like we were flying, compared to the sedate 4mph of the last week.

The weather was kind, the day had started bright and sunny, and the rain managed to hold off until after we were on the road. There were a few heavy spits and spots as we made our way around Wolverhampton, through Cannock and then on via Shenstone to the town of of my birth, Sutton Coldfield.

Bumble had been to Sutton before. On Mother’s day we brought her Mum Jill to meet my Mom Margaret, but this time we approached the town from a different direction, so there were other landmarks to show her.

Surprisingly, considering it is over five decades ago, the maternity home, Oakhurst, where I took my first breath, is still standing. Nowadays it is a rather swanky set of luxury apartments, but the exterior hasn’t changed from that I’ve seen in the photos all my life.

Amazingly, today, Bumble and I have been going out for six months. In some ways it seems as though we have known each other for longer, in others the time has just flown by. But we are, naturally, still learning about each other, so showing her a little more of my history and background was a lot of fun.

Naturally, my Mom made us feel very welcome when we arrived. She had cooked a nice lunch, and even though I’ve eaten at some top restaurants over the years, Mom’s cooking always tastes the best. I’m sure you know what I mean.

After lunch we went out into the garden, where Mom showed us apples on her new tree and some beautiful flowers growing in pots and in the garden itself. Being in her eighties, Mom can’t do some things around the place, so Bumble and I moved some bags of compost and the bench up to the top of the garden.

The sun shone beautifully and Mom and B sat on the newly positioned bench to chat, while I took photos to remind us of the day. It is always great to visit Mom, but living so far apart means that it doesn’t happen as often as I would like.

With the journey back to Bristol still ahead of us, and with Bumble keen to check that the house and the new lodger were safe and sound, we set off just after 5:00. Again the weather was kind until we got near to home, then the heavens opened.

Suffice to say, we made it home in one piece and everything was indeed ship shape and Bristol fashion when we arrived. With things back to normal, the holiday really is over, but with a combined total of over a thousand photos, we will remember it for a very long time.

The Race Is On

06 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

St. Alkmund's Church - WhitchurchBy close of play tonight, we had to back within minutes of the marina, ready to hand our trusty craft back first thing in the morning. As though to amplify the sadness that we all felt as the week afloat came to an end, the heavens had opened and it remained that way pretty much all day.

Donning our wet weather gear, we made our soggy way back towards Ellesmere, leaving time to stop off for a walk into Whitchurch. Strangely, though we were getting soaked through, it really didn’t matter. So by the time we moored just outside the town, we were all, apart maybe from Steve, keen to make our way along the route of the closed Whitchurch spur.

It really was very wet. I was wearing my ever present shorts and a cagoule, but by the time we had walked down the high street and found a quaint little cafe, I even had puddles in my pockets and my wallet was soaked. An alternative meaning to money laundering.

The cafe, Percy’s Coffee and Curious, was a fantastic little place. The hot coffee and toasted teacakes went a long way to warming and reviving us, and the collection of interesting antique items soon made us forget the rain. We stayed long enough to dry out a fair bit, but Steve had had enough of traipsing around the town, so set off back to the boat.

After a focussed expedition to find sausages made from ‘happy’ pigs, and the procurement of some properly muddy organic potatoes, we stopped off at St. Alkmund’s Church. It is a truly magnificent building, both inside and out. The stained glass windows are stunning, and although I have no particular feelings for the religion it houses, it is hard to not be impressed with the architecture.

Bumble was absolutely in her element. Her love of architecture means that she spends more time looking up at buildings and not enough time looking where she is going, hence the extensive history of sprained ankles. But we were all happy to share her enthusiasm in such an atmospheric place. Even the cleaning lady’s vacuum cleaner couldn’t dampen our admiration.

The walk back proved a little too eventful for comfort too. Apart from the fact that we were, yet again, soaked through, down to our unmentionables, Sue failed to negotiate a rather rough section of the path. She tumbled, rather gracefully I thought, into the biggest, muddiest puddle you have ever seen, and had to be hosed down when we finally made in back on board.

Steve, all snug and dry in the cabin, made a fine job of turning our purchases into a magnificent meal of bangers and mash, more than welcome after the moistest of mornings. Then, after getting things all ship shape again, it was time to brave the elements again and get ourselves back to Ellesmere.

The day had been strangely pleasant, despite the rain. We were back close to the marina, so all set for handover in the morning. Once you are soaked through, you can’t get any wetter. If you can come to terms with the slight discomfort, it really isn’t bad at all. We had seen a beautiful church, explored a delightful market town, and because of the weather, we had the place almost to ourselves. A truly fitting last full day afloat.

On Reflection

05 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

Hurleston LocksI could actually feel the holiday slipping to a close today. Navigating back towards the marina, even though we still had another full day left, was a rather sad journey. Of course it did give us the chance to see all the sights of the outward leg anew, and from a different viewpoint.

The combination of the weather and the economy has made the canals rather quiet. And going back up through Hurleston locks was rather quicker than it had been yesterday, coming down. In fact we saw very few other people, other than the lock keeper.

In life, we rarely, if ever, get the chance to retrace our steps. Seldom do we get the chance to look at people and events from a different viewpoint. Circumstances change, people change and the effect of these changes distort the perception of past events.

But we can all relive our successes, and our failures, by playing them back in our mind. As I have changed over the last few years, I can now see the joys and sorrows in a new light. At times it is almost as though those things happened to another person, in another lifetime, and, given the chance, I might have done things differently.

But I remind myself, that every thought, word and deed I have had, said or done, have brought me to this point. Spending these last few days, in such close proximity to such lovely people, in such idyllic surroundings convinces me that my path is moving in the right direction.

Given the chance, I would not change a single thing, if the outcome would alter the situation in which I now find myself. Sometimes it is more important to concentrate on the present and the future, than to allow oneself to dwell on the past. The past is gone, we cannot rewrite our history, but we can, and we should, make causes to create positive effects on our present and particularly our future.

Little Chef

04 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , ,

Little ChefAsk anyone who knows me, I’m not the greatest cook on Earth, and openly admit it. But I’m always up for a challenge. So when I was told, before the holiday, that everyone was expected to cook an evening meal for the crew, my heart sank a little.

Bumble is a very kind lady, and she was as determined as I was, to turn me into a little chef, if only for one day. So before we set off to Shropshire, we put our heads together to come up with a meal that could be prepared in limited circumstances and with even more limited experience.

You might have thought, that having lived alone for a couple of years, I would have honed my culinary skills to perfection. Sadly that is not the case. I am fine at the simplest meals, beans on toast, the odd pasta dish, but nothing more taxing. That just wouldn’t cut it with the SAS, Steve is a rather fussy eater, as he’d openly admit, so we had to be a little creative.

B helped me make the choice. I had chicken breasts, soft cheese, a choice of herbs and spices and some rindless bacon. So I decided to make something tasty, a dish that would tickle the taste buds, and a sweet and spicy mix that would be easy, if not quick to prepare.

My chicken breasts, filled with soft cheese and diced chilli, glazed with mango chutney and wrapped in the bacon rashers turned out perfectly. Bumble was fair but firm with me, making sure that the timings were spot on, so the meat and the roast vegetables came together perfectly. The choice was decided and I was feeling much more confident, it tasted fantastic and B was very complimentary.

So tonight I had my chance to shine, but equipment failure looked set to scupper my efforts. The propane gas oven just wasn’t up to the challenge and stubbornly refused to get up to temperature. So with a lot of help from all concerned, the chicken was cooked using the tiny microwave and then finished off in a vaguely warm oven.

But though I say so myself, the dish turned out perfectly. The chicken, that could easily have come out as dry as a bone, was simply delicious. The parma  ham, that had been substituted for the bacon, held the parcels together as intended and the mango chutney worked wonderfully as a sweet glaze, contrasting and complimenting the spicy filling.

The whole experience was a bit of a trial, the equipment failures had put a lot of stress on the process. But with a great deal of help from Bumble, as well as very welcome support from Sue and Steve, it turned out well in the end.

So having met the challenge head on, having kept my cool, at least for some of the time, I’m rather proud of the outcome. We all experience challenges in life. Many, if not most of them, far more important than cooking a meal. But the lesson learned today was one of perseverance, determination, team work and self improvement, and it will serve me well, way into the future.

All Shapes And Sizes

03 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

Challenges Come In All Shapes And Sizes - Wrenbury lifting bridgeChallenges come in all shapes and sizes as we all know. However, few can come much bigger, physically, than the Wrenbury lifting bridge. A lifting bridge is, as you might imagine, a bridge that can be raised to allow the narrowboat to pass underneath. Unlike any other lifting bridge we encountered, this one had a fairly main road crossing it, and had to be controlled by hydraulics, rather than by winding.

As the newbie to cruising canals amongst our group, it was just another piece of canal hardware that needed to be learned, but no one else had seen this type of machinery either. So when I was despatched to open the bridge as we came into Wrenbury, I took a windlass and set off to crank away as usual.

However, there was a shock in store. No winding gear, no instructions at all, apparently, just a motley collection of battleship grey boxes next to the bridge. Finally I found the control panel. The instructions might as well have been in Egyptian hieroglyphics and the buttons to operate the hydraulics were hidden under a Perspex cover that had been lovingly polished with wire wool, making it almost opaque.

Then I realised that I needed the British Waterways key to activate the panel, and that was on the boat key ring, in the ignition, back on the boat, a hundred yards back up the canal. It also transpired that the barrier that blocked the open side of the canal, while the bridge was up, needed to be closed manually before anything else would function. A proper contender for a test on the Krypton Factor if ever there was one.

Fortunately, Steve, who had been in the shower when I left the boat, had now joined me on the towpath, so while he man-handled the barrier, I ran back to the boat to get the key. Together we got things sorted, the bridge opened, the ignition key was returned to the boat, and the challenge was met.

At the time, I was a little flustered by the whole episode. Not only did I feel that I had let my shipmates down a little by my incompetence, but I had also held up the traffic longer than was comfortable. But on reflection, and having talked through the debacle with the gang, I felt better about the situation.

When we meet new situations, we need to use a combination of wisdom, courage and compassion, in varying degrees. I would like to think, and the guys seemed to agree, that given the circumstances, I did ok. At least when we need to raise the bridge again on our way back, we will be better equipped to make a better job of it.

So another challenge met, another lesson learned, more poison turned into medicine and another step taken on the path to enlightenment.

Chanting In The Dark

02 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

Chanting In The DarkI don’t know what it was that woke me early today, maybe it was the rocking of the boat, or maybe the sun shining in through the cabin window. Whatever it was, I dressed quietly and left the others sleeping soundly.

The stillness of the morning air was quite magic. I walked down the towpath, away from the boat and towards the Whitehouse tunnel a few hundred yards away. There were birds singing in the trees and an earthy smell from the wet soil, it was all very calm.

As I entered the tunnel I started chanting, quietly at first, then louder and louder. The tunnel is about 200 yards long and I could see the sunlight shining in at the far end. But as I got deeper and deeper inside, I could not see the towpath, my feet, even my hand in front of my face, other than by silhouetting it against the half circle of light ahead.

The resonance of my chanting got louder and louder and it got darker and darker. I could not see where I was walking, so I trusted in my senses and in the engineering expertise of the people who built the tunnel all those many years ago.

It struck me that walking through that dark tunnel was a little like my faith in my practice and in Nichiren Daishonin who had laid the path before me. Like the light at the far end of the tunnel, we walk forward, trusting our steps will rest on solid ground, towards the enlightenment we seek. We are never disappointed, the way is solid and supports us in our quest.

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