And We're Back

Nearly a month to the day (and yet no time at all) and here we are back in Santa Fe, back at Mountain Cloud. What a whirlwind of activity it’s been over these past few weeks. I anticipated having too much time back in Detroit, such that we’d be packed up and ready to head west ahead of our planned departure date. But that was certainly not the case; it was constant motion up to departure (as always, the task fills the time allotted).

The highlights: we successfully shed about 95% of our ‘stuff’—furniture, clothes, keepsakes, knickknacks, and on. Most salable items were unloaded during a one-day ‘estate’ sale (estate absent); other items were donated; and others given away. Things that at one point felt important, like a midcentury sideboard, a record collection, or a handmade childhood sweater. Sounds ruthless, doesn’t it? It’s really quite amazing what little change in feeling there is in going from a large apartment full of stuff, down to what can be carried in a vehicle. If anything there’s additional spaciousness, physical and mental, and a sense of agility and simplicity. Such a clear indictment of our material culture. Sure, getting the stuff can be fun for a brief moment, when the desiring mind subsides, but another desire never fails to take its place, keeping us firmly on the acquisition treadmill. In getting rid of most of it, it becomes so clear how little we actually need—deeper contentment was never contingent upon those items (of course, there’s a lower-bound to this minimalism, below which life becomes more challenging).

Yesterday, after nearly a week on the road—a modern-day westward journey—I landed back at Mountain Cloud Zen Center. It felt like coming home. Even the transition into the desert landscape while traveling south out of Colorado had a wonderful familiarity and reassurance that I wasn’t anticipating. Before setting out from Detroit, I had updated my iPhone contact card to reflect the change of address, and so driving up to Mountain Cloud, the map showed “Home seven minutes away.” What an interesting transition—how quickly we can feel at home in a new place when we recognize that home is in fact the journey itself.

The first evening back in the zendo, gazing at the beautiful adobe wall speckled with straw, I felt right where I was supposed to be. What’s ‘certain’ right now is that I’ll be here at MC, living and helping to operate the Center in a more formal capacity, through September. At that time Kayla’s residency in Breckenridge will wrap up and she’ll join me in Santa Fe. And then … we’ll see what unfolds. How interesting! More soon.