birds everywhere

One of the surprises falling out of my over-from-Idaho, long-gone storage boxes was the book “Instructions to the Cook” by Bernard Tetsugen Glassman. Monday afternoon I came upon these sentences in the Prologue – “The Zen cook used what he had rather than complaining or making excuses about what he didn’t have.” And, “So the first principle of the Zen cook is that we already have everything we need.”

It’s good for me to read things like that, even when they’re not earth-shattering. Reminders. And those particular sentences are so relevant in my life today. The details of explanation are boring. There’s so much I don’t have. There’s so much I do.

There’s a story where The Buddha is out walking with a bunch of folks and stops, points to the ground, and says, “This would be a good place for a temple.” The God Indra, one of those walkers, takes one blade of grass and plants it in the ground and says, “The temple is erected.”

What’s not sacred? What’s not enough? How could there ever be too much gratitude?

Good questions, kid.