Today is my Birthday
I’ve completed another journey around the sun. Where did those years go? I’m now closer to being eighty than seventy and those early years are long since gone from my memory.
What I Learned from the Monks
In September of 2008, a group of Tibetan monks arrived in Peterborough, NH to create a sand Mandala at the Mariposa Museum. It was exacting work to create an elaborate pattern from colored sand using brass funnels.
The work day would commence with some chanting, The monks would work silently with no sound except the scraping of the ridges on the funnels. I sat in for some time during the week to soak in the energy.
September 10, 2008
My birthday arrives and the Mandala is complete. However this is a lesson about the impermanence of all things. This object of great beauty will be destroyed. Swept into a pile of gray sand and released into the river. This event is accompanied by more chanting and a procession to the river.
We proceed to the sacred Contoocook River at Depot Park. The sand is release to the universe.
Thoughts
That was fourteen years ago. Today another birthday, another transient moment. Lunch with family today and a trip to see old machines tomorrow. Enjoy your life, it is fleeting.
