The Butterfly Blessing

The day is complete. Everything is done for the evening. I am content.
I haven't worked out. But Im still working on the logistics of that.
today's peak flow is 350

Lunch was coleslaw (I like Churches coleslaw as it doesn't have much dressing on it and what there is of it I can wash off in a strainer)
5 huge strawberries and two small strips of bacon. (It made JW happy. I have come to realize I like the smell better than the taste)

I stayed out of the eggs and biscuits. The bread, like the meat always smells better than it tastes anyway.

Dinner, JW took good care of me. While he made himself and the guys neo food, he cooked me pork chops and steamed veggies. Broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. I couldnt' eat it all. It was delicious tho and exactly what I was wanting.

I had a remarkable thing happen this evening while doing my walking practice. It's probably nothing important in the grand scheme of things, but since I do have a vague concept of interconnectedness I found it interesting if not somewhat profound.

In fact, it was two things, and not one.

Who knows? It might have actually been a blessing.

The rabbit was watching me again today, hiding underneath the neighbor's propane tank and regarding me with huge brown eyes. But that wasn't the surprising thing. That comes next. I begin my walking practice, first by doing prostrations indoors and then taking my practice text out with me and my mala as well, I stepped outside with these things and began walking alongside the house, then out to the backyard, into the lot nextdoor and then back to the front. I was working with the Concise Buddha's Three Cauldron's practice. It was warm but not uncomfortable. I focused on my breath, on the steady rhythm of my gait, looking down my nose and to the ground just a few feet ahead of me. The sky was a milky blue, the breeze, from the north, cool and promised rain. I counted my mala, the rosewood beads sliding easily between my fingers as I found myself drifting deeper into a meditative state.

After I completed the Chest cauldron exercise, I raised the practice text so I could turn the page and begin working on the Head Cauldron Practice, when a butterfly, resembling the one in the above picture, landed on the text. It sat there, its wings folded as if in prayer, riding along with the text as I continued to walk. I was surprised but made no effort to remove the creature from the text. Instead I continued to walk, and meditate, amazed that such a lovely creature could land on my Dharma like that, with it's long brown and golden wings folded in prayer, as if it had chosen to drop from the sky and meditate along with me. We walked together for three, maybe four rounds, and just as I was wondering how I was going to turn the page without upsetting the creature, it chose that moment to take flight. It soared high into the sky and disappeared into a hedge intangled with the remains of late summer honeysuckle and wild jasmine.

What a surprising thing to have happened! I had gotten used to the hare that watched me every afternoon, but a butterfly? How extraordinary! Could it have been a monk or a nun in a former life, having had a brief flash of memory after watching me meditate come down from the sky and join me? Was it a blessing from Nature herself, or was it mere coincidence?

I don't know and have no desire to over analyze it. To me, it was a blessing. And when I asked Chenrezig, he too agree that's just what it was.

Perhaps the seeds of my practice had implanted upon the little being, and perhaps in its next life it will be endowed with a precious human life.

I hope so.

Now the second thing that happened was also somewhat startling, but could simply be a coincidence. After meditating, I went to my patio table and sat, resting. I placed my mala on the table and noticed that the fingers that I used to count my mala had stained reddish brown. Could it be from the mala itself? I rubbed them, and the stains did not come off. There was no bruising, there was no pain. And in a few minutes time, the stains vanished.

Odd. It had never happened before.

Later that afternoon I took a nap and had strange very vivid dreams. I don't think I'll share those. At least not now. It was, after all, just a fleeting dream.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this little thing before I go off an write for the evening.
Ya'll have a good 'un.
Hugs