a letter from jaya newsletter october 2010
A recent cancellation leaves the sweet, rustic cottage available from October onwards.
Gemmaji and I are happy to welcome one or two people for winter retreat here. For the first time Gemmaji will be here the whole winter, and I will be here much of the time as well.
Please email us if you are interested.
At Dharmaloca every day I have the chance to experience: "everything is alive."
Yesterday, Gyan and I were harvesting dark pink-speckled green beans from a tangle on the garden fence. Suddenly, a leaf was not a leaf. Its triangular head swiveled to look at us.
Gyan and I keep coming upon long, leaf-colored praying mantises in the garden. Gyan and I gaze back at them, from a "safe" meter away.
When I was little, my parents bought papery brown mantis egg cases from the Hasting's Garden Center--these insects then grew up to be a natural protection for our plants.
I often kept a light on at night as a child, and once in that dusky light, I held the gaze of a huge mantis in an upper corner of the bedroom for long enough to forge a bond. Was it a dream? I remember the awe--awful, awesome--and what remains with me even today when I see a mantis is: protection, in spite of fears.