Celebration!

Today we celebrated Jeanie Forsyth's 80th birthday in the garden at Texas French Bread, following Sunday morning zazen. Jeanie has been sitting with Ordinary Mind from its very first days out at Live Oak Unitarian Church. Many times the whole sangha sitting would be just Jeanie and I in those early days. When I am traveling, Jeanie is one of the people who is most faithful in keeping the sangha running smoothly for our Sunday morning program. Her contributions and devotion have held things together, even when I was away for as long as six months, first on leave to stay with Joko in 1998, and then most recently when I was at the monastery for training. I have deep gratitude for her dedication to this practice and her long-term work with Joko as her teacher. So it was a great pleasure to express some of our heartfelt appreciation in our little surprise garden party!