A very happy birthday to V! We’re celebrating by going to see Death Cab for Cutie this evening.

The clarity of sesshin has worn off, and I’m left to do deal with some of the things that were dredged up. One of the monks said that “the good karma is that we get to really look at the bad karma.” He’s right, but it’s not always the easiest stuff to face. In any case, I don’t think that I can live anymore with taking all the stuff that’s difficult or unpleasant and just stuffing it into the basement and hoping it never sees the light of day again.

Maybe it’s not always fun, but the process is rewarding and even joyful in its own way, and there is something exhilarating about having done it. It’s like having a sparkling clean kitchen after a day of hard work scrubbing and washing and mopping, the kitchen is clean, to be sure, but more importantly is that you feel better for having done the work.