Love

Hi,

The weather in Chiang Rai started out drippy, but turned into a beautiful, cloudy day.  A perfect day for a gathering of friends.

The ‘Easy Monday’ song was “I Can See Clearly Now”, by Johnny Nash.  ‘Zany Day’ is up next.  What could it be?

“Someone told me it’s all happening __ __ __.  I do believe it, I do believe it’s true.  It’s a light and a tumble journey from the East side to the park.  Just a fine and fancy ramble __ __ __.  But you can take the cross-town bus, if it’s raining or it’s cold.  And the animals will love it if you do.”  Hint:  It’s by a duo from NYC about animals and stuff.

Today was the day we paid tribute to our friend Blue.  Everything worked out perfectly.  People and things arrived on schedule and you could feel the love in the room.  Five monks performed the ceremony.  I didn’t realize that, as the head of the house, I would be asked to participate in the service.  Most of what I had to do was explained in English, in advance.  The most awkward part of it was having to sit in the front row next to the lay person who started some of the prayers.  He was my only reference as to what to do.  It actually wasn’t much, just sit with my hands in a low wai position.  Some of the chants were rather interesting in terms of rhythm and variations in tone.  Blue’s son Ming got to watch some of the service from New York via Facetime on his phone.  That was cool.

There were 30+ guests in total and more food than we could eat.  Everyone there had some connection to Blue.  There were artists from Art Bridge who came because of their connection to us, and the fact that an artist had passed.  There were people there who hadn’t ever met Blue, but had heard his music and spoken to friends that had met him.  And then there were those who had frequent interaction with him over the two years he lived here with us.  I think he would have liked the mix, the diversity of friends, and the genuine nature of it all. 

Natcha, Gong, and various friends and relatives pitched in to make sure things ran smoothly.  Daku spent the morning upstairs, but had lots of visitors.   

This photo gives you a good idea of how our living room was transformed this morning.  I think Blue is happy.

It’s feeling like a Wacky Wednesday.

               Peace,

                         Danny

“In every religion there's love,

yet love has no religion.”

~Rumi