A BUDDHA IN THE BUSH

A BUDDHA IN THE BUSH - and other news from PA...
As I have said before, this blog is a very personal thing. I don’t worry about how many comments I get, etc. Many folks read it who do not have blogger accounts or choose not to use them but let me know they are checking in anyway in my private email. In one sense, it is a personal record of where I’ve been or what is going on, what things look like. As I have also said, I try to keep religion and politics out of it, though sometimes some things just kind of sneak in. I am not on here to preach or push my religious views on anyone, but, if you have looked at my blog for a while, you will notice the occasional Buddha sitting here or there. I like having Buddha around… he is not there for me to worship, that is not what I do, he is there to remind me that, even though I am just human as he was, if I take the time to sit and think or sit and maybe NOT think, just be quiet, maybe I will be a better person, and maybe I will be of benefit to others in the process. So there you have my religious and political views. As the Dalai Lama says, "My religion is kindness." My daily prayer is to do no harm. That is my political view also.

At our house in PA, there have been 2 Buddha's sitting on the mountain side for many, many years. The one sitting closest to the house is in bad shape,

but, he still sits there over looking the house, there to remind one to be peaceful and loving, compassionate and caring. See him at the base of the tree? He was hidden in weeds last year. The other Buddha kind of disappeared some years ago. He was on a big rock behind the house my Uncle now owns next door, the house where I stayed this summer so I did not have to climb up and down those wicked stone steps to get in and out of the big house. But, one morning, as I was talking to a friend on the phone, I went up back a ways and sat on a rock just inside the edge of the woods. As I looked around, what did I see but a head sticking up above some weeds? I did a little weed removal, mostly goldenrod, and there he was. Apparently he had been keeping an eye on my bedroom window all along! It was like finding an old friend. I don’t know who moved him or why, but it doesn’t matter… there he is. Maybe next year I can repair the one by the steps to the Big house…

Last year I had a problem with our caretaker not being much of a caretaker and the back yard was over grown with poison sumac that was over 6 feet tall and wisteria that was growing out of a wall into the grassy area.

I bought a hedge trimmer, weed whacker and, I am sad to admit, a big container of Round-up. I guess it did the job as it was all cut over this year. This is an area big enough to park my big van in and still have space for loading and unloading. It eliminated one set of steps for me when I stayed at the Big house.

And, for the record, the front porch has been repaired, also. I guess they didn't like those ugly pieces of plywood I put over the hole last year. But, they tore the porch up when they dropped a stove they were moving out... so I guess they fixed it. I am too old to do those things anymore. Getting the plywood down there was a big enough chore - and, even tho it looked mighty bad, it beat a law suit by someone falling thru the hole!

Sometimes I wish I could live up there again. But I have gotten spoiled by the flat land down here in VA, minimum snow fall, temps that almost never go below zero - a temperature in the teens is news! But, it is nice having a house where one doesn't need an air conditioner. On a day like today, it is hard to imagine... but it is in the low 70s up there right now, mid 80s here - cooler than expected because of the heavy cloud cover (but no rain, sigh.) The humidity is 98%.

I will miss the old house if we sell it. But my brother has absolutely no interest in it. It has been in our family for 3 generations. And it is more than I can take care of, especially if I am living 6 hours away. And, as I have mentioned many times before, those steps just do me in!

One of my fondest memories is sitting on this porch, way at the other end in an old swing with my grandfather (he died in 1954) and listening to the thunder. He taught me to count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder and to figure just where the storm was. I measured miles by landmarks. "Oh, that lightning was over in Freeland," or Blakeslee, or up in Mountaintop, or at Shorty's garage.

I bet Grandpa would have taken better care of the Buddhas if he'd been here... Yep, I'll have to mix some cement and do some patching next year...