Election Day

Is coming up.  I always treat it like my own little holiday:  I get dressed to the nines, go to the polls with my researched crib sheet, turn in my ballot, put my little red sticker on, and go out on the town for drinks and dinner afterwards.

I wish everybody took their obligations to their country as "seriously."

Samadhi

It is Spring.  A monk stares at an apple tree for hours.  He stares until he has become a blossom, and the myriad blossoms on the tree have become the faces of a myriad Buddhas, each smiling silently as pink-white petals fall from their mouths.

Mother's Day

Let me tell you how wonderful my mother is.  Back when I was about four or five years old, I contracted the mumps.  What did she do?  After having spent the entire day at work, she came home and found me in this state.  So she spent the whole night up with my head on her lap.  The pain was so great, I couldn't even properly cry.  By the next morning (after she'd spent the whole night up), I could cry, and she went back to work for a whole other day of working her ass off to help my brother and I survive.

That's my mom.