Calendar December 2016

It was a fine winter’s day and I was on a work trip, travelling from the Ogmore Valley over the tops of the hills and down towards the Rhondda Valley. As I came over the top, there on the side of the road, by a small parking space, were some flowers left in shrine-like arrangement. They overlooked the village of Cwmparc. I stopped my car and got out. The wind was keen and cold. I thought the flowers must have been an act of commemoration. Somebody probably had the intention of paying their respects to a person who had passed away - a pledge to hold a memory. Perhaps this was where the remembered person died or more likely it was a spot to scatter ashes, being a favourite resting place to view the village, the hills, and the sky. It became very quiet, just the sound of the wind blowing through the fence and flowers. Here I was, on the side of the road, with a practitioner’s intention to be present, now with the aspiration of taking the photograph mindfully. The fruits of that is this image.

a roadside remembering
cold wind
and sun

Our intentions and aspirations form the vows we make to live our life fully. We make vows even if we don’t realise it. “I’m going to try hard.” “I’m going to be different when I…” “I vow to attain…” Vows are central to our life and our practice. They shape our participation in the tasks we face and undertake. Vows provide an ethical framework for how we behave toward others, moving us to compassion, love and caring involvement in their struggles. They are reflections, passed down through numerous generations, to help us awaken and express our true nature. Vows are a part of living and of dying. They serve to acknowledge our place in the interdependence of this vast universe.

"Life is the original vow"
Shodo Harada Roshi