As we turn toward the Autumn Equinox later this week, I am preparing to venture out on a road trip to Vancouver. This is a trip I envisioned in 2020, before the Covid pandemic. I will be visiting Branching Streams sanghas, starting with Arcata Zen Group in Northern California, and ending with Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver. I look forward to doing a morning of practice with Ashland Zen Center and to seeing the new home of Red Cedar Zen Community in Bellingham, WA. I will also be visiting Shasta Abbey and Great Vow Monastery, places I’ve heard so much about and never seen.
When I began serving as the Branching Streams liaison in early 2019, my predecessor Steve Weintraub encouraged me to visit Branching Streams groups, and this has been one of the most rewarding parts of my role. I visited many of the Bay Area groups that first year, as well as Zen Centers in Seattle, Milwaukee, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, New York, and Rome and Belfast in Europe . At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 I was visiting the three Branching Streams Zen Centers in Texas.
Now that many Zen groups who lost their practice places during the pandemic are finding new homes, and sanghas that were meeting entirely on Zoom are reopening to in-person practice, it is possible to visit again.
I will take to the road on Friday, September 23rd, in my Honda Fit. I am preparing for the many hours of driving by taking the AARP Driver Safety online class and pouring over maps to check distances between destinations and decide where to stop for rest breaks.
I look forward to connecting with the teachers, sangha members, and dharma friends I will meet on my journey. I’ll pack my watercolors and journal and hope to find a number of ways to report back. I’ll return on October 9thand will send my next Newsette soon after.