I just got back from a one day retreat at the Open Meadow Zen Center in Lexington. It is a beautiful place to sit and I really like it there except for one small thing. Whenever I go there, all this bug karma rises up! The last time I was there I came back from the long walk out in the Conservation Lands (aka the Pestilent Swamp) with not one but three wood ticks on me. Read here for the creep crawly details.
This time, I thought, I just won't go on the long walk and I'll be fine. Tells you how much good the thinking does ya'. As I was walking along during the first walking meditation (we alternate sitting and walking), I heard the click of beads as something brushed my head. I look around and figured my friend Maria, who was walking behind me, had brushed a mosquito away. I didn't think much more about it until we came around the room again and there's Maria with a couple of paper towels trying to catch a coin sized SPIDER! Apparently, it had been decending from the ceiling and was just about to land on MY HEAD when she brushed it away (the beads I heard was the mala in her hand). Later, she said, all she could think of was Miss Muffet as the thing came dangling down. Thank goodness she saw it!
I still plan to do other retreats at OMZ. We'll see what other creepy crawlies come my way. I shudder to think!
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i'm all about the zen nature of things, and i try to leave bugs alone, with the following exceptions:
- cockroaches- they are nasty, and can't possibly possess a zen nature.
- mosquitoes- they bite me, and it itches, and i can't catch them to make them live somewhere i don't.
- houseflies- pestilent and uncatchable.
- stuff that surprises me, especially in the bathroom, including but not limited to spiders, waterbugs, silverfish, and their friends. they sometimes get smashed before i can consider their zen nature.
yarn m**hs- you were there when someone told me that it's less embarrassing to have an std. nuf said....
just like the being veg thing, you have to decide how much bug action you can tolerate, and then smash the other ones. spider on the head might be ok, but might fall in the surprise category, and ticks, well, diseased little bastards.... try deet!
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