Retreat ended with a blizzard! And this time not in my mind. The Halifax area was hit with 95 cm of snow (over 3 feet)! Lots of wind and blowing snow for what felt like days. So I spent a few hours after ending my meditation retreat shoveling snow and taking pictures. The sun was out all day, making penetrating shadows in the snow and warming my house. There was no electricity in my neighborhood for thirty hours which also meant lots of candles and no heat, no water (I am on a well), intermittent phone use, and no electrical entertainments. Being used to playing the radio in my mind from a week of retreat practice, the lack of connection to the outside stimulation was no loss. Lack of water and heat is more serious. And it is hard to read by candlelight. There is only so much sleep you can do, so when the refrigerator started making humming noises again in the evening, it was beautiful music. The first thing I did was make a cup of hot tea.
I am still waiting for the snow plow to clear my long driveway and hope to be able to get out before winter is over. There is school on Monday, that is, if the 20 cm we are expecting tomorrow do not cause much more obstructions to travel. Everything else seems back to normal now. Until next time. I really should invest in a generator.
Posted by leya at February 21, 2004 11:00 AM