New life for an old cottage

 We purchased the adjacent property to Hawkscry recently (2022) to protect our privacy. The two properties share a long common border which could potentially alow a new owner to build close enough to be too close! The property has a small cottage with no plumbing and no insulation. Old style, but well built, all in all, with good supporting piers of brick that kept the termites out. After significant cleaning, we painted the ceiling, floors, and most walls to freshen things up. The front porch was pretty unstable, with some severe rot above and below, so we decided to rebuild it and make it safe and sturdy so it will once again offer a comfortable place from which to survey the lower meadow. The goal is to use the cottage as a kind of bunkhouse for visiting family as it is close enough to the upper cabin where facilities can be used. Work continues. Here are some photos of the progress.

Bee Dharma

Today I experienced one of those little dharma lessons which managed to take root and come to florition in my consciousness (register as a teaching). 

 I noticed a bee climbing the screen in full sunlight, unable to reach the outside, where shelter and food awaited. The natural and first inclination I had was to capture the bee, somehow, and release it to the outside. It was not even a thought. It felt deeper than thought; something part of the natural order. The obvious course of action. 

 But then my mind jumped into the process with its judgement that the bee was probably a carpenter bee. Suddenly there was this negative reaction to the presence of the bee, and the past and potential destruction such bees are capable of doing to the siding of the house. This judgement caused me to falter in my desire to rescue the creature.

 The mind can be a good servant but a terrible master.It takes practice to respond from the deeper, truer place of compassion for all beings without judgement. The mind is hardwired to make judgements in the interest of self preservation. But one must ask what self are we preserving? 

The illusion of a separate self makes one prone to defensive reactions. The reality is that on some deep level the bee and I somehow "inter-are" as Thich Nhat Hanh would say. Nothing is independent in its existence. All is connected and it is from this deep truth that my initial inclination to rescue the bee came.