To the Motherland Again

Before I went to bed I packed up some books in a suitcase to take home. I packed all my Give Yourself Goosebumps books, This is a Book by Demetri Martin, Unlikely Friendships, The Teachings of the Buddha, my copy of the Taoist classic The Tao Te Ching, my book Celtic Inspirations: Essential Meditations and Texts, and my book The Light of Asia, a poetic narrative about the Buddha written by a nineteenth century author Edwin Arnold. I figured with only a few books at school my environment would be less distracting. I also learned from Jack that he too was going home this weekend and my Granddad would take us both home.

The next day I took my test for my Learning Strategies class. I got it done in only a few minutes and I thought I did pretty well. My History professor asked me to share notes with an international student and I agreed that I would. After class got out, my granddad came and picked both of us up. He took Jack home first and then he dropped me off. 

I got home and put away my books and helped my mom put my new mattresses on my bed in my new room. I brought a book down from my room called Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open the Heart, curled up on the couch and read a haiku about being at home. Since I was at home, I thought that haiku would be appropriate for a meditation. I watched some DVRed episodes of King of the Hill, American Dad and Family Guy that night as well as some live ones. 

The next day, I got a haircut, and then Mom and I went to the Winstead's in Kansas City before we went to the Nelson Art Gallery and saw the Asian art exhibit. We went by McGonigle's Meat Market and picked up some filet mignons for dinner and then she dropped me off at the Barnes and Noble in the plaza where I looked around for a while and then we went home. After dinner of filets and wine, we watched the movie 50/50, a comedy where Seth Rogen plays a guy whose friend has cancer. I had to admit it was pretty funny. I could not help but find Anna Kendricks, who played the young, inexperienced therapist in the movie, to be very attractive.

The next day Mom washed my jackets and I packed up. In addition to Haiku Mind I also packed one of my books called Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: a Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings, which has a great collection of Zen stories and koans, paradoxical riddles to encourage followers of Zen not to think too hard about hinges they cannot know. I am looking for love, and have been for four years, and I thought Since love is a paradox, maybe reading some koans would help me understand it better. I also packed up a miniature figurine of a Buddhist saint named the Green Tara. Legend has it she was either a Nepali princess who was married to a powerful Tibetan king and through her marriage to him she and the king's Chinese wife (known as the White Tara) introduced Buddhism to Tibet. The Green Tara represents compassion and she holds a similar to position to the Virgin Mary in the Catholic faith (Now afterwards Buddhism was scourged from Tibet by Tibet's indigenous Bon followers but later reintroduced by a charismatic Buddhist monk from India named Padmasambhava).

Jack's mom brought him to our house. She seemed to look much worn out because of the chemotherapy. Otherwise I had not heard any news on her condition. Then we drove back to UCM and I got unpacked. I also added the statue of the Green Tara to my altar.

That night in the cafeteria I passed by Cassie, who had gotten her hair straighten again, and said hi to her. After that I went down to the Union to work on some Plato Reading. Before I left the Rec Center that night, I learned about a movie from a poster called Killing Us Softly sponsored by the Counseling Center of UCM. I thought Cassie might be interested in seeing that movie since she is a social work major and decided I'd ask her if she wanted to go see it.