sleeping in a deathbed

My first week at the SF Zen Center has not gone smoothly. The fall practice period, a 10-week session of meditation, classes, and communal living, is very full -- about 60 people are participating. So housing is at a premium. To accommodate new residents like me, they got "overflow" housing at a building across the street, the Zen Hospice Project. Most of the room are lovely -- and empty. Mine was not. My roommate and I were treated to a large and quite beautiful room in a two-story VIctorian with a number of hospice-related items included: stained carpeting, adjustable hospital beds, and a closet full of vecro restraints, hospital gowns, and adult diapers.

Needless to say, I have not been amused. After washing everying I could detach, and then wiping down everything else, the place is still stained, dusty, and just a tiny bit stinky. Happily, the manager has been able to secure new housing for me and I move into the main building on Friday.

Lesson for the week? There are a lot of personal proclivities that are very helpful to work with, to have bent now and again, tested. Then, there are those that just don't ken to bending. For me, it's germs. And, ok, smells, residues and smudges of bodily fluids, stains that smell, and finding a dead-lady jewelery box in my drawer. I know, it's a lot. Perhaps I'm not cut out for this spiritual enlightenment stuff, after all.

Here's to Friday.