Leaving

These past two weeks have been uncommonly quiet on the ino front, which I have been quite happy about; I know it is going to get busy again once we get into practice period. We have, however, done three leaving ceremonies in the past few weeks, part of our endless cycle of change and transition.
Today, the last of these was for Anna, who is moving to Green Gulch, after time at Tassajara and in Europe. Now that the rain and grey clouds seem to have moved on, the zendo is starting to get light at kinhin, and by the end of second period, the sun is gleaming through the Laguna Street windows, much as it did in these photos (I was a little shocked as I looked back to find this entry, that it was almost a year ago already), so the light in the zendo during today's ceremony was quite beautiful.
Previously we had marked Linda's move to Tassajara, where she gets to be reunited with Greg, of course. Linda and I sat tangaryo together at Tassajara, and then worked together for three practice periods, first in the kitchen, then on the doanryo, then I was head doan when she became ino there. Anna has been the director for most of the time I have been on senior staff here in the city, and thus a central figure in the practice life of the building. They were also both shuso when I was down at Tassajara a few years ago, and these are pictures from their shuso ceremony days:

Anna with Blanche

Linda with Linda Ruth

Christina has not held such exalted positions - yet - but she was a strong and much-loved presence in the building during her time here, and, like Anna and Linda, conspicuous for the great energy of her efforts; I would often remind her that it was time for a meal and that she should take a break. Here she is, typically, working on getting an arrangement just right:

And even though she has left, or, as we say, 'returned to the marketplace with gift-bestowing hands',  she is still coming back to help with the flowers.