Filling In

Since other people were taking care of the details required for the running of the AZTA conference, I have been feeling myself relaxing this week, and I noticed that in part by how I responded to being asked to do any extra things I wasn't expecting to do. Mainly I got to catch up on the backlogs of talks - I put seventeen up at the end of the week, which was a day and a half's work - and taking care of what the French call le train-train quotidien, one of my favourite phrases.
I ended up being doshi three evenings in a row, as well as for the 9:25 sitting on Saturday. I was also kokyo on Saturday morning, which I was glad to do. The visiting teachers certainly lent volume to our morning services. As kokyo you are something of a conductor for the energy of the chanting, and it felt great to be leading such a strong group, helped along by Ken setting nice fast tempos on the mokugyo. The names of the Buddhas and male ancestors ended up much slower than I can usually tolerate, but what I felt this time was not a lack of energy, but rather a careful and respectful reading of the names. Of course I could just be imagining that and perhaps I was just swayed by the sight of six brown robes in the front row across from me, all of different hues.