The Vagaries Of The Weather

If the weather in England was positively Californian last week, over here we have had the kind of changeability I usually associate with the old country - Saturday was pretty grey and chilly, Sunday warm after a grey start, then yesterday it even rained for portions of the day. All in all, I was not optimistic about trying to put on the Full Moon Ceremony on the roof. By the end of the day yesterday, though, the skies had cleared, and when I woke up this morning, still considerably earlier than I needed to, there were no clouds and the moon was shining brightly.
My pessimism yesterday meant that I did not set anything up ahead of time, so I spent the two periods of zazen running up and down the stairs with goza mats, bells, cloths and altar accoutrements, grateful for help from Kogan and Konin. We had everything in place in time. And then, as the sun came up, the wind also started to blow, and the moon, which had been sitting by the Mt Sutro tower as we put everything together, disappeared behind an incoming fog bank just as people were coming up the stairs at six thirty. I had flashbacks to the last time we tried this, and wondered if people minded that there was no moon at all for their ceremony. I suspect they were more concerned about the wind, which was somewhere between fresh and bracing.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the tight group we formed around the altar and the warmth of the chanting, listening to the traffic below and seeing birds pass close by, and I am sure that if I had played it safe and decided that we should do it in the Buddha Hall as usual, I would have had a nagging regret afterwards.

The moon was there when we were setting up...