Looking over my shoulder at the milestones on my path, one thing stands as constant: nothing is so sweet, so fun and so fruitful as working in creative partnership. And so at last, the Bicycle Buddha is ready to hit to the road, in tandem! With my co-bicyclista and dharma sista, Red Sara. This Canada …
Author: carmen
New bike, new bike, new bike
I’m getting a bike, a brand new bike! I ordered it direct from the manufacturer on my credit card. My mail-order bride. It will arrive soon at the shop packed flat in a box. The boys at the shop will put it together, and then it will be mine. It is a beautiful creature, this …
Bike shop boyz ‘n’ grrlz
There are 24 boys on staff at the Bike Doctor. Twenty-four boys, and one other girl, plus Lady Jane who crossed over, and me. They are sweet guys and hot guys and dorks, drinkers and jocks and artists and freaks. We all have greasy fingers and make near minimum wage. The boys drink warm Pabst …
Happy mothers and non-mothers day
We marched down Wall Street this morning, all dressed in black. Wall Street in East Van that is, down in the semi-industrial paradise by the port lands. A parade, in honour of the Buddha’s birthday. Two smiling black-robed priests led the procession. I followed, striking the brass inkin bell. Behind me walked a tall man …
The giving muscle
There’s this old Zen chestnut where the monk asks, why does the Bodhisattva of Compassion have so many eyes? The master replies: it is like a hand reaching for a pillow in the night. I love that image, of compassion or generosity as an autonomic nervous response, as natural as breathing. Every cell like an …