Deer Park Monastery, Escondido, CA

5:25 - woke up
5:49 – morning sitting
6:50 – assisted preparing breakfast
8:00 – breakfast
9:00 – coffee
10:00 – assisted preparing lunch
12:30 – lunch
afternoon free
4:00 – assisted in preparing dinner
6:00 – dinner
7:30 – laypeople evening sitting

In case you haven’t noticed, I was on cooking detail today. On the work rotation, I’m paired with my mentor, and I’m very glad about that. He was a chef in lay life, and I barely know my way around a cutting board, and it’s not for not having tried. I wish I could cook, I wish I knew my way around a kitchen, I’ve tried learning, but even now, when my mentor chops vegetables, he’s quick and graceful. I’m clumsy and inept, even though when I have cooked with other people, the one thing I could reliably do is chop stuff.

My ineptitude aside, I think our personalities are well-paired. In my version of events, we had an immediate rapport, so I thought he was a great guy that everybody liked, but his personality has an acerbic side which bounces off my happy-go-lucky teflon veneer. No, that’s not it. But when he gets like that, I don’t take it personally or get flustered. I stay even-minded and make self-deprecating wisecracks that I don’t mean seriously, either. We know when to be serious, when to be light, and I just go with the flow and always have a high respect for him. He’s told me bits about his old life and I think he brought a lot of suffering with him, and I think the type of suffering he’s dealt with makes him particularly suited to be my mentor. We don't even have to talk about it or draw on it. It just comes out and makes things pretty easy between us.

Happinesses of the Day:
- Ice cream and french fries at lunch
- Robin laughing at me from across the room for getting seconds (I almost never get seconds unless it's something special) of french fries and ice cream.
- Cooking detail with mentor
- French fries at lunch
- Ice cream at lunch
- Oh, and ice cream at lunch