THERE ARE NO INSIGNIFICANT DAYS

I found a list of suggestions on a bulletin board at the World Beat Center where I went early this evening to hear Geshe Thupten Phelgye and Bob Isaacson discuss “Compassion for All Beings.”  When I walked into the center, I was greeted and given coffee by a young man whose name is Love... no joke.  From Philadelphia, he has been in San Diego for just one month.  He likes work. He is glad to have a job at the World Beat Center. 

Turn off your TV

Leave your House

Know your neighbors

Look up when you are walking

Greet people

Sit on your stoop

Plant flowers

Use your library

Play together

Buy from local merchants

Share what you have

Help a lost dog

Take children to the park

Garden together

Support neighborhood schools

Fix it even if you didn’t break it

Have pot lucks

Honor elders

Pick up litter

Read stories aloud

Dance in the street

Talk to the mail carrier

Listen to the birds

Put up a swing

Help carry something heavy

Barter for your goods

Start a tradition

Ask a question

Hire young people for odd jobs

Organize a block party

Bake extra and share

Ask for help when you need it

Open your shades

Sing together

Share your skills

Take back the night

Turn up the music

Listen before you react in anger

Mediate a conflict

Seek to understand

Learn from new and uncomfortable angles

Know that no one is silent though many are not heard

Work to change this

Listening to Geshe (Dr.) Thupten Phelgye, a Tibetan monk, I was reminded that as long as we are alive on this earth there are no insignificant days. As a child Geshan led his family across the Himalayan Mountains to escape the invading Chinese army.  He talked about his life in the Tibetan community in exile and about his experience now as a teacher in American colleges and universities.  He will be teaching this year at Western Washington College.

The earlier parts of this day weren't bad either:  bike ride with a stop on my way home from my Volunteer job at the Museum of Photographic Arts to get a picture of a strange flower, some water lilies at the reflecting pool, and a cactus.  When I got home there was a good visit with neighbors that included tea and Irene's rhubarb pie.