See a few metres beyond our own selves

I’m oblivious to my alarm and don’t waken until ten past eight. I surrender to tiredness and half doze, half recall my dreams. I dreamt I had all my money and my map ‘my’ streets in a guitar case. But when I was in the supermarket the money and the map slipped out and got lost. I don’t know what to make of this dream except that I associate guitars with the heart. When I’m telling the dream over breakfast Lindsay says ‘Talking of guitar cases, I dreamt of one too’.

I wear my kesa under my cardigan tonight. Of all the times I’ve put on my kesa, this feels particularly significant: a reminder that Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels is the most important thing; a reminder to myself to act and speak in a way befitting a daughter of the Buddha.

It’s half past eight and I haven’t got a single standing order. Tonight and tomorrow we’re concentrating on call-backs. We’ve heard that often the most money comes in on these two nights. I’m telling myself I need to get a move on. I’m calculating how many more houses I can make it to before 9.30 which is our curfew for knocking. I pass a café. A voice inside suggests that I have a cup of tea and gather myself. To my surprise I heed this voice. The next woman I meet invites me in. She hasn’t read the leaflet. Will I take her through it? I sit back on her sofa and describe the projects. She signs up.

It’s 9.23. The young woman who answers the door says it’s not a good time, can I come back on Saturday. I explain that I’ll be gone by Saturday. She goes to fetch the leaflet. Meanwhile her partner invites me to stand in out of the rain. Suddenly the rain becomes a torrent. They invite me in properly and sit me down. They explain that it’s a precious staying-in-and-watching-TV-night. She tells me that she teaches a lot of kids who are refugees and tries to get the other kids to be aware of the hardships they’ve suffered. But the other kids are too caught up in their own stuff to really take them in. He turns his attention from the telly to add ‘We all need to learn to see just a few metres beyond our own selves’ I say, ‘Yes, we do. We need to take in that other people are people too’. He turns off the TV. She offers me some dried dates. She asks if it’s true that Buddhism teaches that all life is just a dream. We talk about how when someone close dies or gets very ill it can make you realized what’s really important in life. I tell them that for me Buddhism is an enrichment of life. We hear that the rain has eased off. He offers me a lift home.