Another Birthday

My birthday was Monday and I was 56. I got birthday greetings from all the people I hold dear in my life, except for one, and it will dawn on him next week some time and then he’ll call me (and it’s ok).

In addition to birthday greetings I had a most wonderful gift. It came in two parts. The first part was the trip to Atlanta to see H.H. Dalai Lama teach and speak. The second part came this past weekend when F and I traveled to Finksburg MD to visit with our good friends Christi and Sue. Lori and Dwight agreed to house and animal sit (again), so we could travel with a clear mind knowing all would be well at home. The weather was wonderful. There was enough of Autumn’s beauty left to marvel at, and our friend’s home was big, and comfortable, and rural, and relaxing to be in.

I have seen pictures of their new home but nothing could have prepared me for seeing it in person. The house sits on a little over an acre in a rural farm community. There are houses near by but not on top of one another. A short distance down the road is a farm with beautiful, almost majestic looking Angus cows. The whole area is littered with horse farms, dairy farms, and tree farms. It’s so dark and so quiet at night – I can’t remember when I’ve heard such stillness. It really makes me long for a country life.


The house itself looks very modest from the outside. Once inside you realize how big the house is, how well laid out it is, the beauty of the cherry wood floors, the crown molding, the upgrades and renovations that were done to bring the almost 50 year old house into the new age. All the appliances are new, the windows are new, and the view is open and serene. I recognized about half of the furniture from their other home here in Jax, but it was in new places, with new compliments and looked very different. I felt like waves of relaxation slowly washed over me. I think my shoulders were 2 full inches lower by the time we left.

Their house has a wonderful, partially completed basement. There’s a huge room with a TV and an area where Sue works on her mosaics. There are a variety of utility rooms and some nice but unfinished sections of the basement as well. The best place is an oddly shaped room that Christi has converted into a shrine room. She calls it a meditation room, but it is far more than that. Again, I’d seen photos, but they could not convey the sense of what a calm, quiet, space that Christi created. One of the highlights of the weekend was practicing silent sitting meditation, Chenrezik and Amitabha with Christi in her shrine room. It was so nice to share that together.

Christi and Sue are both kind and generous friends and they treated us to everything! We had several lunches out at delicious and unique restaurants. Christi did big cooking, which means big clean-up – all of it delicious, and we spent quiet evenings chatting and watching TV. Sunday evening we watched a DVD of HH Dalai Lama’s teaching at KTD Monastery in Woodstock. The talk was 90 minutes and it took us about 150 minutes to get through it. We kept stopping and discussing parts of it. It was really good to do that as a group. That’s something we really haven’t done in the past.


Other things we did were play with the little teckles that we miss so much, visited an apple orchid and bought apples, and jams, and other things, went to Eldicott City ate, walked, explored shops, visited Westminster, drove through the 2 block town of Finksburg, went to an art store in Towson, went to the COW, which has the BEST frozen custard I’ve had since the 70’s in NYC, drove around small towns in the region soaking up the rural sights and lusting after the beautiful land and flagstone homes, drove by Sue’s job, and drove down near Baltimore to where Christi works.

If that all wasn’t enough, Christi made me a wonderful birthday dinner of roast chicken stuffed with goat cheese, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh spinach sautéed in olive oil and garlic, and a home made birthday cake with white cake and the best chocolate butter cream frosting I have ever had! And after all that, I got cards and gifts to boot. I was really overwhelmed by the generosity of them both, and warmed by their affection.


There were sad times as well. Sad to leave, sad when I first saw Sue because it hit me how much I’ve missed her, sad to be in such a beautiful place that is so close (1 hour 45 minutes by air) and yet so far away. I was sad to feel how much I’ve missed the landscape of the north and the variety of trees and hills and mountains. Sad because I know they will never come back to Jacksonville. They will live far away for a long time. Sad, but happy too.

It was a memorable trip and a great gift!


All photos by C. Cripps