Monday, August 31, 2020
/public-file/611/Ultra/c16cb8e6-0863-4ab7-b1bb-48bfca4a00f6.jpg
I will cherish my forever connection to Judith. After a long retreat day she graciously offered to stick around as witness to my refuge and bodhisattva vow ceremony. This we celebrated with a goofy chase around Natick in search of a vegan restaurant. We were each in our own cars in an unfamiliar city, in rush hour traffic, trying to keep track of each other by cell phone while driving. Unwisely. Once we located each other in the parking lot, we made our way to the restaurant where they got our orders completely wrong. Turns out the disorganization was because it was their last night of business. Thanks to Judith's openness to all people, we met and talked to the lovely owner for quite a while and scored some free homemade Jamaican sauces for the road!
On our trek around the outside of a mall on our way back to our cars we were caught in a torrential downpour. We ducked into the handy-at-that-moment Cheesecake Factory and amongst suspicious looks from the queued patrons, bolted for the opposite exit to avoid at least some of the storm. We still managed to get pretty soggy despite clinging to each other under one useless umbrella. That was a fun memory and now a bittersweet one.
I will miss her unconditional acceptance. I will miss her.
Diane Flynn