{"id":1253,"date":"2008-12-14T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-14T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/12\/ice-storm-zen\/"},"modified":"2011-11-01T15:11:57","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:11:57","slug":"ice-storm-zen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/12\/ice-storm-zen.html","title":{"rendered":"Ice Storm Zen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
So, Thursday afternoon we drove up to Friendly Crossways<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

Friendly Crossways is a lovely little retreat center, and just about perfect for what settled into being forty people (seven canceled, a not unusual percentage in my experience at Zen retreats).<\/p>\n

Jan and I had a nice little private room on the ground floor.<\/p>\n

And Boundless Way\u2019s<\/a> Rohatsu<\/a> sesshin<\/a> was on.

Then the ice storm rolled through.<\/a><\/p>\n

The power went out.<\/p>\n

Fortunately the Crossways folk had a back up generator. The bad news was that it only provided limited restoration of power. We had light for the zendo, kitchen and dining room.<\/p>\n

Although the generator had to be tended to constantly, and they didn\u2019t get that fully under control until the next day.<\/p>\n

It was cold. And it got quite cold, particularly at night when it got very, very cold.<\/p>\n

Our small perq of a private room turned into an icebox. With about six inches of blankets, just tolerable, but no treat. (Last night where Jan and I touched, it was warm, but out to the edges, it was quite cold. An unlikely marriage enhancer\u2026)<\/p>\n

And when it was dark it was very dark.<\/p>\n

It also meant no showers. For anyone\u2026<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t stop the retreat. No siree\u2026 We\u2019re serious zendoids. We just went forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lots and lots of sitting. Lots of koan practice interviews. Some liturgy.<\/p>\n

Some laughter.<\/p>\n

A little crying.<\/p>\n

Not enough sleep.<\/p>\n

A lot of people opening their hearts and minds in a most radical way.<\/p>\n

We had our closing ceremony around noon today. We cleaned up.<\/p>\n

And, left for our various homes.<\/p>\n

And, arriving here, getting a good long nap in a clean warm bed\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, Thursday afternoon we drove up to Friendly Crossways\u2026 Friendly Crossways is a lovely little retreat center, and just about perfect for what settled into being forty people (seven canceled, a not unusual percentage in my experience at Zen retreats). Jan and I had a nice little private room on the ground floor. And Boundless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIce Storm Zen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So, Thursday afternoon we drove up to Friendly Crossways...Friendly Crossways is a lovely little retreat center, and just about perfect for what settled\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/12\/ice-storm-zen.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ice Storm Zen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So, Thursday afternoon we drove up to Friendly Crossways...Friendly Crossways is a lovely little retreat center, and just about perfect for what settled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/12\/ice-storm-zen.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Monkey Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/james.ford.1029\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-14T17:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-01T19:11:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_niPwTW3rBbU\/SUWHy-1LpPI\/AAAAAAAAB8E\/pMj-38ttrwU\/s400\/rohatsu+retreat.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Ford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/12\/ice-storm-zen.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/12\/ice-storm-zen.html\",\"name\":\"Ice Storm Zen\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-14T17:07:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-01T19:11:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\"},\"description\":\"So, Thursday afternoon we drove up to Friendly Crossways...Friendly Crossways is a lovely little retreat center, and just about perfect for what settled\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/12\/ice-storm-zen.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/12\/ice-storm-zen.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2008\/12\/ice-storm-zen.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ice Storm Zen\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/\",\"name\":\"Monkey Mind\",\"description\":\"Easily distracted...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/3f37f475fb5078d1e7faa93a63a0fddb\",\"name\":\"James Ford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fa18971b225a3bb79f0c4c381a5fae20?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Ford\"},\"description\":\"James Ishmael Ford is a writer and spiritual director. 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