I'm settling into the new house more and more, and everything has been moved from the old one, so at least half of my stuff isn't stuck in another county.

In the process I've been adapting to a bit of a quasi-monastic life in a sense.

Most days I sit either with a group in the dojo or in the zendo at home at least twice, and have expanded the practice with more prostrations, bowing, and chanting. I get in as much as a few hours of formal practice daily at this point.

I even managed to rip a CD of chants to my Zune and photocopy the hand-outs so I can practice the chanting ceremony some.

As of last night, I've even hauled the laptop into the zendo and fired up the webcam for "live sitting" in the Treeleaf Zen Hall. It's basically a way to sit with others who happen to be in different rooms elsewhere in the world.

With a "new" house built in 1991, there are many opportunities for samu, and yesterday I made every effort to mow the lawn as working zazen. It's not all about the cushion, after all.

Even during "cushion time" you never know what may come up. The cat flopped right down on my zabuton during sanpai last night, so I had to wing it.

Weekend after next, I intend to head to New Orleans for a weekend of samu and a sesshin starting Saturday evening and lasting through Sunday afternoon. While there's truth to the notion that we can continue to practice even while going about our workday lives, there's also something to be said for periods of intensive practice without the deadlines and phones.