These short videos are from Mapleknoll Marsh, a tiny pond in Bowdoin Park a mere five-minute walk from the end of the PTC driveway along Sheafe Road. The videos were made in late spring during Saka Dawa, the most sacred month of our Buddhist calendar, during which Shakyamuni Buddha is said to have been born, attained enlightenment, and passed into nirvana, many centuries ago. As I write this, we have just passed the full moon of Saka Dawa, the culmination of the month’s magnfication of merit, and we still have two weeks to go before the new moon, when it gives way to the next Tibetan month.
In the videos, redwing blackbirds, a variety of frogs, Sheafe Road traffic, and even, faintly, the bells of Mount Alvernia (our Franciscan Monastery neighbor), along with various unidentified participants, join in the chorus of mani’s celebrating this sacred time.
Redwing, Mount Alvernia (faint)
(High sound volume is recommended.)
Some rainy nights,.. our neighboring pond frogs travel [ approx. 100 human steps]to this condo lawn–patiently eyeballing us from our own hill or doorstep. Earth-mates, just like the 2 ladybugs on my computer room wall the other night. Upon entering the condo forest preserve, dragonflys will fly along even with the car’s open window. Our lengthy seemingly meaningful eye contact does not seem imaginative. [but it is seasonal..! ]