As I type this, I can see the golden leaves shimmering in the bright Autumn sunshine in my garden. It is a beautiful time of the year and one I’ve always loved. So, maybe it’s fitting that it’s during this season of so many changes that I’ve decided to take a break from the work I do for Ringu Tulku and Bodhicharya. It’s mainly due to continuing ill health but also because I believe that there comes a time in one’s life when you know that you have to move on and do something different. And it’s that time for me now. After many years of working for RTR and Bodhicharya; I’m taking a year ‘out’ but I have no plans. I will take life as it comes. So, this will be the last issue of Many Roads, for a while, but it’s a great issue.
As usual, we have another article from my dear friend and our regular contributor, Vicki McKenna. Vicki writes here about A Capsizing World and what we can do to help us ‘maintain a sense of order and harmony’ in our changing world. Also, another great interview by Jet Mort ,who this time speaks to Lama Tsultrim of Bodhicharya France.
Many of you will have seen recently a post in the Bodhicharya web site about the retreat with Rinpoche in Sikkim this December. Last year, there was a similar retreat in Sikkim in October/November, also organised by Erika van Greunen from South Africa. Mary Heneghan, one of Rinpoche’s students from Oxford, England, attended that retreat and Mary’s very personal account of her time in Sikkim can be found at Vajrasattva Retreat with Ringu Tulku Rinpoche at Bodhicharya Retreat Centre.
I am very happy to include more of the poetry that has already been posted in the Writers and Poets Community of the Bodhicharya Communities Website. Firstly, Ani Tsering Paldron’s very beautiful poem, The Unbearable Love Poem (Manjushri’s Song). Next, Ani Karma Tsultrim shares her poem written while she was receiving treatment for cancer, Bring Sickness onto the Path. Mustapha Zaidi shares too his Dharma inspired poem Leaf and Anne H was equally generous in allowing us to publish here Out of My Mind, Unique Falling.
And, I would like to end here with something very special. Last week, Mary Heneghan (of the Sikkim retreat above) sent me some inspiring words written by her daughter, Katie, aged eight. I was so touched by Katie’s Rules that I wanted to include them in this last issue. Of course I have Katie and her mum’s permission. I especially like Katie’s first rule; ‘If you drop anything or go off course, you must go back to the beginning’. Maybe that is what I’m doing?
With many grateful thanks to all the contributors to this issue and all previous issues of Many Roads. It has been a pleasure working with you all and so very nice to share this space with you here.
I would like to wish you all the very best of health and happiness whatever you do and wherever you are.
Love,
Margaret Ford
For Many Roads
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