May 2nd...Mistakes and the Courage to Act...

It rained on and off today, so the photos will be under overcast skies, not necessarily pretty... : ).

Norbu had some business to finish up with his previous landlord this morning (he moved much closer to the temple), so he joined us later. David, it turns out, had some issues arise at home he needed to deal with as well, so he was also late. Fortunately, Leigh, Ashby and I were onsite early and wanted to get something done while we waited, so we did break out the sandpot and continue clearing paint from the south face until lunch. Thanks Amber for getting it for us!

David and Norbu arrived almost at the same time, and right after we finished lunch, so timing was great. We didn't get as far as we'd hoped (that's really the norm these days...) but we did make progress (also the norm these days...). David was great, he gave us all the principles of what he did, and showed us how to do things, rather than just doing it for us. His goal is to help us learn to build these platforms ourselves, when we need them. How cool is that? He's busy with his own Dharma Center's renovation, so it's a great offering he's made to come out and help us, as well as lending us his tools. Amber pitched in again, by babysitting David's son, Kairuv. A task she really enjoyed, and which allowed David to focus on the task at hand.

The big lesson of the day was the balance between planning, action and mistakes. David told us when the day was over that he enjoyed working with us. He said (he's a professional) he's worked with very talented, intelligent guys over the years who are so afraid to make a mistake that they don't even get started to work. We did discover we'd made a mistake today, but we fixed it. A miscalculation of the dimensions, but no big deal. David said he liked working with us because we weren't afraid to get up and get to work, and didn't get ruffled by realizing we'd made a mistake. We just figured out how to fix it and did. We've been down that road so many times on this project, taking a stab at something new, discovering we aren't doing it well, or not right at all, and then figuring out how to fix it. If it means spending a week removing "repairs" we did poorly, we're cool with that. It's better than those repairs never being done. So that's the lesson I'll leave you all with today, plan, be careful, always consider safety, but don't let fear of making an error stop you from doing what you know must be done!

And finally, as usual, I must state how inspired I am by all those who come to work with us. From David setting aside his own projects to help out a sister temple for no compensation (other than the huge merit of working on a Stupa!), to Ashby who persevered to keep us gals in sand this morning, and even after falling asleep at lunch he was so tired, came out to help us lift platforms up to the top of the throne, and Leigh who is not construction oriented at all but took on learning how to sandblast yesterday and operate the pot today, and helped heft those frames up also. Every one of us has worked very hard, set aside our personal concerns, to engage in this meritorious activity. It is really awesome to see, and beautiful to experience. So please do join us, either here or in person, and share in the joy of serving the needs of sentient beings...