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Ken Rōshi,

Thank you for sharing your haiku.

My home office is on second floor of our townhome and there is a squirrel's nest in a tree I look out upon. Every now and then early in the morning I see one?pop out of the nest and run out to the end of the branch. I assume, since it is a mammal like me, it just awoke and is running out on the branch to take a pee. "A squirrel peeps out." reminds me of that and warms my heart.

After the sangha meeting last Sunday, my heart was in a dark hole, somewhere between melancholy and a down right foul mood. I realized it was fear and I was (and am) haunted by the unanswerable question for me of what would it take for me to feel comfortable to go back to the temple again and sit in the zendo with others?

Seeing one of the containers that I had planted with early spring vegetables filled with small sprouts warmed my heart, like reading about the squirrel and thinking about the one I occasionally see.