After a heartwarming two weeks of sitting with my dear dad as he inched towards the end of his 86 years of life, we tenderly celebrated this wonderful man on Thursday at his funeral.
Then I only had one rest day and headed off alone today to drive to a GFR retreat with an overnight motel stay on the way to Vijayaloka.

It was my birthday and I love a good solo car trip.
When I arrived at the motel the owner told me she had upgraded me to the spa suite at no extra cost. No particular reason but she said she felt drawn to do it the night before I arrived.
I was delighted …as both my dad and I love baths and i knew it would be a great way to absorb the strong time of the previous weeks.
As stood in motel reception and explained to this kind person why the gift of a bath was so timely we discovered both our fathers had died on the same day the week before.
She also had three daughters and one of her daughter’s birthday was the same as mine.
We laughed at the serendipity nature of connecting incidents in our lives.
Just before I went to start my bath I was compelled to dig out my bag of little buddhas and go back and offer one to her.

One of the Buddhas I had placed standing in a row caught her eye straight away.
A small golden Amoghasiddhi.
I explained the fearlessness hand gesture ….a bringer of courage.
Her eyes moistened and we did not need to speak details…of anything.
Suffering is universal …there was just a ‘knowing’ .
-a heart feeling that connected two strangers standing in a small country town between Melbourne and Sydney.
She said quietly, with that little Buddha in her hand, “I will never forget this.”
And I will never forget her kindness or intuitiveness in placing me in a room with a bath where I could have alone time with the pulsating heart ache of that accompanies missing my dearly loved dad.

Buddha donated by Bridie UK