🌸 Noire Henro-san: Golden Week Pt 4, Wisdom

To simply accept the wisdom you’re cultivating is… wisdom!

I love it when a plan comes together! I do. Yes, there is suffering, but the noise and excitement of Golden week is softer. Having a base at the guesthouse has worked out quite well. I feel safe and secure in this space. I can relax a little.

And know that everything is working as it should.

Still, my thoughts wonder when I think about the end of this stay in Nagahama. I am trying my best, however, to enjoy the days I have on hand – right now. And not dwell too far into the future.

Out the door

Around the corner…

And down the alley to the pilgrimage path.

The weather was overcast all day. Still hot, though!

34 Tanema-ji

Temple of Sowing Seeds

According to legend, Kōbō Daishi planted seeds here that he brought back to Japan from China. He planted them on the grounds of the temple. Thus the name.

As a human, as a woman, I like to believe that I plant seeds in my life. How? Well, I do it through my actions and thoughts about myself and the people I meet. Discerning what I expose to my mind and body helps me water my seeds so that I can harvest them eventually when I need them.

The growing season is not limited, however. If the seeds are good and I consciously care for them, they grow and bloom and grow again. But you know what? They grow when I’m not tending to them so much. Not too long neglected, they remember who they are and what their purpose is. It is to grow and supply sustenance in my life – the wisdom that I pray for.

The entrance to the temple is unassuming. I may be taking it for granted that every one will be spectacular openings. The gray weather deepens the solemn appearance of the grounds.

A man’s character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him.

– Frederick Douglass

Koyasu Kannon Hall

It looks like the bell tower, but it is not.

Sometimes mothers-to-be will take a ladle from the temple right before the birth of the child. After the birth, the ladle is returned and hung around the statue.

The temple is famous for women who pray here for a safe child birth. Hung around the bronze statue are ladles that have had their base removed and placed here by women whose prayers were answered.

The bottomless ladles are hung around the statue under the structure.

The main temple.

Except for the calligrapher (who signed my stamp book), this was the only other person I saw at the temple. We both stopped to rest on a bench near the entrance. Here we are together before she left for temple 35.

My new ohenro friend took a photo of me, then I asked her to take one with my camera. She gladly obliged.

Don’t these signs look familiar?

I am back at the farmhouse.

I love nice things! And this is one of them.

Baadaye and Mata ne

Shirley J 🌸

During the spring of 2024, I began a pilgrimage in Japan where I am walking 1200 kilometers or 720 miles on the Shikoku trail from Temple 1 Ryōzenji to Temple 88 Ōkuboji and beyond. Read my original announcement here.

I am excited, and I am here, still walking. And just know this, I will return to tell the tale!

T34