Beginning--Impressions,

Last night I and about 80 others watched the video of the Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo Empowerment in 1982—shown at the Halifax Shambhala Center.  A mélange of old and middling and new students saw this 31 minute condensation of the three hour ceremony in which the Druk Sakyong was enthroned as Sakyong and Lady Diana as the Sakyong Wangmo.  His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche looked young and radiant, Lady Diana was young and radiant, and the Druk Sakyong was, as is usual for him, impossible to categorize.  The images were heartbreaking, vivid, and haunting.  

Then, at 4 am,  my best friend Joudi Westman (Adolphe) quietly returned to our home after helping to complete the setup in the ballroom of the Delta Halifax Hotel.  At some point in the evening Sakyong Mipham came by the set up and looked at every detail—and things then got moved around!

Joudi has been a part of the set up of just about every major ceremony that the Shambhala community has done put on since 1975.  The Druk Sakyong worked closely with her over many years—training Joudi as a shrine keeper.  She has an unerring eye and heart for dralas and for brocades and satins and how to hang banners.  Now it’s 7:30 in the morning and Joudi’s trying to wake up and she’s ironing the skirt she’s wearing today.  The first thing she said when she woke up this morning was. “It looks beautiful.”

Off to the hotel now.....