Peace Pagoda

“It is imperative that we replace materialism and the economy-centered way of thinking, which have served as the fundamental principles of social organizations and replace them by community based on human solidarity and mutual aid and develop the life of Tangyo-Rai Hai, the offering of respect to everyone.” -The Most Venerable Nichidatsu Fujii, 1953 (It’s amazing how relevant this still is over 60 years later.)

  I’ve wanted to go to Peace Pagoda in Leverett since the moment I first heard about it (almost 2 years ago now). But I haven’t had time to drive out there and this winter has been particularly brutal. There haven’t really been any good days for picture taking until now. I knew I would have a day off on Friday, so if the weather was cooperating (and sunny), I was determined to go.

  Whenever I would talk about going to the Pagoda with other people, I usually got the question, “What’s so special about a temple in the woods?” The answer was, I didn’t really know! But I wanted to find out. I felt drawn to going there, I just had to see it. However, for some reason, I was really nervous about going out there alone. I’m not at all familiar with that area (Sunderland & Leverett) and, while doing research about the Pagoda, had discovered that there was some kind of speed trap nearby, which made it even more nerve-wracking (not that I speed, but sometimes speed limits are not clearly posted here in MA). Anyway, Friday came and I tried calling just about everyone I knew to see if someone would go with me but I couldn’t get ahold of anyone. I wasn’t going to let that stop me though. I printed out the directions, packed up some snacks and my camera and hit the road.

  The drive there was fairly easy. The route was very scenic and pretty, despite it being April. I imagine the best time to make the trip would be in the fall, when all of the beautiful colors are on the trees, but I couldn’t wait that long. My Googlemaps directions told me it would be on the right side of Cave Hill Road (when coming from MA-47 North) but it was actually on the left side of the road.

 

I saw the signs on the left at the last minute and drove past it and had to turn around.

  Once I was there, I drove down the road to a little clearing. There was a road to the left and what appeared to be a parking lot to the right. There was another car parked in the parking lot, so I chose to park and read the sign to see what I was supposed to do next. It turned out that unless you are disabled or older, you are supposed to park and walk, so I made a good call by stopping.

I grabbed my stuff and headed up the dirt road. On my left, I passed some kind of building that appeared to be under construction. I was glad that I wore my comfortable shoes because the path started to go uphill, which made it a little bit of a hike. I started to get a little nervous (I don’t think it’s ever relaxing to walk alone in the woods, there are bears here!). I started to wonder if I was even going the right way. Eventually I came to this:

on my right

on my left

I wasn’t really sure if I was supposed to go past the barricade or head towards the house (which I’m assuming was where some of the monks lived?). I assumed the barricade was only there to prevent cars from driving any further, so I climbed over it. As I walked along the path, I noticed beautifully stacked rocks everywhere.

I found this information about the stacking of the rocks: “It is a form of worshiping. Some people use it as a gesture or asking or wishing for good fortune to be bestowed on the stacker and his or her family. Each stone within the stack represents a particular wish and possibly, family member.” (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_meaning_behind_rock_stacking_in_peoples_yard)
 
  Finally, I could see the top of the Pagoda. At that particular moment, the sun happened to be shining down on it and it looked beautiful!

There were two women sitting on the bench in front of it.

I walked up and asked if they had been there before. They said yes. I told them that it was my first time and asked if there was anything I should know about it (e.g. was anyone going to get mad at me for taking a million pictures). They said that the only thing you weren’t supposed do was walk on the gravel in the rock garden. I thanked them and went off happily on my way to take my pictures.

I really can’t describe the feelings I felt at the Peace Pagoda. I was just so excited to be there! I had read on the website that part of the beauty of the Pagoda wasn’t just the temple that had been built or “the end result”, but the process of building it. It stated:

“It is the process of engagement that changes hearts, providing the tests of challenge and commitment that bring forth transformation.”

This idea was beautiful to me because that’s just how life is! It’s not about what happens in the end, we all face the same fate, but it’s about the journey and the process.

At one point, the women I had spoken too left and I was completely alone. I sat down on the bench in front of the Pagoda and tried to clear my mind. The silence was so peaceful. The warm sun was shining directly on me and it felt amazing. It was a relief from the bitter cold I’ve felt for the past 6 months. I was so happy that I had made the trip!

I could go on and on describing the things that I saw, but I’d rather you just enjoy the photographs I snapped for now until you can go and experience it for yourself.

  As I was walking back down the dirt path to leave, I heard faint drumming coming from the house I had passed on my way up. I tried to take some video of it, but after reviewing the footage later, I realized that you couldn’t really hear the drums. While I was standing there enjoying the drumming, a beautiful little butterfly flew by. I followed it until it landed and was able to take one final picture before my camera battery died.

What perfect timing! Had my battery died earlier, I wouldn’t have been able to catch that moment.

  Just as I got back to my car to leave, a family from Quebec pulled up. I could see all of the same nervousness and excitement from them that I felt when I first arrived. But upon leaving, all I felt was serenity. I guess being in the presence of a great act of peace will do that to you.

  I really believe you have to be actively seeking peace or working towards it in order to achieve it. It doesn’t just come to you, you have to look for it. Luckily, through my experiences in the past several years, I’ve learned a lot about finding inner peace and how to be grateful for what I have. Every single day for me really is a gift. I am thankful for my health, my family, and my friends, as well as several other material things (the list could go on and on). But I understand that I am not guaranteed any of those things and all of them could be gone in a second. I try enjoy every moment that I am given. I have also learned that the most important things in life aren’t things. It is the investment we make in other people. I’m constantly trying to invest in other people, even if it doesn’t always feel natural for me. So many people waste so much time and energy being hateful or spiteful towards other people. It’s really easy to go down that route. But most of the time, it stems from their own insecurities, jealousy or lack of understanding. I just don’t have it in me to hate like that. I have learned that I can enjoy and learn from my interactions with people that I know don’t like me or don’t understand me. I can choose to find my own peacefulness and happiness in this life. OK, I’ve gone off on a tangent now, let me get back to the Pagoda...

  I really hope you’ll be able to visit the Peace Pagoda for yourself. I definitely plan on going back with my family. I can’t wait to see it in the fall, I just know it will be absolutely beautiful at that time of the year! To learn more about the Peace Pagoda, visit http://www.newenglandpeacepagoda.com/.

Random Ramblings on My Favorite Movie of All Time-PART TWO!

So, I just watched the version of “Say Anything” with the commentary from Cameron Crowe, John Cusack, and Ione Skye and I have more to say about my favorite movie of all time. Now you may be wondering, “Why did it take you so long to watch the commentary version when you’ve clearly owned the DVD for several years?” And to that I would say, “I haven’t had any time to watch the special features on a DVD! I barely make it through the movie itself without falling asleep!” People with kids know what I’m talking about. Anyways...

You would think after seeing the movie as many times as I have that I would know every little detail and hidden thing in the movie, especially because I DID take the time to watch the deleted, extended, and alternate scenes many, many years ago, BC (that’s Before Children). But apparently I missed some things that I think are crucial for you to know about. So here they are:

1) Lloyd Dobbler was based on Cameron Crowe’s neighbor Lowell Marchant. He came to Crowe’s door one day and introduced himself as a kickboxer and talked about how kickboxing was “the sport of the future.” He wiped his hand on his pants before shaking Crowe’s hand and that moment and his mannerisms stuck with Crowe when he was writing the part of Lloyd.

2) Corey’s room is practically a shrine to Joe. I can’t believe I never noticed it before, but if you look around there are giant cheesy posters and pictures of Corey and Joe in her room. My favorite is the one where they are standing back to back.

3) James Court (John Mahoney)’s (hair was dyed a slightly different color in all of the scenes. In one of the final scenes at the prison where he is talking to Lloyd, the dye was all gone, which symbolized that “the mask was off”. He was no longer faking or covering up who he was.

4) Both John Cusack and Ione Skye admitted to being attracted to one another while filming but neither acted on their feelings because they were both seeing other people at the time. As I mentioned in my first post about the movie, Ione was seeing Anthony Kiedis from Red Hot Chili Peppers. She said he used to wait outside of her trailer all day, which she found “really annoying”. I think it’s funny to imagine an angry, jealous Anthony Kiedis waiting to beat up Lloyd Dobbler. Who would want to beat up Lloyd Dobbler?! He’s such a lovable guy! Ione and Anthony were a sexy couple though. Just Google some of their images together, you’ll see what I’m talking about!

5) The song that was originally supposed to be played during the boombox scene was Billy Idol’s “To Be A Lover.” The song that was actually playing on the boombox while the scene was shot was Fishbone’s “Turn the Other Way.” Crowe eventually found Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” on a tape he made for his wedding to Nancy Wilson and knew it was “the one.”

6) Cameron Crowe and his wife Nancy made several small cameos in the film (Crowe’s hand changes the tape at the party, Nancy’s torso walks by in the final scene in the airplane).
 
7) Diane’s father’s secret life ruined her life, but made it possible for her to recognize the man who would save her life (Lloyd). He wanted so desperately for his daughter to have a good, honest life (unlike the secret life he was living) that he couldn’t even see the criminal acts he was committing as anything but positive acts of love. His love for Diane was borderline creepy though. In the dinner party scene at the house, he treats Diane almost as if she is his wife. Diane is oblivious, but Lloyd senses the awkward tension, which causes him to ramble on in one of the greatest speeches in the whole movie.

 “You mean like a career? Um, I don’t know, I’ve thought about this quite a bit sir, and I would have to say considering what’s waiting out there for me, I don't want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought or processed. Or repair anything sold, bought or processed, y'know? As a career I don't want to do that. So, my father's in the army, he wants me to join, but I can't work for that corporation. So what I've been doing lately is kickboxing. Which is a, uh, new sport, but I think it's got a good future.  As far as career longevity goes, I don't really know, because, you know, you can't really tell.  Your training sticks as a fighter, you know, but it's no good, you know, you have to be great, but I can't really tell if I'm great until I've had a couple of pro fights. But I haven't been knocked out yet.  I don't know, I can't figure it all out tonight sir, I'm just going to hang with your daughter.” 

This speech also showed how Lloyd was uncertain of his future, just as Diane had previously stated in her speech at graduation. The only thing Lloyd was certain of was being with Diane.

8) I also wanted to mention (which I can’t believe I forgot to discuss in my first post about this movie) how much I love the dictionary in Diane’s room. If you haven’t seen the scene, Diane is picking out possible outfits to wear to dinner in her bathroom while Lloyd is waiting for her on the other side of the door in her room. They are talking to each other through the door, and she’s holding up different outfits. While he’s waiting, he starts looking around at the stuff in her room and he picks up this huge dictionary. He says, “Wow, this a mother dictionary.” She then says something like, “Yeah, I used to have this thing with checking off the words I looked up.” He then flips through and sees that almost every word has an “x” next to it. I LOVED how brainy Diane was! I envied her. I wished I was more like her and concentrated more on my schoolwork, but alas I was an insecure, boy-crazed rebel, like most of my fellow female Catholic schoolmates . I DID however, being the pious girl that I was (cough, cough), have a prayerbook that I would put check marks in next to the prayers that I said. That’s kind of the same, right? No?

So there you have it. What a story! A corrupted father’s love for his daughter and two outcasts (but in very different ways) finding a home in each other. I’ve always related to outcasts and may now even more than I ever did in my teens. I’ve always felt like an outcast, almost to the point of finding it difficult to connect with other people at all. It’s hard to make connections when you always have this feeling in the back of your mind that nothing is ever permanent and life is short. But there’s always one thing that will NEVER change and that is Lloyd Dobbler and Diane Court stealing our hearts! Watch the movie folks. That’s all I have to say...for now.

(All film stills belong to 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, I don't claim to own anything.) 

Harry Potter Party

   I recently threw a Harry Potter birthday party for my son. I thought I would share some of the details of the party with you with the hopes that someone else might find it useful. Seeing as how there is NO Harry Potter party section at most of the chain party stores, if you plan to host your own party you should be prepared to do your homework and GET CREATIVE!

Invitations: I didn’t realize that the party pack I ordered online (more on that later) included invitations, so I made my own. I created the invitation document to look like an official letter from Hogwarts (in green ink and all) inviting the child to come to the school for a special party. I also included a separate train ticket to platform 9 3/4. If you are familiar with the book, this will all make sense. If you haven’t read the book, you have a lot of work ahead of you! I didn't take a picture of the invitations, but I provided a link to another blog at the end of this post with an example of someone else's invitations which looked very similar to mine.

Party Supplies: I was unable to find any Harry Potter party supplies in any of the stores I visited, however I was able to find them online. I discovered that Target sold a party pack online (but not in the stores). The pack included 2 different sizes of themed plates, napkins and cups, a blue tablecloth, maroon and gold balloons and curling ribbon,  maroon and black crepe paper, a “sorting hat”  helium balloon, themed party invitations, black eating utensils and blue candles. The price was a pretty good deal for the amount of stuff, so I ordered it. This was enough plates, napkins, and utensils for the amount of guests we were going to have, so I didn't need to buy anything extra.
 
Party Decorations: Although balloons and crepe paper can take you pretty far with kids (as far as decorations go)...

...I knew I was going to need more stuff, so I went to my favorite store for party supplies: The Dollar Tree. This particular dollar store chain is great for party supplies and the price for the quantity of things you get (like plates, napkins, etc.) is way better than the packs you can buy at the larger party stores. I picked up a few nice touches like these:

Although the dollar store and the party pack I ordered were helpful, I ended up making most of my themed decorations like this banner:

(This shot turned out a little funny because the sun was so bright but you get the idea.)

And these signs:

I got the printouts from a blog that was incredibly helpful during my planning. I’ll share that with you at the end!

Games and Activities: I like to have the games at my parties correlate with the theme of the party as much as possible, but sometimes you have to consider other factors. These include the number of children attending the party, the kind of kids that will be at the party (is it a wild boy crowd? a calm group of girls? etc.), how many adults will be around to help, how much time you have to fill, and several other things that can affect your game choices.

For example, one of the games I planned on playing involved two teams of 3 kids. Each child would have a Popsicle stick in their mouth and the children would have to pass a pretzel on the stick to the stick of the child next to them. The last child in the line would drop the pretzel from the stick in their mouth to the bowl they would be holding. After being timed for a minute, the team with the most pretzels in their bowl wins. This sounded like a fun, competitive game, however, we received one cancellation on the morning of the party which would have messed up the number of children on each team . Plus, several children had been out of school that week for the flu, so I didn’t think passing food items onto sticks in mouths sounded like a good idea. Luckily, I had enough other activities that filled the time nicely.

One of the things I liked that I saw on some of the blogs that I referenced staging the activities/games as “classes” at Hogwarts. One of the classes that looked like fun was the potions class. While I really liked this idea and thought it could be very successful with the right crowd, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of several little boys mixing liquids at my dining room table. It sounded a little too messy for my liking! I wanted to do something that resembled a magic potion though, so I considered having the children dump Pixie Stick powder into jars that looked like they held magic potions. However, when I got to the Dollar Tree (again, best dollar store ever!), I found these glow-in-the-dark sand art kits that were perfect...and only $1! The kit included 3 bags of colored sand, a container with a lid, a funnel, and a stick (to create designs). Amazing! This was the first activity I had the kids do. I called it “Magic Sand Potion Class” and it went surprisingly well. The children were very careful about their sand creations and were very excited when they discovered that they could take them home!

After sitting still for so long (and concentrating so carefully on pouring sand into a tiny funnel), I knew the kids would need to move around, so I had them play “Magical Musical Chairs” next. This was a great way for them to burn off some energy and they had a great time dancing to the music! (By the way, I didn’t do anything special from the normal way of playing Musical Chairs, I just gave it a fancy title.)

The next game we played was “Catch Hedwig Before He Flies Away”. This game was basically like the traditional fishing game, but with owls. To create the “Magic Pole” (or fishing pole), I tied a piece of yarn onto a wooden dowel that I already had. I then hot glued it in place and glued a refrigerator magnet to the end of it. Then I cut out 10 owl shapes from construction paper and wrote the numbers 1-5 on them. I laminated them with my top-secret-super-cheap laminating system (i.e. clear Contact Paper from the shelving paper section of Walmart) and put 2 paper clips at the top so that the magnet would be able to pick them up.

I had each child kneel backwards on a chair and hold the pole over the top. They then had a minute (I timed with the kitchen timer) to catch as many owls as they could. I wrote down the numbers as they caught the owls and the child with the highest total was the winner. I was surprised at how carefully the boys tried to catch the owls with the higher numbers. They were great! Of coarse, the ones waiting in line basically beat on each other while they waited, but the game went very smoothly. The kids were really excited to help add up their numbers and figure out their grand totals.

Next, I had the kids grab some snacks to munch on at the table while they played their last game. I knew the game would take up quite a bit of time, so I wanted something to keep them busy while they sat so nicely for so long. Harry Potter Bingo was the final game. This game took the most time to create but it was worth it. To create the bingo board, I used a larger size piece of white paper and made it big enough for about 1 1/2 inch rows (5 x 5). I left space at the top to write Bingo. For the pictures that were going to go in the squares, I Googled black and white coloring pages of various themes (Harry Potter Coloring Pages, Dragons, Cats, Eyeglasses, etc.). I copied and pasted the pictures on to a Pages document (or Word) and played around with the size until I got all of the pictures small enough to fit perfectly inside of the squares I drew (this took a couple times of printing and then going back and resizing and printing again). I used about 28 different images. I printed several copies of the images and then cut out all of the little pictures and glued them randomly on to the Bingo boards, leaving a “Free” space in the middle. I made sure that no two Bingo boards were the same. I then covered the Bingo boards with my top-secret-super-cheap laminating system so that the pictures couldn’t be peeled off from the boards. I cut up an extra set of the pictures along with the letters BINGO and put those in a small plastic bag to use to call out during the game. For the Bingo markers, I purchased some small green vase gems from the Dollar Tree and put them in the middle of the table.
 

This game went very well and took up a lot of time. The children sat still very nicely and munched on snacks while waiting to hear what picture would be called next. Even though some of the children weren’t familiar with the characters in the book, they quickly caught on to the names and images that were on the Bingo boards. Towards the end of the game, I started to peek at what was left on some of the kids’ Bingo boards so that I could specifically call out those images and letters (so that everyone won a prize by the end). The games and activities went VERY well and took up about an hour and a half, which was perfect!

Food/Cake: I didn’t do much in the way of food because our party was held in the middle of the afternoon (not during any major meal times). I simply put out a good mix of a few snacks (my son’s favorite kinds of chips, carrots, strawberries, cheese, etc.).

I saw a lot of really wonderful ideas on the blogs I looked at for how to set up a beautiful spread of food and candy with clever titles and cute labels, but I didn’t get that fancy. If I were to throw another Harry Potter party for adults (or a larger number of children AND adults), perhaps I would make more of an effort.       

For the cake, I saw a really cute idea on Pinterest (so wonderful for craft and food ideas!) for owl cupcakes. This went along with the theme perfectly so I recreated those.

They were really easy to make and the kids (and parents) loved them! I baked chocolate cupcakes and frosted them with chocolate frosting. The eyes were created with Oreo’s (which needed to be sliced through the cream with a knife, not twisted apart) and Junior Mints. The beak was made with a banana candy from a package of Wonka Runts. I used a little white frosting in a tube for the owl feathers. They were adorable!

Prizes/Goody Bags: For prizes, I mostly purchased special candy from the party store (Party City) and threw in a couple of non-candy items. I wrapped the prizes and put them in a bag and let the kids choose their own prizes. I learned my lesson on wrapping them from a Halloween party I hosted back in October. For that party, I just put all of the prizes in a bag and let the kids pick out their what they wanted. This didn’t work so well because the kids took FOREVER to make a decision and the other kids started to complain that the prize they wanted was already taken, it wasn’t fair, etc. Anyhow, so I wrapped them this time. The biggest hit for prizes was a mini basketball game/whistle/sucker thing.

For the goody bags, I purchased gold bags with handles from Michael’s. Some of the goody’s included Snape’s Slime (which was noise putty from the Dollar Tree that I relabeled):

Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Jelly Bean’s (which were normal jelly beans that I repackaged and labeled):

I also threw in some other wonderful surprises (Come on, I can’t give away ALL of my secrets)!

Magic Wands: I debated for awhile on whether or not to hand out magic wands upon the children’s arrival (like they were arriving to Hogwarts and were given their wands as a gift for entering Wizard School) or upon their departure. Last year, I threw a pirate themed birthday party and dressed each child up upon their arrival with a head wrap, eye patch, earring, and gave them each a sword. This led to intense sword fighting for the next 20 minutes, but that was what I wanted! We had rented a large open room where the kids could run around and be crazy, so it worked (although I’m sure there were a few minor pokes and whacks). But this party was going to be held in my house and these wands were a little bit more pointy at the top, so I didn’t want them to turn into swords and eyes to get poked out. I wisely waited until the end of the party to reward each child with their wands and I’m really glad I waited.

To make the magic wands, I purchased two thick dowels from Michael’s and cut them into 3’s with a table saw (THANKS DAD!). I then took a hand saw, and cut a notch all around the dowel about an inch and a half from the bottom. I sanded the notch so that it would be smooth. This was going to be the part that the child would hold. Then I took the other end and sanded it with a high grit sandpaper until it started to create a point.

I then painted the wands with two coats of brown paint and sprayed it with a acrylic sealer. I was quite proud with the way they turned out and my son was thrilled with how “realistic” they looked!

   I hope you will find this blog entry helpful if you decide to plan your own Harry Potter party. Some of the blogs I found most helpful were this one: http://justsweetandsimple.blogspot.com/2011/07/harry-potter-party.html, for the free printables, and this one: http://myharrypotterparty.blogspot.com/2009/03/invitation.html, for the invitation idea and potion class idea. Both of these blogs were amazing! These people got VERY elaborate with their parties and pretty much transformed their whole houses into Hogwarts! I wasn’t willing to get that fancy, but they were really great for ideas and inspiration. I also used Pinterest quite a bit!

   This party was a lot of work but a lot of fun! The kids had a great time and I thought it was a big success! Please keep in mind that this party was planned while I was working full time and traveling between Michigan and Massachusetts, so if I can do it, trust me YOU CAN DO IT! Enjoy!