Bright ideas

To gather up our nerve to walk into the Portland Insight Meditation Society in an unfamiliar, definitely shabby part of town, we searched for a coffee place on Ruth's smart phone. This is the low rent area. Both PIMS and Space Monkey were not much to look at from the outside but full of creativity and heart on the inside.

The woman who made our lattes was dressed with flare; intentionally ripped stockings, wild hair wrapped in a loose crimson turban, short skirt and as she walked away I saw the tattoos on the back of her calves. When she slid the mugs of coffee across the counter to us I commented on the shapes she had made in the foamed milk.

"Here you go ladies, each design is a Rorschach test. I like to put my PHD in psychology to use when I can." So after sitting down on a worn couch by a large window, we peered at the shapes in the foam. Staring into our drinks, we told each other what the images evoked in the manner invented in the 1920's by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach.

From there we went to sit meditation and listen to a dharma talk about the Buddha. It was a full morning.