Meditating on peace at the National Cathedral

Good morning, DMV. It’s Wednesday, Feb. 11.

Yesterday there was an event at the Washington National Cathedral for the Buddhist monks of the Walk for Peace. I made my way to Northwest D.C. by Metro, and as I walked west toward the cathedral, there was a trickle of people headed in the same direction. I started chatting with two women from the neighborhood and followed their lead. The closer we got to the cathedral, the more pedestrians joined in.

The crowd was massive. Students from nearby schools scrambled easily across the “snowcrete”-covered grounds. I stood momentarily next to two women who had driven five hours from West Virginia. People of all ages, ethnicities and walks of life lined the sidewalks near the cathedral and perched precariously on every patch of ice-encrusted snow around.

As the procession of monks, led by Bhikkhu Pannakara, entered the cathedral grounds, people called out to them repeatedly: “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” Their voices sounded plaintive to me — but perhaps that’s a reflection of what I’m going through after being fired last week or of what I know this region has experienced over the past year.

The audience followed the procession, shifting toward the entrance of the cathedral and falling silent. Bhikkhu Pannakara spoke about mindfulness. He instructed everyone to put their hands over their heart, close their eyes and focus on breath and heartbeat. And he led the crowd to chant three times, “Today is going to be my peaceful day.”

The Buddhist monks of the Walk for Peace are on the 109th day of their journey from Texas to D.C. At 1:30 p.m. today, after an invite-only lunch stop at St. Mark’s Capitol Hill Church, they’re scheduled to walk to the Lincoln Memorial. I’ll head out to see them again.

Mark L. Guild, a resident of Bethesda, Maryland, sent in this photo from the Jan. 25 snow-and-sleet storm. He shared it because he knows I “love the birds.”

“We have two feeders — one is more traditional and is right outside my wife’s studio, so smaller birds visit right up close,” he said. “The other is a cylinder of seed that hangs in our back woods. On this particular day, there was a bit of competition for ‘dining space at the inn.’”

🐧