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Reading Buddhists
STAYING HOME GAN LEAD TO NEW COPING METHODS
By Kathryn Kyker news@flagpole.com
Ceylon Snack Hut Is a Delight
PLUS, THE RETURN OF RASHE AND MORE LOCAL FOOD NEWS
By Hillary Brown food@flagpole.com
I am not a Buddhist, but I do enjoy reading
their books. For several years, I’ve kept
various books on my bedside table authored
by Buddhists. My bedside table books are
for slow reading, a few pages a night before
bed. I want something relaxing. Pema
Chodran, Jack Kornfield and Thich Nhat
Hanh have all met this criterion.
I’ve been thinking about Buddhists
during COVID-19, how this could be their
time to shine. They advocate for pausing in
the moment and accepting that we cannot
control much in this world beyond our own
response. I’m not sure I’ll ever stop strug
gling against those ideas, but I find these
concepts help anchor me in an upside-down
world that defies an immediate fix.
Buddhists may not have expected a
pandemic, but an unpredicted event that
results in turmoil
and fear is expected,
because ripples of
change reach all
human lives continu
ally. Being here now
doesn’t seem desirable
when our now makes
us want to hide under
the covers, but hearing
that the only absolute
is that everything
changes, might be
comforting.
Months before the
pandemic, I started
reading Thich Nhat
Hanh’s The Art of
Living. For a book
about living, it focuses
a lot on death, as he points out that preoc
cupation with death keeps us from living
fully in the moment. His soothing gentle
ness glides off the page. He uses clouds to
illustrate the idea of “remanifestation.”
“A cloud can never die. A cloud can only
become something else, like rain or snow or
hail.” He speaks of the “deep ecology” of the
ancient teachings, blurring the boundaries
of beingness, connecting our bodies to the
Earth.
He includes some meditations in this
book, and my favorite is “Breathing With
the Cosmos.” It’s a two-page guide for rec
ognizing the universe in us and our place in
it. I find it reassuring that so much exists
and continues independently of my life.
On a recent rainy morning, I positioned
my phone on the tall dresser, aimed at the
wide glass door opened to the gathering of
dogwood, oak and poplar trees; the rain
drops splashing on the deck; the reflection
of a lit candle in the glass. I hit record and
read aloud the meditation. It’s a little over
three minutes and very grainy, but now
I can experience this meditation without
having to read it each time, and the rain is
the perfect background music.
Fortunately, you don’t have to make
your own bad video. There are meditation
apps. As strange as it may sound to need an
app for that, they’re an easy and often free
way to experiment with guided meditation,
listen to soothing sounds or time your own
meditation.
Another option is to try a local medi
tation group via Zoom. Most open-group
meditation is not affiliated with any belief
system. Meditating is simply a way to qui
eten and focus the mind—skills that help
us cope with stress. Zoom groups support
practice to develop these skills.
Trying meditation by Zoom may be less
intimidating than walking into a group. You
don’t have to share your picture/video feed.
You don’t have to say anything, though a
quick “hello” is welcome. When you con
tact the group facilitator to request the
Zoom link, let them know if you’re new to
meditation.
There are several free options currently
in Athens via Zoom. Visit their websites or
pages for more information or to receive a
Zoom link.
Daily sessions are
provided by Five
Points Yoga; their
website is athensfive-
pointsyoga.com.
Saturday morning
sessions are offered
by The Dedicated
Mindfulness
Practitioners group;
you can contact
them through their
Facebook page, ded-
icatedmindfulness-
practitioners.
Rich Panico hosts a
Thursday evening
session, RichPanico.
com.
• Every other Friday morning UGA Georgia
Museum of Art hosts guided meditation,
www.georgiamuseum.org
• Mike Healy’s Mindful Living website,
mindfuliving.org., provides information
about mindfulness and meditation, classes
and workshops, and has guided record
ings. He offers a Zoom practice the second
Friday evening of each month.
• The Athens Zen Group asks that people
contact them to request access to their
online meetings at zengroupathens@
gmail.com
Despite experiencing the benefits, I’ve
struggled to maintain a consistent med
itation practice, but even a little helps.
Our current reality has given me both
more opportunity and more motivation to
meditate. When I feel anxious, I review my
preparations for being sick: mask, bleach,
Tylenol, thermometer, two weeks’ worth of
food and toilet paper. Now I add to that list
my comforting grainy video. If I get sick, or
just need to feel part of the bigger picture,
I can hit play. Although my voice lacks the
serene acceptance of a Buddhist, the words
comfort me: Breathing in, I see that every
thing is in transformation...Breathing out, I
smile to my true nature... I am free from being,
free from nonbeing.”
That helps me. What helps you? Tell
Flagpole at editor@flagpole.com ©
Kathryn Kyker is a writer living in Athens.
Have I been exploring and eating in restau
rants and doing my usual thing? Hell no, I
haven’t, and I miss it dearly. Doing so right
now would be irresponsible and selfish. It’s
not that I don’t trust the people who work
in restaurants. It’s that I don’t trust my
fellow diners, even outside. So, what is one
to do?
Well, here’s one thing that can be done
that will make both your belly and your
mouth happy, support a small business
and keep everyone pretty darn safe: Place
an order from Ceylon Snack Hut, a sweet
little Sri Lankan food preparation busi
ness that operates
through the West
Broad Farmers Market.
Online ordering
through wbfm.locally
grown.net opens up on
Sunday afternoon and
runs through Thursday.
Then on Saturday,
between 11:30 a.m.-
1:30 p.m., you drive
over to the Athens
Housing Authority at
300 N. Rocksprings St.
and follow the signs for
the one-way entrance.
Everyone is masked up,
you can pay before you
even get there, and it
takes all of five minutes to get your food in
the drive-through.
Sri Lankan food is a bit like Indian:
lots of lentils, chutneys, onions, coconut
milk and great spices. I ordered one of
everything: chicken buns (soft, Hawaiian-
roll-esque bread encasing a spiced chicken
filling, delicious either hot or cold); yellow
rice with spicy chicken, darkly fried onions
and dried fruit, plus a lovely, cool cucumber
salad and some nice dal; savory rolls that
are sort of like a battered eggroll but with a
filling more like the classic samosa combo;
coconut roti (maybe a teeny bit thick but
good flavor) with wonderful chickpeas in
a sauce creamy with coconut milk; potato
toffee (crisp, not chewy, and not really
my thing because it’s too sweet for me
but totally fine if it’s yours); and last and
certainly not least, ulundu wade, savory
doughnuts made with black lentil flour
that come with a dipping sauce advertised
as coconut chutney that is mind-blowingly
complex and delicious, a combination of
grated fresh coconut, mustard seeds, gin
ger, chilis and curry leaves.
You don’t need to order as much as all
that, but it’s fun to graze among all the
dishes and discover similarities and differ
ences, plus enjoy leftovers later. It almost
made me remember a different world.
WHAT’S UP: Let’s pretend for now like the
restaurant scene is going to get back to nor
mal this fall (it ain’t). Condor Chocolates
was supposed to start renovating a space at
160 E. Washington St. downtown, next to
the College Avenue parking deck. The idea,
co-owner Peter Dale says, is to move choc
olate-making from the Chase Park space to
this one, with big windows into the produc
tion rooms, Choco Coffee, and an expanded
menu of foods and gifts, but the timeline
is uncertain. Dale is also working on open
ing a second location of his Chase Street
fast-casual restaurant Maepole, this one in
Atlanta’s Summerhill neighborhood.
The Cafe on Lumpkin, in Five Points,
is open, doing take-out of its large menu
with online ordering for breakfast, lunch,
afternoon tea (high, low, royal and cream)
and happy hour (it closes at 6 p.m.), which
includes beer, wine, sangria, tea sandwiches
and a few snacks.
Mama Jewel’s Kitchen on Baxter
Street appears to be permanently closed, as
is Gyro Wrap downtown, which has a “for
lease” sign in the window. Downtown vegan
sweets vendor Cinnaholic has also closed.
So has di’lishi, the frozen yogurt shop off
the Oconee Connector.
Eddie’s Calzones is moving into what
was Zaxby’s at the corner of Clayton and
College downtown. George’s Lowcountry
Table has begun construction on its Macon
Highway location, near Butt Hutt.
It took almost three years, but Rashe
Malcolm of Rashe’s Cuisine finally has the
permit for her food truck. It’s not out on
the road yet, but you can look forward to it
in the future, as well as her brick-and-mor-
tar restaurant on Vine Street opening its
doors—perhaps in August, but she’s taking
it slowly and carefully. In the meantime,
she’s still doing catering, as well as smaller
meals to order.
Pay attention on Facebook, and you
can find out about her produce bags ($20
and including things like corn, blueberries,
squash, kale, cucumbers, tomatoes, peaches
and sweet potatoes) and cold prepackaged
meals ($7 each and veggie-forward, using
the same ingredients that are in the bag).
Pre-order by emailing farm2neighborhood@
gmail.com, prepay, then pick up either at
The National or her storefront at Triangle
Plaza, depending on your preference and
availability.
You can also order hot meals on Fridays
by emailing rashecuisine@gmail.com.
Options vary from week to week, but may
include jerk chicken or pork, oxtails, curry
potato roti, curry chicken or goat, rice and
peas, green beans, and mac and cheese. ©
Kottu made by Ceylon Snack Hut
14 FLAGPOLE.COM | JULY 29, 2020
TC JAYALATH