Voice Of The Gold Sage » Photo Gallery » 2014 » No Rain on Cherishing Youth Day
No Rain on Cherishing Youth Day2014-06-24
By Bin Peng
California has a drought this year so there wasn’t much rain during the winter season. Rain finally came just in the nick of time before the beginning of the spring season. The trees and hills of Silicon Valley were thereby replenished after the long wait. The news reported that rain was expected on the same day Cherishing Youth Day was taking place: Sunday. At most, there were only slight drizzles during the past Gold Sage Monastery events of the annual Cherishing Youth Day and Respecting Elders’ Day. So it was no surprise that the level of rain expected by the news forecast put the laypeople of GSM in a bit of nervous anticipation.
On the preparation day before the festival, Peter accidentally broke the water pipe near swimming pool, and the water shot straight up to the roof, which was very spectacular. No matter how hard Peter tried to block the pipe, he failed and only got himself wet all over instead. Looking from a distance, a Dharma Master was wondering: Laypersons recently cleaned up the rainwater on the roof, how come there were still so much rainwater above? In a group effort, the water was finally cut off, and Layperson Chen was invited to get the pipe fixed.
In the morning on the actual day, I got up to check: no rain! When I came very early to the temple, there were already some volunteers who arrived earlier. They were assembling the tent which had not been set up due to the concern of rain. The kitchen crew were busy working. Children and parents continually arrived, and the temple gradually livened up .
The first program was led by teacher Baozhu Wu and was performed by several children. It was a puppet show titled "A Place Called Home." Their performances won the children's applause and laughter. Teachers and children from Gold Mountain Temple also performed several exciting programs. Time flew in applause and laughter, and lunch was ready. In this annual festival, the delicious and wonderful assortment of food was something you wouldn’t want to miss out on. I took the food once, but could not help having a second take. A lot of people took the food several times just like me.
Everyone was enjoying the delicious vegan food, while watching the kids’ lovely dance performances. Gold Sage Monastery was immersed in a great joy. Teacher Samantha led everyone to sing a beautiful Buddhism song in English "Compassion" and a rhyme "two tigers." Then group games started, the kids had a lot of fun. Eight game booths were prepared for this year, and they were all educational and meaningful. Three games were related to art and one of them involved making flying paper birdies. The children made their own paper birds, painted with various colors, beautiful and lovely. In the booth of chanting the Buddha’s name, many gifts were prepared. After completing all the games, each child was able to receive a nice gift package. The kids in our class played all the games over and over again.
Under the leadership of the Dharma Masters, and due to the hard work of volunteers, the children had a sunny and rich Cherishing Youth Day. Maybe the efforts of everyone touched the Dharma protector dragon spirits; maybe because Peter got wet for everyone; maybe it was just a coincidence that this year’s Cherishing Youth Day had no rain.
