Former Monk finds Nirvana

One of the first blogs I discovered since entering the blogosphere was Lessons from the Monk I Married.

It is an uplifting blog written by my good friend Katherine Jenkins who lives with her former monk hubby in Seattle in the USA.

Kathy is a fascinating and  well traveled lady who has an agent in New York City working on having her fascinating stories made into a book.

I read her musings hoping to find a little slice of Nirvana.

I didn’t really have Kurt Cobain in mind – but hey – she does live in Seattle…

The following is a piece reproduced from her blog, with Kathy’s permission.

….Getting the mail may seem like an everyday task for most people.

Bills, bills, junk, bills, junk….

But today… oh, look! Nirvana!

A few hours ago, my husband went out on this fearfully rainy day to get the mail.

I didn’t even raise my eyes from the computer. He came back in shaking the rain off his jacket.

In his hands he held a square box. I glanced up at him and said, “What’s that?” He said, “I don’t know?” and proceeded to rip the box open.

He stood their staring with amusement at what was in his hands.

I said again, “What is it?”

He said, “Ummm…it’s Nirvana.”

I was a little puzzled.

For a minute I thought  my husband was having one of those instant enlightenment experiences that I’ve read about in books.

You know, the monk goes out and sits on a rock and a raindrop touches his head and that’s it, he’s enlightened.

He looked up at me smiling and then showed me what was in his hands and said again, “Look, Nirvana!”

I started laughing. I immediately thought, “Wow everything you have been looking for is inside your mailbox!”

Found it!

When we first moved into our house, we were told that a recording engineer, by the name of Jack Endino, used to live in our house.

We were also told that he recorded Nirvana (the group) in our basement before they were popular.

I wasn’t sure I believed this story. We had been getting mail for Jack on and off, letters from Hollywood, LA, and other parts of the US.

We’d pop it back in the box and write, “wrong address.”

This time, we received this rare vinyl record of Nirvana’s old songs.

My husband didn’t want to pop this one back in the mailbox.

He found it very amusing.

So amusing that he ran off to a thrift store to see if he could locate an old record player!

In the meantime, the post man came back. He came to the front door and said, “Did you get a square box in the mail?”

I said, “Why, yes!” (I’m not good at hiding the truth)

He continued, “Does that person live here?” I said, “No, but he used to and we get mail for him from time to time.”

Sadly, I gave him the package and he drove off in the rain in his mail truck. Now my husband is out in the rain trying to find a device to access his Nirvana….but it’s gone…it’s so fleeting!

For a moment he held it in his hands.

It wasn’t anywhere exciting..it wasn’t on top of the a mountain or in a cave or at a holy shrine. It was right there in the mailbox.

Thanks Kathy for letting me print this story, which I think is a classic! I highly recommend checking out Kathy’s fabo blog!