Darryl believed the vow he made on starting his Buddhist practice in 1981 was the path to happiness for himself, and for bringing more meaning to his life. It was a mission to help others that had resided in his heart for years and now he had found the best path toward accomplishing that mission.

Today, he awakened without the alarm sounding from the iPhone that was forever at his side. Darryl remembered his daily goal —sharing Buddhism with at least one person a day. There was Audrey, the young lady receptionist at the desk of the YMCA tennis facility, where he plays every Monday morning. From the numerous times he’s been there, Darryl formed cordial relationships with the staff and one of the several tennis court attendants. On this morning and many others he often found Audrey with head bowed, eyes focused on her iPhone. He guessed she must be catching up on social media posts from Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok or Twitter he thought. Or possibly, even reading a text book for her college studies. She always raised her head, to greet the YMCA club members with a pleasant smile whenever they checked in, to scan their picture ID membership cards for entrance to the assigned courts.

“Good morning Audrey,” Darryl said in his deep baritone voice and bright smile that sparkled with the gold crown on his back tooth, that was nearly 45 years old. Darryl had had the crown installed while he was living in Nashville Tennessee, at the Meharry Medical & Dental school, back in the late 1980’s. That same crown that was still marveled by dentist he would see for his annual cleanings.

Darryl would often complement whatever court attendant that was working that day on how well groomed the courts looked, with a heartfelt sense of gratitude, when it caught his meticulous eye for details, under the crisp sunny Florida morning light at 8:00 am. Besides checking in club members, the attendants’ job is to prepare the clay courts for play. That involved sweeping the courts with a broom pulled by a golf cart, that took about five minutes to finish. Then lining the courts with a roller broom by foot to precisely remove the clay that spilled over from the sweeping, and to bring the white court lines for the players to call the balls in or out of play. This was a meticulous and careful task, to bring out the contrast, so clearly against the green clay, one would think they were stepping on center court to present a million dollar prize to the match winner. This procedure meant spending an additional 10 minutes to complete the task, and there were six courts to do for the days schedule. Finally, the courts were already for the morning’s mostly senior citizen tennis players.

Audrey and the other attendants would always respond with soft smiles, after completing their court maintenance, so Darryl and the others always shared their appreciation for the courts being so nicely kept. The real queens and kings of the courts responded with grateful enthusiastic voices, “thank you so much. Have a good time and enjoy your games!.”

Darryl usually woke for tennis on Mondays, without an alarm. Quite often it may be the second or third time he has awaken. Staying asleep has always been an obstacle, rarely sleeping through the whole night. Even for a brief moment he’d wake when Laura, his wife’s alarm would go off at 3:30 AM. It was essential for her to rise very earl for the factory’s 6 A.M. start time. It required 4 daily one-hour commutes from their home in Titusville to Orlando, Florida . Like a dim flash of light in the darkness her shadow will quietly move across the darkened room, to not disturb Darryl, even from the slight bit of light that existed from her iPhone. Darryl would awake and quickly fall back asleep like a jungle lion in his native Tanzania, who hears the roar of thunder during its daytime nap.

This morning it was 6:47 AM when Darryl reached for his iPhone 12 Pro, lying some place in their bed, under sheets or pillows or maybe on the bedside table. The soothing morning light setting displayed. He often listens to a novel on his device to fall asleep, perhaps a recent purchase from Audible, and selects one of the many titles, from its library. After 10-15 minutes of playing through wireless AirPods position in each ear, he would drift off to sleep. This night he decided to listen to the soothing voice of Barack Obama reading “A Promised Land,” a 768 page novel, which has taken Darryl several months of inconsistently trying to complete. He wondered if he should start over from the beginning. Why was this revealing memoir of the first black president in American history not holding his attention? Certainly his stories of trials and tribulations of his time in the White House must be compelling enough for a thorough listening.

Resting his feet on the floor searching for the slides, or sandals, as he called them he found none under the bed. These were the most recent names given to the slippers by young men and women of the day Usually they had brand names like Nike or Adidas in bold white type across the top. Darryl still referred to them as sandals, slippers, or house shoes for whatever the occasion called.

“Laura have you seen my house shoes?” he asks. “Look under the bed,” she replied.

Fishing around the bedroom floor for the slippers, would they not be in the same place he left them when he retired for bed, the night before? Somehow one of the three dress pillows that they routinely placed on top of the bed would also end up on the floor. When he did awaken long enough before it was time for Laura to leave, she would kiss Darryl goodbye, kicking one or both of the slippers underneath the bed. But, it was not the case this morning. The window light that slipped through the vertical blinds of the darkened room was not enough for pursuing the search. Just then he found the sandals, his toes slipping into them as if they had perfectly placed at his feet.

The light reflecting off the building from the courtyard, that separated two of the twelve units , flooded into the windows of the central Florida condominiumDarryl inherited from his loving mother, in 2017. It caught the rising sun light from the eastern Atlantic coast, a reminder of a “new day, new start” Darryl thought as the whisper voices in his head said.

“Hey Siri,” he said into the darkened living room “Turn on the en-suite light” which then brightened up the slightly dim room from the slates in the window shades, to a partially brighter space. At least it was bright enough to awaken him, to enjoy the ever changing reflection of light bouncing off the building facing the en-suite west window, that refreshed Darryls spirits. “I’m alive!” he thought, recalling one of Mark Twain’s refrains. “I’ve never killed a man, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.” This would not be the story in today’s newspaper for Darryl.

As a photographer, he always enjoyed how light moves and travels thru space and time.,observing the way light fell on different objects how objects absorbed the light. This is what Darryl lived for the better part of his life, calling it a dance on nature in silence. On to the task for the day with feet solidly planted in his slides, “the first assignment of a winning day is making up the bed.” It was something Darryl had read from Admiral William H. McRaven’s book, “Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World. William McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Make Your Bed and the New York Times bestseller, “Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations,” talks about winning at the start of the day, with this simple action. The military’s rules, and discipline was what Darryl thought made good sense for the mission he set out for himself on the day and pretty much everything else in a rhythm of structure.

Always looking forward to playing tennis Monday morning, Darryl loves the game as both a player and a fan. On this day it was special because he looked forward to talking with Audrey. If this was her morning to clean up the courts to center court status, she may be ready to receive the senior players with whatever was on their mind or mood for the day.

Surely, she may not be expecting that the only black senior citizen guy with the deep voice and golden smile would be sharing the subject of religion and certainly not a philosophy as foreign to American traditional philosophy, but Buddhism.

Over the last few weeks we have he had good rapport with Audrey and the others exchanging cordial pleasantries in the morning. But, Audrey is different, Darryl thought in the way she carried her self. Casual and caring, but not caring too much. She had to be there not because she wanted too, but had too and is making the best of the job, he thought. Never complaining as Darryl could see or tell. Just a sense of this job is a mere pit stop on a road to other places, she wanted to go and a way of getting there, he decided. So this morning, after their friendly greetings, Darryl asked. “Tell me, Audrey what are you curious about today?”

Audrey’s facial expression didn’t take the question as strange, or a bit off guard. They were the only two in the clubhouse office, where the check-in took place, as she sat at the desk with the members’ ID scanning machine. Surrounded by walls of tennis rackets, scorecards, string machine, and old pictures of club members who have been there since the last century. Along with a few recent poster ads for Wilson tennis balls. In a non- imposing manner, Darryl could see from her facial expressions that she was pleasantly surprised at his question.

“Well I have a paper that’s due for school,” she said. “What’s the topic?” Darryl asked.”“Well, it’s religion.”“I was supposed to go to a different church service than my own, to find out something about other religions.”

“Oh, I see., that’s interesting, because there’s something I wanted to share with you about my religion.”

“Really,” Audrey replied. “What’s that?”

“Well I’m a practicing Buddhist,” “Darryl said,” while reaching inside his tennis bag to find a card he’d set aside with the Buddhist chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo on it. He was ready to share it with Audrey.

Darryl had planned the hope-filled conversation in advance, as he spent a 30-plus minutes in front of his home altar, set in the middle of the living room of the condo he and Laura shared. Winning in the morning by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo in front of their Gohonzon was the way Laura and Darryl gained courage to not be defeated by the days challenges that they knew will undoubtedly occur. Darryl really wanted to share the power and benefit of chanting with Audrey and he was ready. He had carefully placed the card into his Wilson tennis bag’s open pocket, that would enable him to reach for the cards without fumbling around with the zippered section to grab. The card was at the ready.

“Have you ever heard of these words?” Handing the card to Audrey as she reached across the desk, she removed the second head phone from her right ear.

“Nam Myoho Renge Kyo?” Darryl asked. “No.” she responded.

“Well, this is your lucky day, since you have to write a paper on religion,” he said, excitedly, though not enough to give away the fireworks of amazing thoughts running through his head. She accepted the card and stared at the words without trying to read them herself.

Darryl asked, “Can you pronounce the words Audrey? “Nam myo renge kyo” she said in a clear voice as if she had said them before or heard the pronunciation in perfect pitch. “Yes, that’s perfect.”

“I’m very good at diction,” Audrey said.

“Well that’s very true ” he replied. “There is a website to learn more, that could help with your report paper for your philosophy class,”he added, as their eyes met as familiar friends, just talking with each other in full trust and respect.

“I know you don’t know me Audrey, just from our morning greetings during my check in for tennis,” Darryl said, with every hope and intention for Audrey to give chanting a try. “Audrey, if you try saying these words a few minutes every day as an experiment, you will see a change. But, don’t believe me, try it for yourself, and see what happens. You may even have a higher than expected grade on your paper. Please a look at the SGI web site.”

“Maybe,” Audrey said, “thank you so much for sharing, it’s great timing!”

This time Darryl heard in Audrey’s response a bit more happiness, than any other time. It came from her heart Darryl felt.

“You’re welcome Audrey, have an awesome and amazing day, okay?” he said.

”You too, Darryl” she responded.

Wow, Darryl thought as he prepared to leave the club office thru the screen porch that shielded him from the insects, looking to bite their teeth to any fresh flesh or a moth flying around a light bulb. The staff took good care to remove any nuisance that might cause any discomfort to people gathering there, before joining friends on manicured courts, duly prepared by Audrey and/or her coworkers. The reason behind Darryl’s question this morning, in his mind was the mission to share chanting with at least one other person for their happiness. This was a fresh, new attitude to have courageous faith for developing a peaceful world.

The level of courage he wished for himself was to never be defeated by circumstances, he faced in daily life, and in his relationship with Laura. The demons of misunderstanding dwelled in his mind, leaving a scar upon his heart. That scar needed desperate attention, and that was Darryl’s only way of knowing how to heal, through prayer and actions.

Laura and Darryl are practicing Buddhists, who dedicate their lives to the humanistic cause of realizing a peace in the world, built on the ideals of education and cultural exchange between the people and countries of the world. With the goal of gaining a better understanding of our shared humanity, we spread the teachings of Buddhism in within the Soka Gakkai International or SGI. Their combined years of practice in the organization exceeds 80 years. They have gained tremendous benefits from their years of practice, within the SGI and from the leadership of its founder, Tsunasaburo Makiguchi, and subsequent mentors, Josei Toda, and Daisaku Ikeda, who propagated this practice of Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism of of the Latter day of the Law. The life philosophy is practiced currently in over a 192 countries throughout the world.

Darryl shouted, 40-LOVE loud and clearly for his opponents to hear the score on his services game, was up 6 games to 5, in the second set, leading 2-1, it was a match point.

The End.

Thomas Polk

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