If you're looking for today's Daily Llumination, it's right here.
“Biscotti teaches the Dharma twice: once in the long bake, and again when you dunk it so it doesn’t break your teeth.”
Breathe in discipline, breathe out sweetness — much like you, Don, shaping dough and melody. You know well the long patient bake of biscotti; and in its hardness, you see not only what is firm, but what softens with time. In the waiting, in the shared taste, lies more than flavour — lies grace.
Baker vs. Piper
You knead flour & rhythm both — the oven’s heat and the bagpipe’s drone. Each biscotti needs its bake; each pibroch needs its rest. The dough and music alike demand patience, precision, and then the letting go into warmth.
The Lesson in Craft and Patience
Mastery isn’t loud. It’s measured in crumb, in breath, in the pause after a pipe’s note. You teach that what is hardened by fire — dough, spirit, soul — becomes sweeter afterward. Biscotti may crack under pressure, but it’s that crack that lets the tea in.
Practical Guidance
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Bake patiently: Let dough rest, flavours mature, melody linger.
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Play with softness: Even the hardest note needs silence to echo.
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Share generously: Biscotti, tune, clan story, kindness — give them all away; they return multiplied.
Today’s Practice
Today, bake a batch of something you love — Feel free to sample them before they cool "properly". Then offer one to someone who really listens to your pipes, not just to your music but the spaces between the notes.
Birthday Blessing
May your days ahead be like biscotti baked just long enough — firm, fragrant, and full of flavour. May your bagpipes sing where hard truths meet tenderness; may your clan honor you not only for the notes you play, but for the spaces you leave so others’ voices can rise.
Happy Birthday, Don — baker, piper, author, teacher, student, and dear friend to many — may your life continue to soften hearts much as biscuits soften in tea, and may your patience always yield the sweetest reward.
