Read Online Buddha Da by Anne Donovan - Free Book Online Page A

strange to be getting clarityin one way and fuddling up my brain in another. I mean I wasn’t a heavy drinker, just a few glasses of wine with a meal kind of thing, but it definitely interfered, made me a bit hazy.’
    ‘Was it hard?’
    ‘Not really, occasionally I missed it at the start, maybe at a party or something, or if I’d had a hard day but I just found other ways of unwinding … like the yoga.’
    ‘Right. Ah’ve never really gied anythin up masel … Liz gave up smokin years ago and that was hellish for her, and for the resty us and all, she was that moany-faced, but ah’ve never smoked, so ah don’t know whit it’s like.’
    ‘I stopped smoking ten years ago. It is harder than stopping drink certainly. Smoking is more of an addiction.’
    ‘So, ah mean, the Buddhism … is that how you gie things up … ah mean, is that part of it? Ah mean, ah presume you’ve gied up meat?’
    ‘Maybe giving up isn’t the right way to think of it. You just choose something else. If you don’t drink you get clearer; eating vegetables instead of meat, well, it seems lighter somehow, that’s all. And it’s just my choice … I mean I wouldn’t try to persuade anyone else.’
    ‘So you wouldnae expect your boyfriend tae be a vegetarian, then?’
    ‘My boyfriend?’
    ‘Ah mean if you had wan … or husband or that?’
    ‘No I wouldn’t, though it’s unlikely that I’d have one.’
    ‘Ah’m sorry, didnae mean tae be cheeky.’
    ‘It’s OK, I just mean that I’m not into having sexual relationships with anyone at the moment.’
    ‘Gettin over somebuddy?’
    ‘No, it’s just like the not drinking. I find I have more clarity if I just … abstain from these things.’
    ‘Right.’
    ‘I’m sorry. I must sound like a real bore. It’s just … what I feel is best for me now, you know.’
    ‘Ah see. Sorry, Barbara, ah didnae mean tae pry intae yer private life. It’s nane ae ma business. It’s just, what wi us bein thegether here and the meditatin and that, ah kind of feel we’re … well no friends exactly, but, ah suppose we are friends.’
    ‘I hope we are friends, Jimmy. I’d like for us to be friends.’
    ‘Good.’
    ‘So what about your process?’
    ‘Ma process?’
    ‘You know, the meditation … I mean how is it working with the rest of your life?’
    Ah sat there, wi a fork fulla food haufway between ma mooth and the plate.
    ‘Well, you know, ah just dae the meditation. A lot of the time ah’m in the dark aboot how it affects anythin really. It just seems tae make other folk mad at me ah think.’
    ‘Your wife and family don’t approve?’
    ‘Anne Marie’s quite interested in it – she wants tae know whit it’s aboot. John thinks ah’m aff ma heid but he’s ma brother so he’s always thought that anyway. And Liz … aye, ah think Liz doesnae really approve.’
    ‘Doe she not approve of Buddhism or is it because she feels you’re changing?’
    ‘You know, Barbara, ah don’t really know whit she thinks.’
    * * *
    All the way alang the motorway it was beautiful. Even in the daurk you could feel the cleanness of the night, then, just ootside Glesga a smirr of rain started and ah pit on the windscreen wipers. Rain, hame. Ah sterted tae smile tae masel. Rain, hame. The lights on the other side of the motorway were blurrin in the drizzle. Thon big metal horse loomin up at the side. Then the gasworks, painted blue – ‘Glasgow for it’. Ah wanted tae laugh. Glasgow for it. That’s the gemm. Embra’s lovely, a great place for a day oot or a wee break but Glesga’s hame.
    Ah arrived back at the hoose tae find oor John staundin at the close door.
    ‘Just round tae see if you wanted tae go oot for a pint wi the birthday boy.’
    ‘It’s no your birthday tae the morra.’
    ‘Aye, but a man’s only forty the wanst – ah’m gonnae make the maisty it. Ah was supposed tae be gaun oot for a meal wi Tricia the night but she’s no feelin brilliant.’
    ‘Whit’s