RoundUp: Birthdays and anniversaries

The Buddha's birthday, some milestone anniversaries, an eco-friendly garden, photos from the Green Valley Wine & Food Festival, and more

Albert Levine

and

Laura Hagar Rush

May 11, 2025

By Albert Levine

Today, Sunday, May 11, the Sebastopol Zen Buddhist community Rocks and Clouds Zendo will be hosting its annual Buddha's birthday celebration.

The event is from 10 am to 2 pm, and those interested in attending will be sent the address of the event after signing up.

Michael Changaris is head of practice and board chair of Rocks and Clouds Zendo.

“I would say it’s a semi-traditional, very sweet Buddha’s birthday… and a time when people get together for an informal, just deep community celebration.”

Here’s the schedule:

Making the flower bower: 11 am-ish
Ceremony and words from Roshi: 12 – 12:15 pm
Community potluck lunch: 1 – 2 pm
Wrap-up and departure by 2:30 pm

According to Wikipedia, “Buddha’s Birthday or Buddha Day is a Buddhist festival commemorating the birth of the prince Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Gautama Buddha and founded Buddhism…In South and Southeast Asia, the Buddha's birth is celebrated as part of Vesak, a festival that also celebrates the Buddha's enlightenment.”

“To someone who’s newer to practice, it’s a very sweet ceremony with good community, good connection,” said Changaris, “It’s easy to kind of enter and exit. You won’t feel awkward.”

Last year, part of the ceremony included chanting the heart sutra and pouring sweet tea over the baby Buddha.

“We’ve been a really vibrant group for a long time,” said Changaris. “It’s small but mighty in many ways.”

The founding of the group’s tradition goes three or four generations back and is part of the Soto lineage of Zen Japanese Buddhism.

“One of our founding teachers had this kind of moment where he realized that some of the parts of Sōtō practice would be augmented by practicing in the other full tradition in Japan, which is the Rinzai tradition…so we’re a sangha that has both of those traditions, the Soto and the Rinzai.”

The temple incorporates another core principle into its practices—activism.

“One of the founders of our traditions, Robert Aitken…his task was to found a sangha that wasn’t purely monastic, where people stayed in the world…and brought their kind of life practice into the dojo practice, into the Zendo practice.”

“He always carried our root of engaged Buddhist activism, treating the world as a place of practice where we try to engage as agents of change within small structures and bigger structures as we move,” Changaris said.

In 2023, Zendo invited the community to join a sit-in meditative protest, to “engage in a monumental nonviolent effort to reverse climate change.”

Changaris said that sometimes people may expect something more religious or exotic out of Buddhist teachings and philosophies.

“One of the big [misconceptions] that people can sometimes come with is that [Buddhism] is some reified and special thing, [when] it’s really about living into our best life and engaging in the practice of finding ways to meet life and all of its challenges with an open heart together in community.”

“Lots of people in our Sangha have deep commitment and show up to protest, which I have been to many of late, and I think we do have a need to speak with a clear voice in this moral moment, and also stand up and protect our neighbors.”

For those interested in attending the Buddha's Birthday Celebration today, sign up on their Eventbrite page.

It’s a year for anniversaries!

Several local organizations are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year:

100th anniversary of Sebastopol Rotary: Everyone is invited to help celebrate 100 years of “service above self” by the Rotary Club of Sebastopol with live music, free cake, community booths, family fun (and no boring speeches) on Sunday, May 25, from 12 noon to 4 pm. Beer, wine and other refreshments and food vendors will be available.

60th anniversary of Sebastopol Hardware: Sebastopol Hardware is having a 60th Anniversary celebration on Saturday, May 24, from 11 am to 4 pm. According to their Facebook page, “We will be celebrating our 60th anniversary with you on May 24th from 11 am to 4 pm with raffles, food, coupons, and more! Come by, enjoy the festivities, and let us say thank you for being part of our story for the past 60 years. We wouldn’t be here without your support!”

40th anniversary of Sebastopol’s Sister City Relationship with Takeo, Japan. According to Meg Mizutani of Sebastopol World Friends, “It is the 40th anniversary of Sebastopol World Friends and the 40th of the Takeo-Sebastopol sister city relationship. The date on the charter is 3/27/1985.”

It was also the 25th Anniversary of the Rialto Cinemas this year. See our article about that event in January.

An Eco-Friendly Garden on S. Main Street

By Laura Hagar Rush

I was in the Sebastopol Times office on Saturday afternoon when I noticed a stream of people heading for a house down the street. Sally Anderson’s beautiful little Victorian on South Main Street was featured in the 2025 Eco-Friendly Garden Tour. Here are a few pics, which, alas, don’t come close to capturing the splendor of this local pollinator garden.

The first annual Green Valley Wine & Food Festival was a huge success

By Laura Hagar Rush

Matt Jorgensen, Tori Immel and all the Graton Town Square volunteers deserve a big round of applause for pulling off the first-ever Green Valley Wine & Food Festival. Gorgeous day, lots of people, wonderful wine offerings and a great combination of local farmers and artisan food makers. No stuffy wine-vibes, just as Jorgensen had hoped.

Rent the office next door to the Sebastopol Times!

The Sebastopol Times’ landlord, Katherine Austin, is looking for a new tenant for her building on South Main Street. The office is located inside the Sebastopol Blue building and right on the other side of the wall from the Sebastopol Times. Great Victorian architecture: wood floors, high ceilings, big old-fashioned windows. We are all hoping for a nice quiet tenant. The rent is $625 a month, and there’s a fast, wired internet connection. If you’re interested in seeing the space, contact Joyce at joycewc@sbcglobal.net.

Corrections

GRANGE MURALS: In our article about the murals at the Grange, we reported that the Grange won the grant that underwrote the murals. Grange president Lawrence Jaffe contacted us to let us know that he had misunderstood that. The funding was in fact awarded to Artstart from Creative Sonoma and Asherah Weiss, Artstart’s former program director, initiated and managed the project from beginning to end. “The mistake was wholly my misunderstanding,” Jaffe wrote, “Please give her the credit she is due.”

TWO-WAY MAIN STREET: In our story about the possibility of turning Main Street into a two-way street again, we gave the wrong ending time for the public meeting on May 22. “One thing to note is that the workshop on 5/22 is 3 pm to 7 pm, not 6 pm, traffic engineer Geoff Rubendall wrote us. “That end time was specifically chosen to capture as many business owners as possible who might not be able to make it until after they close for the day.”

Sebastopol Police Logs, April 28-May 4

The following are crimes excerpted from Sebastopol Police Department daily crime log entries and listed at the time the alleged violation was reported.

MONDAY

7:51 a.m. Served a felony arrest warrant for an outside agency at Laguna Park Way. Suspect arrested.

10:09 a.m. Possession of a stolen vehicle (felony) at Laguna Park Way. Pending further investigation.

4:34 p.m. Forging a narcotic prescription (felony) at North Main Street. Pending further investigation.

TUESDAY

4:40 p.m. Tampering with a motor vehicle (misdemeanor) at Bodega Avenue. Investigation suspended, leads exhausted.

WEDNESDAY

8:31 a.m. Violation of a court order involving domestic violence, resisting a peace officer, and continuing a pattern of unauthorized entry (misdemeanors) at Bodega Avenue. Suspect arrested.

8:02 p.m. Inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or companion (felony) at Bodega Avenue. Suspect arrested.

THURSDAY

5:31 p.m. Possession of unlawful paraphernalia (misdemeanor) at Sebastopol Avenue. Referred to District Attorney for review.

SATURDAY

1:10 p.m. Motor vehicle theft, violation of parole, motor vehicle theft with two or more prior convictions (felonies), possession of burglary tools (misdemeanor) and traffic offense with special circumstances at Maple Avenue. Suspect arrested.

SUNDAY

10:01 a.m. Arson of property (felony) and putting a pollutant near waters (misdemeanor) at Sebastopol Avenue. Pending further investigation.

OTHER POLICE ACTION

The Sebastopol Police Department also recorded 146 other events requiring police action during the period, such as lost animals, assisting citizens, parking violations, foot patrol, traffic hazards and reckless driving.