
Dear Friends,
February has arrived, greeting us with enough snow last week to close the nearby 5 Freeway for 13 hours. This, of course, is the month of love with Valentine's Day on February 14. It is Black History Month, a time to celebrate the gains that people of black heritage have achieved in recent years! The Lunar New Year - the year of the Snake - celebrations are underway. This New Year is celebrated by most Asian countries, as well as Asian people in the United States and other parts of the world. Our deepest prayers continue to go out to the people affected by the January Palisades, Eaton and other fires. The effects of these will be felt for a long time to come, unfortunately. We are blessed that none of the fires came close to Frazier Park and Pine Mountain Club where we are.

CENTER ACTIVITIES
The Center hosts regular Meditations on Saturday at 11:00 am. Please call first if you would like to attend. We appreciated the kindness of The Mountain Enterprise paper's January 10 edition including a picture of the granting of our 2024 Humanitarian Award in August to the Mountain Communities Family Resource Center. We are looking forward to awarding the WZM Scholarships again this year, beginning in May. It is a meaningful way to support our youth living in poorer communities to help them realize some of their greatest dreams! The Jizo Peace Center would really appreciate your donations of any amount. Each WZM Award is $350. Last year we gave out 5 of them due to community caring and support. This year's Humanitarian Award will be given out in the summer at a community luncheon where I hope many of you can attend.

PINE MOUNTAIN MEDITATION CLUB
The Meditation Circle takes place every Monday at noon in the condor Room of the Pine Mountain Clubhouse. Each leader shares from her own spiritual experience and tradition. All are welcome - donations accepted.
February Meditation Leaders are:
February 3 - Izumi
February 10 - Ruth
February 17 - Chris
February 24 - SunJay
Below is a picture of the current meditation leaders: from left to right Izumi, Chika, SunJay, Simran, Chris, Ruth


EMPOWERING READERS OC TUTORING PROGRAM
Ruth's 2 tutoring students are continuing to improve with tutoring sessions twice a week. Since this is the year of the Snake, one of them told me he has a pet snake, and it's name is Noodle. The other is easily distracted and frequently has to be brought back to the task at hand.

ANANDA ASHRAMA
Public services at the Temple in La Crescenta occur on Sunday mornings at 11:00 and Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm. The residents at this Retreat Center did have to evacuate for a few days because of the fires in January, but soon returned as the fire went another direction. A family of instrument makers who lost their house, a number of instruments, saved treasured wood, and their studio due to the fires are now living temporarily at the Ashram. Ruth will give the Sunday talk on February 23.
The Jizo Peace Center wishes blessing and peace to all!