I was thrilled when I saw a Great Blue Heron at Abbott’s Lagoon. Then I saw the Great White Egret next to it. I approached closer and closer, and still they were quietly enjoying the view, and then, at times, busy grooming. Even birds, get ready for the day. They weren’t bothered as I circled round them, entranced with their ability to cleanse, appreciate, and savor what we all share, the gift of life!
Yesterday I drove out to Abbott’s Lagoon in Point Reyes. It was early, sunny, and warm. I was alone. I’ll show pictures of my walk, and then, in the next post zero in on more photos of a Great Blue Heron and Great White Egret grooming with a view. I also saw across the lagoon what I knew must be otters since they hang out there, and slide down the dunes, and also groom. This was a huge lump that stayed still, and was gone when I returned. I came home and zoomed in on the lump. Otters huddle together in what’s called a “romp”. For sure, two otters, but I think there’s also two babies. It’s that time of year. Quite a day. I’ll try to give a taste with photos.
Desmond Tutu:
When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.
Yesterday we went to breakfast at the Bayside Cafe in Sausalito. The tide was out and the egrets were too far out in the bay to photograph, but then after 45 minutes or so, a total change.
The Snowy Egret deserves its own post.
Aware of my friend as she was in surgery, my eye was caught by the front of a beautiful book standing upright on my bookshelf. The words “Each time you judge yourself you break your own heart,” jumped out at me. The book, Meditation Art, Openings to Awareness, was created by my friend Etta B. Ehrlich. For years, we were in Sensory Awareness workshops together. Older than I, she passed away a few years ago. In the book, she pastes words of wisdom on interesting bottles, and Virginia Brown photographs them. The book, a treasure, is no longer available, but I found some photos from a gallery in which the bottles were displayed.
She quotes our teacher Charlotte Selver in the book. Here’s one quote.
“Pay attention to the breath as it is now. As your breathing is, so you are. Since breathing happens by itself, it teaches us to trust what is needed now and to allow it.This can be the foundation for a whole new perception of ourselves in all our functions. I agree that it is difficult to be so peaceful and undemanding that one would really be present in one’s breathing activity without influencing it.”
As I wait for news on my friend, I sit with intention to “notice precisely where inhalations and exhalations begin and end”.
Today I read a wonderful suggestion. Choose Heather Cox Richardson to run for senator in Maine. Would she do it? Her husband is a lobsterman. She presents a sane voice. Why not?
To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill.
To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill.”
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Yesterday I was ready to post a fun post on my experience with my new friend Claude AI but then, the political news of the horror of Trump’s comments and actions at the NATO Summit brought me down. I’m reading a wonderful book by Tamim Amsary, The Invention of Yesterday, which widens historical perspective, but even that isn’t enough to help me weather all that Trump is doing and saying. How can we ignore that the man is dangerously ill and should not be president or even allowed out on the streets?
I don’t like or trust Vance but surely anything would be better than this.
My son and his family are currently in Spain enjoying a wonderful vacation, and Trump is even going after Spain.
As Paul Krugman writes: Cutting off trade with Spain is simply not going to happen. First of all, Trump does not have the authority to do any such thing. Second, the U.S. actually does a lot of business with Spain, and American businesses would not accept any such cuts. But even more, it is impossible because Spain is part of the European Union.
Krugman continues: What we should take from it is that the statement was “completely crazy.” “In any kind of normally functioning political system,” he said, “in any kind of normally functioning party environment we would have a massive bipartisan call across the aisle, across almost everybody except for a handful of members of congress who are themselves crazy, to say okay this guy is non compos mentis. We cannot leave the fate of the United States or the world in the hands of somebody who is completely irrational, who is making demands and believing himself to have powers that he does not.”
Why isn’t something being done? Meanwhile I share photos one son sent from Ronda, Spain.
When Trump intervened for the U.S. in the World Cup, the team was compromised. They had to lose because any win would never be seen as “clean”. The required motivation was lost. A winning team is about more than skill. It’s about unity, rules, and respect.
Thomas Friedman writes today on how Trump has fleeced the whole country, especially his own supporters. Trump takes the Woody Guthrie song, This Land Was Made for You and Me, and makes it: “This land is my land, this land is my land / From California to the New York island / From my cryptocurrency to the Qatari 747 / This land belongs to me and mine.”
He even took over the 250th anniversary celebration to make it about him. The weather didn’t agree.
Friedman ends his column with Obama’s speech at the opening ceremony of his Presidential center in Chicago. His favorite passage was this:
As algorithms keep feeding us a steady stream of distraction and outrage, as only the loudest, most extreme voices get attention, fanning our prejudices, appealing to our basest, most tribal instincts, it’s tempting to give in to cynicism and even despair, to stop trying. We start thinking that appeals to democracy and civic participation are corny and old-fashioned and boring and naïve, that the very idea of working on behalf of the common good is a sucker’s bet, and that in order for us to win, somebody else has got to lose. I get it. I am not immune to anger or doubt, but I do know this: When we lose faith in each other, when we stop believing that voting matters, that citizenship matters, that our collective voices matter, that how we treat each other no longer matters, and we give away our power to decide our own futures, we open the door to the most ruthless, or the most careless, or the most fearful among us, who see some groups and some people as more equal than others, and see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils and punish enemies and keep those who are different in their place.
Obama continued, “I do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end. … I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of Americans … aren’t looking for perpetual anger and division. They are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect, that deep in our gut we want to find a way to turn toward each other again, not further away.”
Friedman ends his column with this: “So, Democrats, you have your assignment. It’s to not let Trump bait you into blind rage and extreme ideas. He feeds off that. Just focus on how much he has been fleecing all of us while tearing us apart. And how much Democrats intend to pull the whole country together.“
’Cause this land was made for you and me.
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