Cathy's Blog!

Posted on June 27, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Nature

The summer issue of Orion magazine is all about whales. Reading about how we were born in the sea, came to land, and then, some chose to return to the sea is thrilling in showing our need for exploration, adaptation, community, and diversity.

Reading the news today, I contrast killing and greed with the Southern Resident orca named Tahlequah. In 2018, she mourned the death of her newborn calf by carrying it on her head and pushing it through the Salish Sea for 17 days. She covered 1,000 miles.

Each day, we’re exposed to a need to grieve. Each day we read of more people hurt by the policies of the Trump administration and other leaders around the world. We share one planet. Can we learn from what surrounds us, our ancestors, our kin, the birds, the sea, the whales?

A Screech Owl comes to live in a friend’s garden, invited by an Owl House.

Posted on June 26, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Thrill of a Flexible Neck

This is a fascinating article on the Beluga whale and its movable neck. You’ll value yours even more after reading this article: https://orionmagazine.org/article/looking-back/

A Great White Egret with its trigger neck!

Posted on June 25, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Community

I was in Redwood City yesterday and spent time in Red Morton Park where my grandson was attending a half-day Circus Camp. I walked around amidst an array of summer camps: soccer, skateboarding, woodworking, baseball. The grounds are beautiful and there’s a new senior center. Rainbow Bridge playground is inspirational for all ages. I even slid down a slide.

Inside a playhouse at Rainbow Bridge Playground

Posted on June 24, 2026June 24, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Touch

Yesterday I visited a friend at a Skilled Nursing facility in San Rafael. Everyone was lovely, and I helped the physical therapist with rehab for my friend which was minimal and painful movement in her condition. The physical therapist emphasized touch, intention, and connection. She said to imagine the bones coming together to heal, to not speak the intention, but to imagine and visualize the movement. The body responds to pictures, images. We visualized water, bones flowing like water. In visualizing, we touch, heal, connect.

I then went to the Las Gallinas sanitation facility where there are reclamation ponds providing nesting areas and homes for birds, and respite for those who walk around the ponds, sit on benches, and photograph the scenery and birds.

Egret rests on a nest on an island in the center of the pond.

Two egrets, one a sentry, and the other in flight.

The north side of Mt. Tam in the background

And as I post, my phone alerts me to an earthquake detected. I’m advised to “Drop, Cover, Hold On, Protect Yourself”. And all seems calm in the moment. I hear my gate rattle but all seems intact. Life. Never dull these days. Invitations to notice and connect with what’s happening abound.

Posted on June 22, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Above the Fog

I love the fog but today, after my dentist’s appointment, I needed summer warmth and smells so I drove to the top of Mt. Tam.

The ocean lies hidden below and beyond the hills

Switchbacks on the path coming up from the south

Looking East, Mt. Diablo rises from the fog

Posted on June 19, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Each Moment

Where I live we often hear sirens heading out highway 1, especially on the weekends. There’s always a feeling of sadness for whoever is affected and what has happened. One never expects it to be someone you know, but this time it was. A good friend fell asleep driving back from Commonweal. Her car went off the side of the embankment on Panoramic highway and her car with her in it fell and turned over for 200 feet. It was quite a rescue effort, involving our local agencies. She’s in the hospital and she’s alive. She will heal.

I sit with it. My father died in an accident. It brings up fragility, something I’ve lived with since I was 19. Like that, a person you love can be gone. Take care – give care to yourself and those you love.

Posted on June 19, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Sausalito

We were married June 19, 1971 so 55 years ago. We celebrated by spending the night in Sausalito where I took a slew of photos, and this morning had great fun interacting with a Great Blue Heron. Being in Sausalito in the mist skews distances, so, at times, I felt as though I could have been here with the Coast Miwok sailing across the bay in a tule boat.

Rainbow splashing down over Angel Island when we returned from dinner last night.

A Great Blue Heron enjoying the mudflats at low tide.

Posted on June 16, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Misted

I walked Tennessee Valley early this morning in an environment wet with mist. I walked with these words from Neil deGrasse Tyson.

We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us.

Immersed, I was surrounded with birds singing, flying, scurrying, feasting. I noticed the changing smells and the array of greens. I thought of algae changing the color of the reflecting pool in Washington D.C. to green. Plants rule, and yes, “the universe is in us”, and it’s for us to notice and live aware.

Posted on June 16, 2026June 16, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Skewed

A photo of a mountain lion capturing a deer was temporarily removed from our local Nextdoor when someone complained about it being disgusting to show such violence. Now, it’s back and I think of the spectacle Trump allowed on the White House lawn so he could graft even more money and revolt most of us. I wonder how someone can see the cycle of life and find that in need of censorship, and not question what was allowed on the White House lawn on Sunday night.

A photo captured near my home of predator and prey – All One!

Posted on June 15, 2026 by Cathy Edgett

Peace

To counteract the news of Trump and the horrors, lies and financial cost of him and his administration, I come to Anne Frank who died at the age of 15 after being sent to Auschwitz and then Bergen-Belsen.

Anne Frank: “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually turning into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us, too. I can feel the sufferings of millions, and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”