I’m struggling with the political news in this country, and yet, yesterday as I sat on my deck and savored my first sip of a fresh cup of coffee, I felt complete happiness and remembered the words of the Dalai Lama who when asked about the happiest or best moment of his life, responded “this moment.”
When Tara Brach asked the Dalai Lama his happiest moment, he replied, “this moment is happiness”. She shares this: On a visit to D.C., the Dalai Lama was asked by a reporter to share about the happiest moment in his life. He paused and then gave a very mischievous look. His response: ‘I think now!'”
This morning as I read the news, I’m carried on the musical composition of three different garbage trucks coming through picking up debris from three different bins: garbage, recycling, and compost. We are a community. This moment, now!
This Moment, Now!Gong – vibration spreading like wings!Flourish and Flow
On Friday I was at Cornerstone gardens in Sonoma and Saturday at the Las Gallinas Reclamation ponds in San Rafael. I offer a taste through photos.
Dipping into and expanding with RosesLaced HeartsAgave FlowerBall of RocksMetal Goddess in the GardenReflecting PondThank you Hispanic workers for our foodWider View of the GardensMr. and Mrs. Duck in the marsh pondSwan Landing Swan in a gentle float
I’m enamored with clouds as I consider the blue sky that’s always with us, and what floats and moves above, around, and through us.
In the book Where’d You go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, I read her description of the sky and clouds in Seattle.
“The sky in Seattle is so low, it felt like God had lowered a silk parachute over us. Every feeling I ever knew was up in that sky. Twinkling joyous sunlight; airy, giggling cloud wisps; blinding columns of sun. Orbs of gold, pink, flesh, utterly cheesy in their luminosity. Gigantic puffy clouds, welcoming, forgiving, repeating infinitely across the horizon as if between mirrors; and slices of rain, pounding wet misery in the distance now, but soon on us, and in another part of the sky, a black stain, rainless.”
And on she goes …may we each do the same as we observe and reflect on movement above, around, in, through, and connecting us.
Play and Delight Flower Power TooA heart in the sky and eyesHarvest Deep
Today, Andy Borowitz writes a serious column on who understands the Bible better, the Pope or Trump. Here’s his first example.
Pope Leo: “When the light of forgiveness succeeds in filtering through the deepest crevices of the heart, we understand that it is never futile. Even if the other does not accept it, even if it seems to be in vain, forgiveness frees those who give it: It dispels resentment, it restores peace, it returns us to ourselves.”
Trump: “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.”
I picked up an interesting book at the library, The Oak and the Larch: A Forest History of Russia and Its Empires by Sophie Pinkham. It’s a fascinating look at the importance of forests in our lives. In one scenario, I was reminded of the Zen Story: Is that so? In the story, what happens is met with equanimity, non-judgment, and non-attachment.
In the 1950’s, Russia began building the Kakhovka dam. In June, 2023, they blew it up. “Eighty villages were flooded, one hundred people died, and forty nature preserves were swallowed up by the water. The southern reservoir that had once powered a hydroelectric plant flooded into the Black Sea, along with land mines and an array of chemicals that soon caused a toxic algae bloom.” Tragic, yes?
And yet, “But after a year, the reservoir was covered in native willow trees as high as three meters tall, as well as poplars, a green sea. This youthful stand is now Europe’s largest floodplain forest.” Now they aren’t planning to rebuild the dam which was both environmentally harmful and inefficient.
And so, though it may be challenging at times, as much as we can, we can pause and ask Is That So?
I bought a book for my grandson with the same message. That’s Good! That’s Bad! by Margery Cuyler. Back and forth we go.
The crescent moon was bright in the sky this morning. Squirrels are running up and down the trunk of the redwood tree and bouncing on the branches. Birds are singing. A crow plays the windchime. I sit enchanted. I’m with the words of Thich Nhat Hanh:
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world revolves.”
And so it is – our reverence and appreciation opening and turning like keys.
It’s been raining for three days. We lost power yesterday for almost twelve hours but we have a generator for back-up. I was involved in a workshop on Zoom, Mahamudra and the Luminous Mind: The Third Karmapa’s Aspiration Prayer.
Our aspiration, our prayer was for world peace. The focus was on unifying emptiness and luminosity, on cultivating awareness, love and compassion, and wisdom. This is both simple and complex, so I sit here now honoring the simplicity, the gift of it, even as I read the news of Trump. I’m with the challenge of holding it all with compassion and equanimity.
I’m with these words of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, spoken after the end of World War II, during the military tribunal he organized to hold Japanese leaders accountable for their own horrific war crimes, including the sack of Manila in 1945. “The soldier, be he friend or foe, is charged with the protection of the weak and unarmed. It is the very essence and reason for his being.”
Our commander-in-chief is guilty of war crimes. Let’s hold him accountable. We need to heal.
On another note, I highly recommend Lee Klinger Lesser’s book, Return to Our Senses, A Path to Stability in an Unstable World. It’s a font of guidance and wisdom, and personal examples of how to work with what comes.
She quotes astrophysicist Ethan Siegel: “The air we breathe contains one atom from every breath that every human has ever taken. In fact, right now, if you take a deep breath and then exhale, by the time a year goes by, approximately one atom from that breath will wind up in every other person on Earth’s lungs at any moment in time.”
Like the study of Mahamudra this weekend, that’s hard for me to visualize, and I understand it’s about connection. We’re not separate; we are one! Let’s cleanse and purify the air we share with each loving and compassionate thought and breath. We do it for ourselves, all sentient beings, and our beloved planet Earth.
Earth and SkyMay we slide and climb and build and maintain bridges for All!
My good friend Emma sings with the Threshold Singers of the East Bay. They sing to the terminally ill and dying.They also sing for newborns in the NICU. They sing for those crossing thresholds of birth and dying. I recommend the article and listening to the songs. Be soothed in support.
Today I read the words of Ajahn Sumedho: A life without generosity, respect, and giving to others is a joyless life. Nothing is more joyless than selfishness.
I contrast what Trump and cronies are doing with what Grant did when Lee came to him to surrender the Civil War. From Heather Cox Richardson:
But the images of the wealthy, noble South and the humble North hid a very different reality. As soon as the papers were signed, Lee told Grant his men were starving and asked if the Union general could provide the Confederates with rations. Grant didn’t hesitate. “Certainly,” he responded, before asking how many men needed food. He took Lee’s answer—“about twenty-five thousand”—in stride, telling the general that “he could have…all the provisions wanted.”
By spring 1865, the Confederates who had ridden off to war four years before boasting that their wealthy aristocrats would beat the North’s moneygrubbing shopkeepers in a single battle were broken and starving, while the Union army, backed by a booming industrial economy, could provide rations for twenty-five thousand men on a moment’s notice.
Tuesday this week added extra trauma for many of us as we worried Trump would carry out the horrific things he said, but I continue to see how essential it is to stay with what we know is true, humane, and good. We do it for ourselves and the world. We feed and care for those who are hungry, and in need, and in that, we teach and feed ourselves on Joy which includes sorrow and grief, and happiness, tenderness, and care!
We push uphill to enjoy the downhill ride.Exploring and creating stories down by the silent creekCaressed by a Tree
How do we stay sane amidst the cruelty, tragedy, theft, greed, and lies of the Trump administration?
My grandson has been staying with us, so I’m with the beauty of this world. Together, he and I watch the light change in the sky as we observe the squirrels, birds, and trees.
Walking briskly to the Presidio playgroundDowntown San Francisco from the Presidio Tunnel TopsJacket as a parachuteFlowers everywhereJoy in the flight of a paper airplane, one of many made in the last few days.
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