When we were in Monterey recently, I was enchanted with the aquarium. I’d never seen anchovies circling in the Kelp Forest before. Now, I read that they’re not always there. These will be eaten by bigger fish within two weeks.
That morning, I’d been enchanted with this sculpture. After seeing the anchovies, I knew what it represented.
Living here, we celebrate the summer dance of fog as it prances, flows, and blows in and out.
Early this morning, sitting outside, Steve heard the fog horn, and then, nearby, an answering owl, and in response, a little further away, another owl, and then, a third.
Heads bowed today!
I’m watching the Capitol police officers testify on the January 6 insurrection. It’s shocking. It’s shocking and a must-see for every person in this country.
The men speaking are shaking. I’m shaking. That anyone, especially those who were protected by these men, could deny this investigation is again, shocking.
It was an insurrection, and without the courage of these men, we would be a different country. May those who organized and encouraged this be punished. Those who protected us will always be haunted. We should all be haunted by how close we came to losing our democracy.
We were in Monterey this weekend with the rhythm of the tides. Here are anemones at low tide Saturday morning.
The July full moon is called the Buck Moon because antlers of male deer are in full growth mode. I woke in the night and the room was bright with moonlight. Look up tonight and savor reflecting within as growth comes.
I’ve been home for four days with a cold, cough, and sore throat. The gift is I’m not only aware of each breath but grateful for it. Perhaps sickness comes once in a while so we better appreciate our health. It’s an opportunity to simply be since I can’t seem to focus on much else.
Two quotes guide me today.
Leo Tolstoy:
Everyone thinks of changing the world. But no one thinks of changing themselves.
Victor Hugo:
If you look in the eyes of the young, you see flame. If you look in the eyes of the old, you see light.
Of course age is relative and so it is for us all to see and be flame to Light.
I periodically reread and refresh on And There Was Light by Jacques Lusseyran. He writes:
Because of my blindness I had developed a new faculty. The faculty is attention. In order to live without eyes, it is necessary to be very attentive, to remain hour after hour in a state of wakefulness, of receptiveness and activity. Indeed, attention is not simply a virtue of intelligence or the result of education, it is a state of being. In its truest sense it is the listening post of the universe.
Emily Dickinson may have been living the same way when she wrote:
Forever – is composed of nows.
Steve and I spent two nights in Liege, Belgium four years ago. It was pure delight as we ate our meals outside in outdoor cafes.
When Steve wanted to find a laundry on a Saturday, he asked a policeman who then led us to the police station where he gathered a crew of police women and men interested in helping us fulfill this task. We all walked around together until we learned it wasn’t meant to be but meanwhile we’d made new friends.
When I look at the photos of the flooding in Liege, I’m shocked. Each moment of our lives, a moment preserved.
Yesterday I was with my grandson. He gets very excited when he sees bees and he loves to watch them. I read that bees can differentiate people so maybe they recognize a gentle soul who is curious about their ability to weave the air with flight.
Leonardo da Vinci wrote: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Yesterday I was at Abbott’s Lagoon – such beauty and yet I took no pictures even though a Great Blue Heron posed on the sand dune giving me time to pause, focus, and relate. Then, he opened his wings, and with a lift and swirl, passed gently overhead.
Now, today, I realize my mother who passed away in 2005 would be 94 tomorrow if she were alive. The next day my younger brother would have turned 68, and yet, here I am.
What is mine to learn and reflect?
I’ve been harvesting these words of Thomas Merton:
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to… fit our image, otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
