Feeling a bit on edge this morning, I went to Rodeo Beach to balance where water meets rock and sand.
Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far. Jodi Picoult
Counterbalancing the News
Presidio Tunnel Tops
Yesterday a friend and I went to the Presidio Tunnel Tops to walk around and see the views. It’s an easy walk from the Presidio to Crissy Field, so gentle movement from grass to sand. We began up top with the Visitor Center where we learned of Michael Painter’s vision that inspired others to cooperate to create this place of beauty, fun, and education. We watched short films on the history of the area, which includes the Native people, Black people, Chinese, and Japanese, and now is a place for all to gather, savor, and feast. We bought lunch at the cafe, and sat in comfy orange lounge chairs to eat with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the world.
This is a place of community and restoration. The children’s playground is made of natural materials and blends in beautifully. If you need a place to believe in the communion of nature, grace, and humanity, this is it. San Francisco is already amazing, and this tops the dream.
Touch
Yesterday I participated in a Sensory Awareness workshop in Berkeley. The pandemic brought workshops on-line on Zoom, and there can be power in that, but in person touch is a leap.
To begin, we brought one hand to our forehead, and eventually the other to the back of the head. Quite lovely, but then, someone else brought their hand to our forehead, and then, to the back of the head. A more profound and deep connection.
We held a bamboo pole to feel the pull of gravity, and the responding lift. We tapped each other’s backs. We sat back to back with another and simultaneously rubbed each other’s backs.
There were other experiments, other ways of awakening and touching into vitality, other ways of opening to play and returning to the spontaneity of childhood.
I’m with this now, the grounding vibration in my feet, signaling up to the top of my head, and deep into the core.
The poem Notes to Self above the Paradox Valley by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer was read.
The whole poem is exquisite but I’m with how “You cannot shovel snow that is yet to fall.”
“Put down the shovel. Breathe
into the dark spaces of your back,
feel how they open like cave doors
to let in the light.”
Expanding Embrace
We’re having our inner garden rejuvenated, so I’m moving windchimes, fairy doors, Buddhas, and gnomes. I see that one hangar is embedded in the tree.
I’ve made a meditation place for myself in the yard down below and this morning as I listen to and see birds in the lower area, I hear plums drop.
Open space for possibility even as we clasp what matters.
The Fourth of July
In 46 years of living here, I’ve never seen the fireworks right there in downtown San Francisco. This year I did, and it was spectacular. They shoot them off in two places so it’s quite a show with the fog adding a cooling taste. Music is played that matches the display. Quite emotional and stirring, especially this year when the Supreme Court is compromised and along with others is dismantling our democracy.
Cascade Falls
The political news requires time in nature. Today I went to Cascade Falls amidst warnings to pack a go-bag. Fire season is here, and yet it’s beautiful as can be, and the truth is if a fire comes roaring I don’t think we’re going to “escape”, and so it is. Strange times as we navigate feelings of vulnerability amidst presence, beauty, and joy.
Sausalito This Morning
Focus
I swear I’ll only post what’s uplifting from now on but this morning I read a poem by Alison Luterman called Mockingbirds.
She’s talking about the debate and writes:
we’ve had some of the smartest women on the planet
in contention for this job, but no, it’s gotta be
two men who cannot seem to form
one coherent sentence between them
Women are the ones most affected by this election and yet we’re watching two old men. How can this be?
On the plus side, birds are singing this morning as a crescent moon lights the sky. My husband saw a mother and baby deer in our yard last night.
I focus on the words of Claude Monet, the French Impressionist painter:
I would like to paint the way a bird sings.
Today I focus on the way a bird sings. Pure delight on this last day of June, the flowering passage of the first half the year.
Emily Dickinson: The only Commandment I ever obeyed – Consider the Lilies.
Politics
I started reading Erik Larson’s new book The Demon of Unrest. It’s about the six months before the Civil War. He wrote it because it reminded him of today, and I’m drawn into it and see the similarities as to division.
I read Heather Cox Richardson as usual today and am struck by her emphasis on what Trump said. I never intended to bring politics into this blog but I feel things are at a critical point right now. There’s the Supreme Court corrupted by Trump and their recent decisions, and Trump’s connection with Putin. Read her today as I pull out a few paragraphs.
HCR: He said something else last night in his slurry of words that jumped out. Somewhere in his discussion of Putin’s invasion of eastern Ukraine in February 2022, Trump said: “Putin saw that, he said, you know what, I think we’re going to go in and maybe take my—this was his dream. I talked to him about it, his dream.”
She goes on to give Trump’s connection with Putin and his dream. You can read how it connects for yourself. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-28-2024
HCR: In last night’s debate, Trump insisted that Putin never would have invaded Ukraine on his watch (although Putin in fact continued his 2014 assault during Trump’s term, and Trump tried to withhold support for Ukraine).
Last night, Trump claimed that the Ukrainians are losing the war and described how sad it was that their country is being destroyed (without mentioning that it is Putin’s unprovoked war that is doing that damage). He also significantly exaggerated how much money the U.S. has contributed to Ukraine’s defense.
So when Trump last night said about the 2022 invasion, “Putin saw that, he said, you know what, I think we’re going to go in and maybe take my—this was his dream. I talked to him about it, his dream,” it sounded as if he had been in on the Mariupol Plan. And when he talked about how the war needed to end, especially in light of Putin’s recent “peace” plan, it sounded as if perhaps he still is.
And he promised, yet again, that he and he alone could get Gershkovich released.
The Democrats need to rally, and when they win expand the Supreme Court to correct recent decisions intended to destroy our democracy. It’s not a time for division. We need to come together, yes, with discussion, but also with resolve to defeat Trump, Putin, and the Christian Right.
I feel Ruth Bader Ginsberg damaged her legacy by not resigning from the Supreme Court so someone with her leanings could be appointed. We are in dangerous territory with talk of replacing Biden as though we might want someone younger, we might not agree on who this younger person should be. That aside, President Biden was rated 14th by the 154 presidential historians who rated Trump dead last. They rated Trump the worst of all the U.S. presidents and that’s really saying something as they haven’t all been winners.
The Democratic party has always been complex as they work to embrace a multitude of people and viewpoints. The issue of age is key in this election, key on both sides. We celebrate this country’s independence next Thursday, July 4th. May this not be the last year that we do.
Rebecca Solnit on the “Debate”
This is my last post on the debate, my last suggestion of a column to read. Because so much is at stake, because our democracy is at stake, I feel a bit obsessed with the debate. I, too, wondered why Trump claimed caring about the environment on the day his Supreme Court dismantled legislation to protect it.
One more read: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/28/debate-losers-american-people
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