We’ve been with our almost five-year old grandchild for the last three days.
I sit here now lifted on wings thinking of how a child can run and their feet don’t even touch the ground.
Yesterday we went to the Children’s Discovery Museum on a foggy day. By the water, we saw a huge flag and people gathering in uniforms. It was a memorial/funeral for the line-of-duty death of Lieutenant Brian Kyono, who passed away after succumbing to occupational cancer. Bagpipes played in the fog, and Amazing Grace rang through the air. As the fireboat sprayed water, the sun broke through.
We then went to the Railroad Museum in Tiburon, a 19 year achievement put together by ten men. Grandchild talked on an old-fashioned phone with a man on a cell phone. He loved the adding machine, seeing the numbers print out when he pressed them.
At the ice cream store, grandchild chose fresh orange juice over gelato, and after dinner we sat outside and wished on stars and engaged in a round-robin of questions and raising our hand to answer, and so today, a quiet morning of absorption and missing an exuberant, cuddly, and unique being.
View from the Playground at Stinson Beach on TuesdayView from the Discovery Museum of the Memorial FlagThe fireboat sprays by the Golden Gate BridgeWingsHonoring a fallen brother fireman Tiburon is Changed. Condos, not water through the front windows. Angel Island outside the back windows of the museumA docent shows him how to use the phone. Communication in the pastThe fun of learning numbers on an adding machine!
Trump attempted a coup and without the conscience of Pence would have succeeded. He’s very clear this will be the last election. He’s supported by Elon Musk, who as of October 1, 2024, is the richest person in the world. Musk also is very clear on his support for and need for dictatorship.
I am skeptical of Trump’s supposed two assassination attempts but they lead the way for Trump’s campaign to now request military aircraft for Trump to fly in during the final weeks of the campaign. He wants an array of military vehicles to transport him. The image matters. He’s cultivating the image. How he’s gotten this far without being in jail I don’t understand, and now when he’s so clearly stating he will not honor the results of this election I don’t see how we can hand him military aircraft and vehicles. His only honesty is announcing his plans to takeover the country and rule as a despot, like the group of people he admires.
Vance refuses to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 election. Trump is showing mental incompetence, so it’s easy to see that Vance will be his replacement when Trump takes over, steps aside, and is pardoned by Vance.
How can we think Trump won’t do what he did before? His campaign has had four years to better prepare, and the coup is beginning now, and yet, we’re acting like endorsements matter, like our vote matters. I hope I’m wrong but this is blatant and over the top. And of course, endorsements matter, and my vote counts.
From Heather Cox Richardson today:
In election news, The Atlantic endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. This is only the fifth time since its founding in 1857 that The Atlantic has endorsed a presidential candidate. It is the third time it has endorsed Trump’s opponent. It also endorsed Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964 when he ran against extremist Arizona senator Barry Goldwater. And in 1860 it endorsed Abraham Lincoln.
The Atlantic’s endorsement of Harris echoes its earlier endorsement of Lincoln, not only in its thorough dislike of Trump as “one of the most personally malignant and politically dangerous candidates in American history”—an echo of its 1860 warning that this election “is a turning-point in our history”—but because both endorsements show a new press challenging an older system.
The Atlantic nodded to the free thought on which the magazine was founded in 1857 when it came out strongly for Harris today. It is endorsing Harris, it said, because she “respects the law and the Constitution. She believes in the freedom, equality, and dignity of all Americans. She’s untainted by corruption, let alone a felony record or a history of sexual assault. She doesn’t embarrass her compatriots with her language and behavior, or pit them against one another. She doesn’t curry favor with dictators. She won’t abuse the power of the highest office in order to keep it. She believes in democracy. These, and not any specific policy positions, are the reasons The Atlantic is endorsing her.”
Last night I started reading Nicholas Kristof’s memoir Chasing Hope. It offers an opportunity to learn what journalists risk to bring us the news. I was enticed when a friend told me the story of Kristof’s son’s birthday party in Japan. Kristof set up the game of Musical Chairs.
He writes on his blog: For Gregory’s birthday, we invited his classmates over and taught them to play musical chairs. Disaster! The children, especially the girls, were traumatized by having to push aside others to gain a seat for themselves. What unfolded may have been the most polite, most apologetic, and least competitive game of musical chairs in the history of the world.
Right now we have an election where one side blatantly lies and somehow it’s seen as okay. In my opinion, there are a multitude of reasons to vote for Kamala Harris but there’s one that defines a democracy, health care for all including those with preexisting conditions. We’re in this together, and we each contribute in our way. Just that one issue should decide the presidential election.
Life is not a game. We live on a planet of abundance in a country rich with resources. There’s no reason to leave anyone out.We have enough chairs.
In my friend’s garden: Is it snake or stick?A garden sentry!Flowers for beauty and bees!Intricacy gathers in stone
On Thursday I walked with a friend to the beach at Tennessee Valley. It was finally cool enough to be outside during the day and perhaps people didn’t realize it because we were almost the only ones there. What’s stayed with me is three women I watched start down the path. One was conservatively dressed in black, and the other two were completely covered in black burqas with only their eyes exposed.
We passed them more closely on the way back as the trail was narrow, and we all said hello to each other as we passed. Their voices were young and sweet. I had no idea of their age before that but their voices were clearly young.
Even though the weather had cooled, it was still hot, and they were enclosed, and I’m not sure why their voices have stayed with me, but they are here with me this night, with a crescent moon alight in the sky.
Tonight I listened to and watched Anne Lamott and Mirabai Starr speak at Book Passage. Since I can’t see to drive at night these days I watched online. They discussed Mirabai’s new book, Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground.
In the discussion, Mirabai, raised Jewish, pointed out we’re in the Days of Awe, the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and yet, my sense of her book is we’re in moments of Awe when we are awake to them.
Anne Lamott ended the evening by reading Rumi’s poem “The Guest House”. It is to honor the guides as they come, and depending where we live, enjoy the moon and meteor showers again tonight.
PassageIntimacy of meeting – land and seaSo closeResting nests.
Yesterday, we celebrated one son’s 47th birthday at the Alpine Inn in Portola Valley. The creek was still running and there was some shade from the heat with the trees. The record-breaking heat has continued for seven days. It’s a wonderful invitation to work with the mind. And now, again, today, sunshine!
Decorations honor the passage of life and deathA giant pumpkin that required 15 men to lift and place overseen by what is to come.Celebrating Fall
I’ve been immersed in a four-day meditation retreat. It’s such a positive, supportive experience that I’m finding it challenging to return to and handle the “news” and integrate openness, clarity, mindfulness, and emptiness with anger, war, and observing the effects of climate change. As I struggle with this for myself, I wonder what I might post, say, or offer.
Reflect CalmLand with GraceIntegrate solidity and fluidity
We have a huge redwood rising up and spreading in our yard. It was about twelve feet tall when we moved in 47 years ago. Now, it towers, and a young redwood has appeared next to the house. I know we should remove it, and yet, I resonate to the words of Jane Hirshfield who understands.
It is foolish to let a young redwood grow next to a house. Even in this one lifetime, you will have to choose. That great calm being, this clutter of soup pots and books. Already, the first branch tips brush at the window. Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.
Growing up outside an upstairs windowRoom for two redwoods, an oak tree, and a wind chimeRising
Yesterday we went to an apple orchard to pick apples. The trees beckoned, and branched and bent beautifully to offer their fruit. At first, it seemed like an Easter egg hunt, a search for the “best” apple, and then, I slowed, overwhelmed with the abundance and an environment that was more than I thought I’d come for. I was surrounded with hills, as I stood on soil that though still was tangled and ribboned with active, nourishing roots.
After picking, we ate apple turnovers scented with the cinnamon scent of fall. It felt too sacred for photos, and enough to be part of the landscape of an orchard for a time.
We returned to Jeff and Jan’s for a feast they created for us and friends. We celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November, and yet I feel how the gratitude of Thanksgiving begins with the return of autumn and its offerings and gatherings of all that is produced.
Jeff’s Tarte Soleil – puff pastry filled with tapenadeInvitation to teeth to sinkFall ColorsA time for candlelight
If you’ve been reading this blog for years, you know my love of Great Blue Herons, so when I read about Jarod K. Anderson’s book, Something in the Woods Loves You, I knew it was for me.
The book opens with this:
“There’s an old story about Great Blue Herons. It says that while hunting the twilight shallows, herons can produce a strange, luminescent powder, pluck it from between their feathers with their spear-like beaks, and sprinkle it on the dark water to attract fish.”
He says yes, it’s a myth, and yet, picture how this is to the fish. “The fish are not curious in an intellectual way. It’s a physical thing, their bodies called forward to witness the inexplicable. There, in the shallow winter waters, they are ready to believe in miracles.”
The heron allows Anderson to build the meaning he needs for the moment. “Making meaning in this way is like creating harmony with two voices. I sing my portion. The heron sings hers. The harmony is woven and meaning exists in the world.”
I’m feeling the joy of exploration these days, an inner walk to explore what connects, how evolving connects and expands.
I’m with these words of H. Richard Niebuhr:
“Pilgrims are persons in motion – passing through territories not their own – seeking something we call completion, or perhaps the word clarity will do as well, a goal to which only the spirit’s compass points the way.’
Different Great Blue Heron HabitatsThree Great Blue Herons In Richardson Bay
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