I missed her speech at the Democratic convention. This is beautiful and inspiring. May we dare to dream together.
Calm, not Chaos
I watched the debate last night and, like Kamala, was nervous at first, though I loved her bold stride across the stage to hold out her hand to Trump in a beginning note of civility. I delighted in watching Harris gain confidence and strength, and Trump implode.
The icing on the cake was Taylor Swift’s brilliant endorsement of Kamala.
Enough lies and false advertising. Swift has more than 283 million followers on Instagram, and she instructed them in how to register to vote.
This morning, memory chimed with this meme: “If three wise women had visited Jesus, they’d have brought more useful gifts like diapers, formula, and some casseroles for the family.”
Kamala stuck with practicalities, kept it real, and spoke of unity, not division and horror. I’m glad we’ll see a woman president in the White House. It’s time.
Birds
The garden is complete, well, gardens are in constant motion and change, but it offers a respite to pause and peruse. I sit by the fountain and see and hear birds in the Maple tree above and frolicking in the fountain and among the rocks and plants.
Today I learn of a website where I can check the migration of birds where I live. You can do it too. https://birdcast.info
Compassion
I’m reading a book called Lotus Girl by Helen Tworkov. It’s a memoir that gives a history of Buddhism coming to the West. Where I am now she is discussing the bardos with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. She is adjusting to her aging process and realizes we go through some of the stages of being, adjusting to impermanence and change, the bardos, while alive. She’s in the “Bardo of Old Age”.
When she asks Yongey Minyur Rinpoche about the bardos and tells him about George Saunders book, Lincoln in the Bardos, he asks, “What’s a Lincoln?”
Of course, one might answer a car but it shows how much we rely on what we consider “common knowledge” in our conversations.
Last night when I read Trump’s garbled and incoherent reply to a question on childcare, I felt sorry for a man who is being primed to run for president when he is clearly incapacitated. I’m grateful Biden was persuaded to step down, and now when I read the words of a man who is off the rails, compassion swells. Why is he being protected? So he can be manipulated. Elon Musk would essentially be our president if he were elected, Elon and other fascists.
What is it to keep someone propped up for your own benefit?
Not acknowledging Trump’s deterioration is an inability to honor and see the cycles of life and death, the evolving transformation that connects the two. I walk more slowly now, think more slowly, as I pause and connect the dots to flow and dissolve, and, in this, I give my family time to see, and adjust, appreciate, and gather around impermanence and change. I am a campfire, once ablaze, now softening to a glow for toasting marshmallows, turning softly and tenderly to ash.
I savor my rejuvenated garden. The older plants are vibrant with new soil and mulch. They are teachers for the young ones now brought in. They are elders sharing their wisdom on seasons, impermanence, adaptation, and transformation. Grace!
Family
We’ve been in Carmel for five days to celebrate my son’s fiftieth birthday. Everything was perfect. One daughter-in-law and I enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour of Monterey Bay Aquarium. What a gift to see the attention and love that goes into caring for every creature there. We designed a toy to entertain an octopus and played a game where we were giant sea bass. Each bass gets its own food so is trained to go for a red circle or blue square.
Naturally we enjoyed the beach, the book store, and The Secret Garden, always a given, and the greyhounds were welcome everywhere.
Another daughter-in-law and my niece had a surfing lesson at 7 in the morning so I explored a beach, solitary except for rocks and sand dollars. I rescued three. I learned that a sand dollar given gently back to the ocean may live another six to ten years.
Ripening
Aging, I find myself seeking open vistas. I’m nourished by spaciousness. Bridges connect and release like flowers opening to petals transforming fall.
Hope and Joy
As a child, I watched the conventions with my family. Last night I watched with a smile on my face, reveled in the open hearts, love, and beauty as we gather as immigrants, even if generations back, and neighbors, to celebrate feeding and educating children for the good and future of democracy and this country.
I’m thrilled.
Heather Cox Richardson ended her “column” with these words:
Tonight, after his acceptance speech, Walz walked off stage to a favorite song of his: Neil Young’s “Rockin‘ in the Free World.” Neil Young personally allowed the campaign to use the song. When the Trump campaign used it, Young sued to make them stop.
And therein, the contrast between the two parties right now.
Awareness
Where I’ve been? On Sunday I went to Stinson Beach on a foggy morning. Low tide invited me to walk west of huge rocks.
The weekend before I participated in a four day meditation retreat. I knew that a retreat begins with the goodbyes, and yet, I didn’t realize the depths in which I was still dwelling until today I see I last posted August 10th.
What am I most with? Impermanence and Purification, being with and watching breath. Simple, right? At times, yes, and at other times, a tangled web that stayed with, untangles and purifies, or at least, that is what I currently understand.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche says there are three lifelong skills to study and cultivate.
One is compassion and loving-kindness which involves “being okay with not okay”.
Second is awareness, coming back to the breath, and not being lost in thought.
Third, wisdom, is “being with the breath as it is.”
Jane Hirshfield says it like this: Zen pretty much comes down to three things—everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.
Put a Woman in Charge
My husband sent me this video as a great campaign song for Kamala Harris. I can’t embed it but you can go to YouTube and type in Keb’Mo’ Put a Woman in Charge.
Walking
I open the book Walking: One Step at a Time by Erling Kagge to these words:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that one saves time travelling only two hours from one point to another instead of spending eight hours on the same journey. While this holds up mathematically, my experience is the opposite: time passes more quickly when I increase the speed of travel. My speed and time accelerate in parallel. It is as if the duration of a single hour becomes less than a clock-hour. When I am in a rush, I hardly pay attention to anything at all.“
He goes on to write that one’s sense of space gets smaller with an increased pace. He compares it to driving toward a mountain rather than walking to it. Walking, “The mountain up ahead, which slowly changes as you draw closer, feels like an intimate friend by the time you’ve arrived. Your eyes, ears, nose, shoulders, stomach and legs speak to the mountain, and the mountain replies. Time stretches out, independent of minutes and hours.”
“And this is precisely the secret held by all those who go by foot: life is prolonged when you walk. Walking expands time rather than collapses it.”
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