Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.
– William Wordsworth
A friend is planting bulbs. I revel in the hope revealed in placing this globular ball into a hole in the earth, tamping dirt around and over it, adding some water, and waiting til spring for stems to rise and buds to form and burst forth.
It’s the time of year when branches of trees hold light as their leaves fall and decompose below.
Meanwhile we insulate ourselves to nourish an inner light.
I was with my grandchild when his father called him “precious”. He asked me what the word meant, and I showed him with a hug, cuddle, and snuggle, but I’ve been with the meaning of the word ever since, with how precious life is, this inward and outward expansion and sharing of rhythm and breath.
This morning when I poured water over coffee grounds, I paused, stunned at capturing the moving swirl and complexity of absorption. Precious! And then there was the twirl in the mouth and the swallow down the throat. Again, awareness brewed and bloomed in reception and touch.
Today I sit grateful for my doctors and dentist who have their offices along the bay which may not be helpful with climate change, but for now offer a walk and a view to calm and support each visit.
It’s a privilege to vote, even when the choices may not appear to be the best. We vote with compromise, recognizing no one candidate can possibly fulfill our own personal desires but we choose who comes closest, who is most representative of our personal and big picture desires and views.
Recently there have been some unpleasant incidents involving a few of the high school students in the community where I live. This has led to a great deal of discussion, some productive and some not.
On the side of kindness, some suggest that teenagers need a place to let off steam and we don’t have that here. Others point out that this group of youngsters has been, and is still going through major issues with the pandemic. Young people have fears around climate change, their financial future, and their ability to contribute to what is on rapid approach. They also have to process the bombardment of blatant lies and lack of ethics in some who lead the media stream.
How do we lead our children on an open and compassionate path? This is a day to reflect on just that.
Meister Eckhart:
And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.
Yesterday I was at the Presidio in San Francisco. There’s now a way to cross over the road to the bay, and there’s a beautiful playground for children. There’s something for all!
Learning to walk out of thinking mind into flow mind or awareness mind is the ultimate medicine.
Jan Chozen Bays, “How to Break Free of the Inner Critic”
The Golden Gate Bridge, bay, and playground
Honoring and Blending the present and the past
Trees become bare as spider webs form revealing new lines intersecting, augmenting, and defining space.
Reflecting on this year, I realize four friends lost their husbands, and another lost his wife. They were in my age range so it brings impermanence even more deeply into awareness. The gift of breathing dips in and expands out. I’m gratefully here with leaves changing as camellia and iris bloom.
Br. David Steindel-Rast:
In the continuous flow of blessing our heart finds meaning and rest.
This is a beautiful tribute to Mount Tamalpais and the past. I’ve ridden my bike up and down the railroad grade many times. I hadn’t realized the train track was even less wide. Enjoy!
I’ve been enjoying time with my three year old grandchild. Seeing through his eyes and imagination is stimulation, gratitude, and blessing.
As the political scene deepens, I’m with these words of Nelson Mandela.
It is never my custom to use words lightly. If twenty-seven years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.
Yesterday I was at our local native plant nursery, a place to be with sculptures, fountains, plants, and bees.
Robin Wall Kimmerer:
Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world.
Yesterday we took the Sausalito ferry to “the city” for one of the birthday celebrations for our three year old grandson. Circus Bella was a treat, a generous creation and abundance of love and fun, offered by donation. Check it out:
I’ve been with the words of William Shatner and his experience venturing into space. He, too, like others, looked back at our planet with wonder. It’s such a precious jewel.
I’ve been meditating outside these days, inside, too, but this morning was outside wrapped in fog, with the hooting of an owl leading to caws of crows and the shriek of a hawk. Somebody scrambled up the redwood tree.
More and more I find myself settling into the wonders of this world of which I’m part and whole, form and non-form, life and death.
Chief Crowfoot:
What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
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