Cathy's Blog!

Posted on August 8, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Trees

I finished the book My Head for a Tree: The Extraordinary Story of the Bishnoi, Guardians of Nature by Martin Goodman. These guardians show us how to live when we honor and value interconnectivity, oneness, wholeness, and this world we share.

I spiral on the words on my Flying Edna Desktop Calendar. “I do not go to the forest to be alone. I go to be with the ones who speak without human words.”

As we’re inundated with stories of political horror, it’s important and essential to be with the beings who give us oxygen, and share our roots and nourish our soil and soul.

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Thanks

Today I read the news and then I balanced it with the poem “Thanks” by W.S. Merwin. You can read the poem here:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57937/thanks

He ends with:

we are saying thank you

thank you we are saying and waving

dark though it is

Looking up through redwood trees at Old Mill Park

Posted on August 4, 2025August 4, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Wouldn’t Peace make more sense?

Arundhati Roy:

It’s odd how those who dismiss the peace movement as utopian don’t hesitate to proffer the most absurdly dreamy reasons for going to war: to stamp out terrorism, install democracy, eliminate fascism, and most entertainingly, to “rid the world of evil-doers.”

My niece is visiting and is staying on a houseboat in Sausalito. There was fog the first morning, and now blue skies and sun. Last night a seal swam by, and the tides move in and out.

Her dog surveys the foggy morning from the bed

Sunrise today. Little Gem, where I stayed two years ago, is on the other side of that pier so one row closer to the mountain.

Posted on July 28, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Diversity and Connection

On Saturday I enjoyed a neighborhood luncheon of eight women celebrating life. I was surprised to hear how many had grandfathers who came to this country when they were 12 or 14 speaking no English and, yet they contributed and thrived. Their grandchildren are proof of that.

My niece is currently driving across the country to visit us. Because she and her beloved dog are traveling together, I decided to re-read John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. It was 1960 and he wanted to understand what was happening in the country so he outfitted a camper truck and left the East coast with his dog Charley and drove up to Maine, across the northern route to Washington state, down to CA and across Texas and the South. I recommend the book to understand the changes in our country that could lead to Trump and Vance, and Congress killing funding for public broadcasting to silence dissent.

At Book passage, I bought a book, My Head for a Tree: The Extraordinary Story of the Bishnoi, Guardians of Nature. The author Martin Goodman travels to Rajasthan, in northern India, home to the Bishnoi, a desert people whose religion is built around nature and wildlife conservation. In 1604 two Bishnoi women were beheaded in defense of trees. In 1643, when trees were being felled for use in celebrations of the goddess Holi, a local Bishnoi named Buchoji killed himself in protest. On September 11, 1730, over 363 Bishnoi were beheaded to save trees. These people are fierce and still willing to die to save trees. They understand the peril of not recognizing our connection with all that’s here, the roots that connect us all around the world.

My niece and her canine companion camping by Lake Erie to enjoy the sunset.

Posted on July 20, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Relationship

Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Brothers Karamazov:

Love every leaf…. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an abiding universal love.

Posted on July 19, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Shadow

At the park, I saw a little boy, perhaps two or three, laughing and waving, but I couldn’t see anyone there. Then I realized he was playing with his shadow, waving, laughing and dancing with his own image. If only we could greet all aspects of ourselves with such joy and glee, no hiding, only reception and awareness of all that’s right here for us to see, receive, and be.

Dancing our heart like a kite at the end of our arms

Posted on July 18, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Compassion

When my grandson was four, he watched butterflies and a caterpillar, and then went into the house and returned with a long strand of yellow yarn which he weaved through the wires of a fence so the insects would see the fence and not be hurt.

I’m with that today as I read news I find horrifying though I continue to work with non-judgment and trust in ebb and flow, and the recurring phases of the moon.

I’m reminded of Nelson Mandela who spent 27 years in prison, but refused to carry a grudge against his captors. He later said of his release from prison, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”

Thich Nhat Hanh: This, my dear, is the greatest challenge to being alive. To witness injustice in the world and not allow it to consume our light.

Posted on July 13, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Connection

In reading The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, I learned that “When Hiroshima was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945, it is said, the first living thing to emerge from the blasted landscape was a matsutake mushroom.”

I’ve been at Green Gulch Zen Center and farm for four days. I parked at Muir Beach and after crossing a wooden bridge, I walked into a land of gardens, bunnies, quail, deer, and flights and songs of birds. I can’t imagine one country dropping a bomb on another but I can imagine the mycelium web of mushrooms surviving the damage. I offer photos of invitation.

From the Muir Beach Overlook on a foggy, July day.

Honoring the Coast Miwok who lived and nourished on the land for more than 10,000 years.

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Peace

Thursday through Sunday I’ll be in a Sensory Awareness workshop at Green Gulch Zen Center with Lee Klinger Lesser titled How does my love for life want to express itself? She suggests we bring an object or symbol that represents how our love for life wants to express itself in the midst of these times that we are living.

As I reflect on this, two poems of Naomi Shihab Nye come to mind. One is called “Kindness”. The other is “So Much Happiness”.

You can find both poems at poets.org.

Here is the last stanza of “So Much Happiness”.

Since there is no place large enough

to contain so much happiness

you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you

into everything you touch. You are not responsible.

You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit

for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,

and in that way, be known.

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Cathy Edgett

Education

Thomas Jefferson said “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”

Appointed by Trump, Linda E. McMahon was sworn in as the 13th United States Secretary of Education on March 3, 2025. Secretary of Education!

McMahon says it’s important for children to learn about A1. What does she think the A stands for? Asinine, Atrocious, Absolute, Absent, Allegory, Aging, Agile?

It’s AI, Artificial Intelligence, an addition to animal intelligence, natural intelligence, emotional intelligence, and so on. When asked about Trump’s statements, AI points out the lies. Perhaps that’s why she thinks of it as Aging, Absent One.

And now, perhaps we can start referring to each day as Interdependence Day, since without education we are not free, but with or without it, we are Interdependent.