Posted on by Cathy Edgett

We Are the World

When my son graduated fifth grade, the children stood in tiers and sang “We are the World”. The song came out in March that year, 1985, and most of us had never heard it. We adults watched and listened in tears.

I thought I could share the video here but if you go to Youtube you can find it and listen. I’m inspired and lifted each time I do. U.S.A. for Africa: We Are the World.

I’m also with the words of John O’Donohue from his poem “A New Beginning”.

You can find the whole poem online but it ends with these words which make me wonder if we’ve become complacent. Some of us have been accused of being “woke”, but maybe not woke enough.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; 

Soon you will home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

I just read the book Orbital by Samantha Harvey. It allows us to orbit the earth in the International Space Station and even more appreciate the preciousness of this earth we share.

Light!

Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.

– Mary Oliver

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Reception

Yesterday I read an essay by a father, Dave Kim, who was surprised how much his 8 year old son loved the book Heidi published in 1881 by Joanna Spyri.  He and his son went to the village where the book is set, Heidiland, and again, his son loved exploring and understanding whether it was a real little girl, or a composite who lived there.

His son was especially enchanted with these words which I remember reading as a child. It’s sunset and Heidi is with  her goatherd pal, Peter:

A golden light lay on the grass and flowers, and the rocks above were beginning to shine and glow. All at once she sprang to her feet, “Peter! Peter! Everything is on fire! All the rocks are burning, and the great snow mountain and the sky! … Look at the rocks! Look at the fir trees! Everything, everything is on fire!”

Dave Kim writes: This was one of his son’s favorite moments. “Do rocks actually glow in Switzerland?” his son asked him one morning.

I’m with that as I consider which books my now five year old grandson responds to.   One favorite is Ziji, The Puppy Who Learned to Meditate by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Torey Hayden.  When he spends the night, we read it before he goes to sleep.

Yesterday a friend was here and pulled a book off a shelf, The Lost Words, by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris.  They made a “spell book” to conjure up lost words that were left out of the most recent edition of the Oxford-Junior Dictionary.  Words like acorn, bluebell, dandelion, heron, kingfisher, newt and otter were replaced with attachment, blog, broadband, bullet-point, cut-and-paste, and voice-mail.

The outdoor and natural were displaced by the indoor and virtual.  Most of us interact virtually each day, and this morning I read a poem on-line by Wendell Berry about watching one leaf fall, and I felt that leaf falling through me bringing peace, integrating all the ways we perceive.

One Leaf
Maple leaves ready to fall.

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Balance

Today I’m with the words of Robert Hubbell on how we deal with our shock, anger, disappointment, and fear.

Robert Hubbell: Worst of all, the early effort to slice and dice the electorate into parcels of blame is the most harmful exercise Democrats can engage in at this moment. We can deconstruct the 2024 election at our leisure. Today, we face the imminent threat of a fascistic regime intent on deporting ten million immigrants, repealing Obamacare, outlawing contraception and abortion, appointing white nationalists to the cabinet, placing an anti-vaxxer in charge of the health of women and children, putting climate-change denialists in charge of environmental agencies, and packing the military and national security community with Putin-friendly isolationists.

I balance and breathe in words of Thich Nhat Hanh from “The Wounded Swan”:

Love and understanding can ease the suffering of all beings. The truth is the truth, whether or not it is accepted by the majority. Therefore, I tell you children, it takes great courage to stand up for and protect what is right.

Only hide under a bucket for fun: otherwise Be Courage!
Let the fireworks glow!


Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Time

My five year old grandson called me yesterday so excited to tell me that the watch he got for his birthday matches the clock at his school.  They are the same.  He also told me about the hands, the three hands, the red second hand that goes so quickly round and round.

I realized I was older when I got my first watch and maybe never had the concept they wouldn’t be the same, or the realization of how amazing that is.

His parents feel they have to move.  They won’t raise their child in a dictatorship which Trump, Vance, and Musk have declared this will be, for our own good, since they know best.  

I don’t see where one can go.   We share a planet.  We are tied.  We may be in different time zones but the minutes match.

Plants grow among the rocks.

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Gathering, Honoring, Sharing

Yesterday I read about and visited a new park in Greenbrae called “Alex’s Playground and Discovery Gardens”.  Alex was 7 when nearly five years ago, he died in a horrific and tragic accident at his school. 

Several months before he died, he told his mother if anything ever happened to him, he would be a baby hummingbird so that he could be with her.

The day after he died, his mother saw a small hummingbird in their garden who was there for a brief moment and then flew off with a friend.  

Recently his mother was attending a show by the Lego sculptor Sean Kenney when she saw a giant hummingbird built with 31,565 Lego bricks, its bill in an equally large Lego flower.

She was able to buy it and now today it sits in a new playground that the family is donating in memory of Alex.

I think of the gazebo in Blackie’s Pasture in Tiburon and the playground in Boyle Park in Mill Valley, both honoring the loss of a child.   What a beautiful way to honor the loss, to create a place where children gather, laugh, and play.

The sculpture also is a reminder of the Hummingbird Alliance, a nonprofit the family formed after Alex’s death to push for stronger gate safety rules. 

Lego Hummingbird and Flower
A cathedral of leaves to walk through
Looking up to climb and slide
Love with your whole heart like Alex!

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Fun for the Day

Ron Charles writes about books in The Washington Post. In today’s post, he lauds my good friend Marlene. Enjoy!

Ron Charles:

Back in February, I mentioned how entranced I was by the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalogue. Alas, my excitement was never made manifest in an actual garden. But at least I inspired Book Club reader Marlene Buono to order a variety of heirloom seeds from Baker Creek. 

Marlene writes:

“Though you can’t tell from the photo, the cucumbers have the best sense of humor. They are the tricksters of the summer garden as they let you harvest three or four of them in the morning, then by nightfall, there are five more to pick, none of the which were there eight hours ago. The tomatoes yell out, ‘Subterfuge!’ to the cucumbers (with whom they share a raised bed), but the cucumbers are too caught up in their game of hide-and-seek to listen, let alone figure out what the word ‘subterfuge’ means. The tomatoes prefer to be seen and plucked when ripe, and do not consider keeping mum about their location even mildly funny.”

I would definitely read a seed catalogue written by Marlene.

For next year’s tomatoes, she says, “I may try the Abe Lincoln Original and the Paul Robeson, since I’m feeling patriotic having filled out my ballot with the hopes of putting a woman in charge.” 

At Good Earth yesterday, a woman in charge of cheese dressed for Halloween!
Happy to pose for photos!

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Sanity

Today I walked Tennessee Valley to the beach after reading this from Lisa Friedman, the climate reporter for the NY Times:

During his presidency, Donald Trump dissolved more than 100 environmental regulations. If elected again, he would kill any federal effort to study and fight climate change, encourage oil and gas companies to “Drill, Baby, Drill” and restrict the government agency that protects air and water.

I returned home to learn that a quarter-million Washington Post readers canceled their subscriptions after Jeff Bezos declined to allow the paper to endorse Kamala Harris, a figure first reported by NPR and then by The Post itself. That is about 10 percent of the total circulation. 

While walking, I remembered being on Monhegan Island almost 30 years ago.  A man had fallen down a cliff and rescuers rappelled down to bring him up on ropes.  There were no roads or cars so a group of us alternated, three on each side,  one in front, and one in back, carrying the stretcher along the paths to the dock where he could be put on a boat. On an island, it’s clear we’re in this together, but this earth is also an island,  a fragile environment we share.  We’re interdependent.  We care.  

Heart shell on the beach
Flow
Sounds of frogs – an environment that’s clean
Connection

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Bernie

My vote has already been counted and I’ve been clear on who I support, not saying she is perfect, or that I agree with everything that’s going on, but come on. Here’s Bernie stressing what’s at stake in this election. Thank you Bernie!

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Love and Compassion

I continue to be shocked by the MAGA campaign culminating last night at Madison Square Garden.  I savor clouds floating over the ridge, and soothe with words of the Dalai Lama.  

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. 

Without them, humanity cannot survive.”

Clouds move through a blue sky!