Yesterday I had a tooth extracted, and a bone graft put in place. In four months, the bone will have integrated with my own bone, so I can have an implant. For now, I am aware of the integration, the curiosity of my bone with this, what may seem like an intrusion, and the care with which the procedure was done. My dentist’s son, who is 18, wants to be a dentist, so I gave permission for him to be there, too. Sometimes I close my eyes for dental procedures, but yesterday when I opened them, I saw three faces peering in, the dentist, the assistant, and his son. Three people were taking care of one small area in the rear of my mouth. How amazing is that?
Plants reach to cover rocks and people with death donate bones for grafts. Transformation!
In April, John Phelan, the U.S. Secretary of the Navy under President Donald J. Trump, posted that he visited the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial “to pay my respects to the service members and civilians we lost at Pearl Harbor on the fateful day of June 7, 1941.”
The Secretary of the Navy is the civilian head of the U.S. Navy, overseeing the readiness and well-being of almost one million Navy personnel. Phelan never served in the military; he was nominated for his post because he was a large donor to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. He told the Senate his experience overseeing and running large companies made him an ideal candidate for leading the Navy.
We all know the day.Pearl Harbor was December 7, not June 7th.
Here’s a history of the American Revolution, thanks to Heather:
A friend recommended the movie The Penguin Lessons. I love it. I was then inspired to read the book The Penguin Lessons by Tom Mitchell that inspired the movie. There are similarities, yes, a wonderful penguin, who changes people’s lives, but there is much more in the book, so I recommend both with maybe the book second, though who knows. Notice what draws you.
Meanwhile, enjoy this poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
Spring Awakening
One day you wake up able to name the weight you’ve been carrying.
Realizing it’s not part of your body or your being, not essential in any way to journeying or joy, you set it down gently, without fanfare in the long soft grass at the side of the road and walk on
Surprised to find yourself smiling in the warm sun for no particular reason.
Today at low tide Rodeo Beach was covered with Velella velella, also known as by-the-wind sailors. Though they resemble jellyfish, they are related to sea anemones and corals. With a two-inch-high triangular sail, they are carried by the wind, not the currents.
Velella Jellyfish and VelellaJewelsTwinsTouchingComposite
A friend recommended a book, Morning Altars by Day Schildkret. Last night I began reading it, entranced and soothed by photos of mandalas made from flowers, leaves, shells, sticks, and rocks. Day suggests a journey into nature where you gather objects lying on the ground, and find a place that calls you where you practice the art of arriving. Sit until you know “I’m here.” Then, clear a space, a circle, with your hand or a small broom. When ready, begin by placing an object you’ve gathered in the center of the circle, and then, gather your objects around it in a way you feel called. Circle the objects around to create a mandala. In doing so, you are clearing a space within, and creating a visual representation of what’s happening in you now.
Leave it there, and perhaps come back to visit, and see how the natural world has altered your creation.
Reading this book, I’m able to center, and read Heather Cox Richardson. In 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican from Maine, in counteracting the lies and hatred of McCarthy said, “I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.”
Last night, Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey told host Jimmy Kimmell, that Republican senators are indeed unnerved by Trump’s behavior and the actions of the administration. The problem, Booker said, is what Thomas Jefferson said: “‘When the public fears their government, there is tyranny. When the government fears its people, there is liberty.’”
Where I live, a Buckeye tree is often a place where the native people, the Coast Miwok, gathered. Losing its leaves in winter, the sun shines through, and growing them back, it provides shade. Adaptation and impermanence, and now we adapt to changing conditions, and speak to defend our nature and the nature in which we live.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Let us build altars to the beautiful necessity, which secures that all is made of one piece.
The intention of this White House is to traumatize and each day they do a great job of that. The onslaught continues but this morning I’m struck by the words of Nicholas Kristoff. The Secretary of State Marco Rubio called him a liar because he said children are dying because of the Trump administration’s dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. This is true. It is not a lie.
Kristoff ends his column with this: To deny the reality of dying children not only insults the memory of children starving to death in Sudan and Yemen and Afghanistan; it also insults the intelligence of Americans.
June 14th is an essential day of protest. May it be enough to turn the tide of cruelty and inhumanity.
Last night I sat outside and watched dusk turn to night. The moon was a crescent in the West, and one by one, the stars emerged. The earth is so tiny, and yet, here we are with 8.2 billion people each one with a purpose, both personal and global.
Yesterday I was at the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District. It’s a beautiful place to walk quietly and filter water, life, transition, and peace.
Two egrets enjoying the sceneTwo SwansJewel of a dragonfly hovering over the waterA family of Canadian Geese
This morning I woke from what I would call a nightmare. It was a response to what’s happening daily, an onslaught of lies and corruption, a nightmare. In the “dream”, I was trying to understand the political situation, and I came to a place where I had to admit it was too much. I sat down at a table under an umbrella, and then, I woke up. I know the plan is to overwhelm us, and now awake, I feel an inner support to yes, acknowledge the horror, and also, mobilize strength. This can’t go on.
It’s Memorial Day weekend. We honor and remember those who fought for democracy, and those who died. I think of my grandfather in WWI, who fought to end all wars, my father in WWII, my uncle, my husband’s father. We honor them this weekend as we recognize a different kind of attack, an attack on what we know is right.
Maureen Dowd writes today about Trump pushing crypto and Bitcoin for himself.
“I really do it because I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
In Trump’s moral universe, the right thing to do is always the thing that makes him richer.
This weekend offers a time to reflect. In that, we mobilize even more to stop him and the corruption he represents and manifests. It’s enough.
Entering the gazebo of ourselvesReflecting in a pool of movement, mobilization, connection, and Strength
Stunned by the political news I turn to Tricycle Magazine and an article by Lewis Richmond, titled The Power of a Quiet Life.
He describes a time in June 1982 when the nuclear freeze march took place in New York City to protest the “then-burgeoning specter of nuclear war between the US and Russia”. It was a major event with the route cleared so the crowd of more than a million people could walk from the UN Plaza north to Central Park, a walk of nearly two miles.
Fourteen were chosen to walk in the front. One was Thich Nhat Hanh who gestured to the other thirteen to link arms. He led the pace with his slow walk, the way he always walked. This pace wasn’t part of the plan and at this pace, the city of New York would come to a halt. Thich, who during the Vietnam War, survived all sides and factions wanting to kill him, was resolute. He stayed with his pace as the monitors directed people to stream on both sides of the line of fourteen people. The fourteen who began the march, kept their mindful pace and were the last to arrive at the finish line.
Richmond writes: “We walked, arms still linked, the way Thich Nhat Hanh wanted us to walk, the way Buddha surely walked when he was in the world. Thich Nhat Hanh made the Buddha come to life that day.”
Thich Nhat Hanh: ‘Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet’.
Reading the news today, I felt called to the beach. Groups of school children were there through Nature Bridge. What a delight to hear them exclaim over rocks, shells, crab holes, and kelp.
I offer photos to energize a response to counteract those who are undermining democracy and trying to overthrow the Constitution.
Stillness and MovementLand and SeaWhat animal is this sleeping in the sea?Seaweed on rock at low tideStance in Connection.
Yesterday I was at the beach for a five year old’s birthday party. Five children to celebrate a five year old. Each child’s party favor was a kite. In the howling wind, the father patiently put each kite together and each child waited patiently for their turn. Grandson got a green King Cobra kite, which he found thrilling since he loves snakesand the color green.
I’m with the words of Julia Butterfly Hill:
If we take action out of anger, we’re only making more problems in the world. But when you can take action out of love, then miracles can happen.
Joy in Flight: Kites and BirdsA King Cobra kite soarsThe link between land and skyChildren huddle around the brownies to ensure the candle for being five stays lit until the birthday girl blows it out. Pure Joy!
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