Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Present

Ducks float around my boat.  I’m the center of a carousel, a stillpoint, a pole.  

I’m with these words of Pablo Neruda: 

Does the earth chirp like a cricket in the symphony of the skies?

Which leads me to wonder what sound stirs the water as the feet of the ducks paddle around.

In Charles Genoud’s book, The Body as Presence, he writes; 

Munindra, a 20th-century Indian teacher from Bengal, taught that if a meditator is sitting and he knows that he is sitting, then he is meditating.

Sitting, we know we are sitting. Then, standing, walking, lying down, we know the bars that hold the notes, the tune of our heart, harmonizing the parts.

Early Morning Sunrise
Day comes
Books by the Bay in Sausalito abounds with gifts for all, even cats.

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Navigation

I’m going between two places, a floating home, and a more permanent home.  I’ve been struggling with navigating doing laundry and such at night in the permanent home since that requires going through a kitchen that is being remodeled as it is completely emptied and torn apart.  Wires burst and hang sadly forth from open walls. It seems 1950’s wiring is not up to code.  Who knew?

I feel like a spelunker when I put on my headlamp to navigate through the kitchen in the dark to the garage and the washer and dryer.  Why am I not doing it during the day?  Because it’s filled with men who know what they’re doing and I don’t.  I stay away on a magical float, a houseboat complete with birds surrounding it in its up and down float.

Magic and living are doubled on the water – a nearby boat

Two of my companions and friends

Open to the view

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Gratitude

As we move into increasing hours of darkness and the sharpening guide of slanted light, I’m with these words of Thich Nhat Hanh:

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the earth revolves.

The Morning Sky

What’s the message for today?

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Enchantment

I wake enchanted with how a child finds a branched stick and then a hole perfect for insertion, and then, trying different rocks finds two just right to create a story about a bird in a nest. 

Yesterday we were talking about the problem of the homeless, the range of reasons. How do we help each one? 

We begin with the children. We have the money to educate each child in the way that most nourishes their intellect and encourages their creativity.  Don’t we have room for diversity in problem solving as we honor the abundance of ways each of us participates in our intake and outtake of the world?

The bunkers and tunnels in the Marin Headlands were once used for defense of the Golden Gate. Now, they provide views and a place to count hawks as they migrate.

Walking to even more views

Testing

Ah, yes, this rock fits the branch

Rodeo Beach and the Marin Mammal Center

Bears celebrate the Warriors win at The Overlook

Herb Caen’s “Baghdad by the Bay”
Posted on by Cathy Edgett

The Birds are Singing

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi: I don’t know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing.

I don’t know if I’m hearing better or if there are more birds singing this year but all seems alive with the songs and flight of birds and displays of flowers.

Photos from along the marsh.

Skatepark for the “kids”