Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Compassion and Respect

Children speak. From The New York Times today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/opinion/ice-kids-liam-ramos.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IlA.rhDW.teKBFX5BEARh&smid=url-share

“You are scaring schools, people and the world,” one student at Valley View Elementary, just outside Minneapolis, wrote to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Exactly a year after President Trump’s second inauguration, ICE agents detained Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old prekindergartner at Valley View. In and around Minneapolis, a city under siege by federal immigration authorities, scores of students are staying home out of fear of being abducted or have had family members who have been taken. As supplies for families too scared to leave their homes line the hallways of the school, immigration patrols rove outside and Liam languishes in a detention camp more than a thousand miles away, students have written letters to ICE agents. For the video above, Times Opinion asked some of them if they were willing to share their writing. “I think you should make friends with the world. Love, a Valley View student,” one child concluded.

Conejo means Bunny in Spanish. Bunny in Half Moon Bay
Thinking of Liam Conejo Ramos in his Bunny hat!



Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Adaptation

We’ve been with our five year old grandson for three days so I haven’t read the news until this morning.  As I read, I try to embody the words of Thich Nhat Hanh:

What is most important is not to allow anxiety about what happens in the world to fill your heart. If your heart is filled with anxiety, you will get sick, and you will not be able to help.

Our family gathered to celebrate the Fourth of July, and we played croquet, feasted, talked, and watched fireworks from a hill walking distance from our son’s home.  Grandson’s parents were backpacking in Big Sur to celebrate their 17th anniversary.

On Sunday, we went to our local library to get books on snakes.  I didn’t expect it to be crowded but it happily was, especially in the children’s section where there was a table for coloring and drawing, one with puzzles, a tent with stuffed animals, and yes, a section on snakes.  I don’t know why grandson’s current fascination is snakes though yes, they are beautiful and adaptable, so we returned home with the two books he chose, though we could have taken out 100 books.  It’s hard to integrate a world where systems that help the people are being dismantled and eliminated, and yet, so far, we still have libraries, places to gather, share and learn lifetimes of knowledge and creativity, and feel wrapped in blankets of love, generosity, and care.  

Waiting for Fireworks
Chatting with another five year old through the fence
A fairy door invites entry when strolling along the street

Posted on by Cathy Edgett

Care

In 2005/2006, I went through treatment for breast cancer, or as Molly Ivins put it, I was poisoned, and burned.  She added that she was mutilated, but I ‘just” had a lumpectomy so didn’t feel as violated as those who had more.

I finished treatment in June and went through horse therapy to “re-empower” me.  I’m not sure I was re-empowered but I loved the horses, and the time with them, and learning how they responded to my energy.  It was a lesson in how we respond to the energy of others, and our own, and how we interact.

That September, I was invited to participate in a fashion show, a gift to the oncologists and doctors who had contributed to the survival of a group of women, and one man. Yes, men can get breast cancer, and he was quite a dapper soul.

We each had three outfits to wear down the runway.  I wore pink lingerie, brown sportswear, and a beautiful black outfit with the risk of very high heels.  Everyone wore formal dress for the runway and grand finale.

It was a beautiful, fund-raising event.  It comes to me now when I read that Desiree Anzalone, the great-granddaughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Sr., has died from breast cancer. She was just 31.

We are reading of her because she is famous, but my understanding is that all the young women in that show passed away rather quickly afterwards.  I was the oldest in the show at 56.  There was a woman in her 20’s and others in their 30’s and 40’s, and a few in their young 50’s.

Cells multiply more quickly in the young so when they get cancer, they are more at risk.  My family is gathering today, socially distanced, of course, to celebrate my son’s birthday.  I give thanks for all the scientists and doctors and dedicated people who mean I’m here.  The young man who handed us a gown for radiation always made sure each gown was warm, and he said a prayer over each one.  Tears come.  We live in a world of care.