I’ve written about Forest Bathing before, the benefits of receiving from our plant friends, but yesterday I walked to Tennessee Valley beach with a friend, and another friend spoke of Beach Bathing. What can we learn from the sea, rocks, and sand?
Today I did Hisorty, an app where you can play with and reconnect with the timeline of history. My son thinks it’s too easy, and it can be, but I like seeing how events align.
From Hisorty: Code of Ur-Nammu: In 2050 B.C. the Sumerian king of Ur issued the earliest surviving written law code, predating Hammurabi by three centuries and laying the foundation for legal systems in Mesopotamia.
And here we are now, being re-introduced to how essential it is to follow the laws of ethics and morality.
Approaching the beachLooking northAnd the waves flow in Looking southwest, the tide whirls in An exuberant splash of connection, water and rockThen calm
It’s the end of the school year for children and teachers. Photos this week are of our grandson receiving a Little League trophy, a self-portrait, a painting with the words Love Is Love, and a camping trip with friends from his pre-school. He couldn’t have a broader, more proud smile. I think of our worry for him a few weeks ago, and can’t stop smiling.
It’s been a major step on the journey. What have I learned? Something beautiful carries us through what is tough. I’m filled with memories of all the help I, and we, received. And, I needed to process it, to let the tension go. Animals know this. They run from danger, then, when safe, pause and rest.
This morning I meditated on sadness. At first, it was personal, and then, it expanded out into sadness for the world, and then, just sadness. The fog is in. The redwood tree waves its branches gently, fanning the air I breathe.
Gratitude is a wreath around me, and I’m the eye, an I that is not separate, is one with beauty, balance, and fear, all strengthened as one.
Poppies pop out of rock on the path!BridgeRetreat to Re Treat!
Today I hiked with a friend on Ring Mountain. When I was a nature guide there in the 1980s, I learned about the Tiburon Mariposa Lily that was discovered in 1971. From the photos, you can see its beauty and elusiveness. It grows on serpentine soil that is surrounded by sandstone, so it never spread, and is protected along with other rare plants that grow on Ring Mountain. It blooms late May and early June, and it’s a gift to see it. The land was previously owned by The Nature Conservancy and is now owned by the Marin County Open Space District.
The Coast Miwok lived and thrived here. When I led groups of children who were in 4th, 5th, or 6th grade, we went through a grocery list of how everything we need to survive is here; food from the bay, acorns from oaks, a buckeye tree, quail, soap root for washing, pennyroyal for tea, tule for boats, beauty, and clean air. The Miwok carved petroglyphs on the rocks facing west.
What do you see?Looking south to San FranciscoI see an otter climbing upon a rockLooking northeast toward the Richmond BridgeShelterMariposa means butterfly – do you see it?Another view of what is elusive and exquisite: the Tiburon Mariposa Lily.
The text just came through to “Fab Fam” from my daughter-in-law.
Great news! The MRI came back. The bone is infected, but there is no abscess. We’re going home with several follow ups scheduled for blood draws to track. Yay!
Well, an infected bone may not be the greatest news, but that there is no abscess which would have required minor surgery to drain is super-good news. And he’ll be home, despite his joyful time at the hospital.
I can’t believe the relief. Again, thank you for all the prayers, lit candles, and support.I felt it, and I know he did too. We all did! Support! Connection! Love!Gratitude! Deep thanks in all ways!!
I’ve been posting about my six-year-old grandson and his time in the Stanford Pediatric hospital.
Today, I learned he would have an MRI. I’ve never had one but I’ve heard about the pounding and the claustrophobia. Yikes! Worry set in stronger than before.
So, how did he do? Well, he feels he’s too old for naps so even with all that’s been going on since Friday, he is clear. No naps. I’m too old for naps.
It’s been painful for him to lie down flat, but somehow when he lay down for the MRI, he fell asleep and slept through the whole thing, and there you have it. Once again, an example of how we meet what comes. No one told him it would be scary. He met it fresh, well, actually asleep, but what’s fresher than that. His adventure continues. He’s currently writing and illustrating a “graphic novel”. I’m curious to see the result after all of this.
If I ever have an MRI, I’ll say to myself, “Great, I’m in need of a nap.”
Thank you all for all the prayers, concern, and care coming his and our way. I’m so grateful!! I’m swimming in tears. Monday I read him Alice in Wonderful. I never really related to the book, but now I “get” it. I’m big. I’m small, and I’m swimming in tears. And perhaps, the whole thing is a dream!!
What’s more dreamlike than Rodeo Beach in the fog and mist?
It’s been raining for three days. We lost power yesterday for almost twelve hours but we have a generator for back-up. I was involved in a workshop on Zoom, Mahamudra and the Luminous Mind: The Third Karmapa’s Aspiration Prayer.
Our aspiration, our prayer was for world peace. The focus was on unifying emptiness and luminosity, on cultivating awareness, love and compassion, and wisdom. This is both simple and complex, so I sit here now honoring the simplicity, the gift of it, even as I read the news of Trump. I’m with the challenge of holding it all with compassion and equanimity.
I’m with these words of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, spoken after the end of World War II, during the military tribunal he organized to hold Japanese leaders accountable for their own horrific war crimes, including the sack of Manila in 1945. “The soldier, be he friend or foe, is charged with the protection of the weak and unarmed. It is the very essence and reason for his being.”
Our commander-in-chief is guilty of war crimes. Let’s hold him accountable. We need to heal.
On another note, I highly recommend Lee Klinger Lesser’s book, Return to Our Senses, A Path to Stability in an Unstable World. It’s a font of guidance and wisdom, and personal examples of how to work with what comes.
She quotes astrophysicist Ethan Siegel: “The air we breathe contains one atom from every breath that every human has ever taken. In fact, right now, if you take a deep breath and then exhale, by the time a year goes by, approximately one atom from that breath will wind up in every other person on Earth’s lungs at any moment in time.”
Like the study of Mahamudra this weekend, that’s hard for me to visualize, and I understand it’s about connection. We’re not separate; we are one! Let’s cleanse and purify the air we share with each loving and compassionate thought and breath. We do it for ourselves, all sentient beings, and our beloved planet Earth.
Earth and SkyMay we slide and climb and build and maintain bridges for All!
My good friend Emma sings with the Threshold Singers of the East Bay. They sing to the terminally ill and dying.They also sing for newborns in the NICU. They sing for those crossing thresholds of birth and dying. I recommend the article and listening to the songs. Be soothed in support.
How do we stay sane amidst the cruelty, tragedy, theft, greed, and lies of the Trump administration?
My grandson has been staying with us, so I’m with the beauty of this world. Together, he and I watch the light change in the sky as we observe the squirrels, birds, and trees.
Walking briskly to the Presidio playgroundDowntown San Francisco from the Presidio Tunnel TopsJacket as a parachuteFlowers everywhereJoy in the flight of a paper airplane, one of many made in the last few days.
I’ve had Mohs surgery before but because there were complications this time, it has been a bit of an ordeal. My eyes are swollen and ringed with purple and black. My head is heavy. I’ve been in pain. What I’ve learned though as I ice the area and drink green tea, is the power of meditation, just being with the breath. Since that’s all I can do I feel the power in it, the relief. We have this tool and ability all the time but we are often busy with our “to-do” list and miss the point. Presence is a present as we know and when we’re forced to stop and pause, it’s even more clear. Each breath is a gift.
As I continue to go to the natural world to counteract the news,I’m with the last stanza of William Stafford’s poem, “A Message from Space” from his book The Way It Is.
And then the green of leaves calls out, hills
where they wait or turn, clouds in their frenzied
stillness unfolding their careful words:
“Everything counts. The message is the world.”
The mountain rolls her message like an unfolding scroll.Manzanita flowers in lanternsEmerson: The earth laughs in flowers.Texturing the LayersRise and cohere
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