Light and Joy

I’ve now had quite a response on bedpans. Who knew there was so much change, creativity, and adaptation in the modern world, so that women can enjoy an easier time eliminating when bedridden.

All of this has brought me back to the words and inspiration of Jacques Lusseyran. Blinded at the age of 7, he didn’t slow down and at 17 became a leader in the French Resistance against Nazi Germany’s occupation of France in 1941.  His book And There Was Light is a gift to be re-read over and over.  From the book: 

“I began to look more closely, not at things but at a world closer to myself, looking from an inner place to one further within, instead of clinging to the movement of sight toward the world outside.”  

“Immediately the substance of the universe drew together, redefined and peopled itself anew.  I was aware of a radiance emanating from a place I knew nothing about, a place which might as well have been outside me as within.  But radiance was there, or, to put it more precisely, light. It was a fact, for light was there.”

Light and joy are one for him. If he loses one, he loses the other.  May we all bathe in the element of light, especially now as we resist what’s happening under Trump’s illegal, criminal, and unconstitutional regime.  It’s about how we meet what comes.

As Elsa Gindler said: “A person can get heart disease by climbing a mountain, but can also get rid of heart disease by climbing a mountain.  It depends on how you climb.”

Or how you paddle!
People honor their pace and mode of transport on San Francisco Bay June 19, 2026
Ease



Light on the Path

Last night I looked up and saw there was light on the ridge in a way I hadn’t noticed before.  Because of the tilt of the earth’s axis, the sun appears to be moving north, and is hitting the ridge differently, light in a new place.

May it be a symbol of change as corruption is exposed and punished.

Sunlight on the north facing ridge as we move toward the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere

Light

Each morning I rise and after a time come to this window that looks out on the ridge, rising bushes and a redwood tree.  The branches were pruned to a foot above deck level a couple of months ago but now rise higher and higher each day, light green new sprouts delicate in this soft, morning fog light.  I know there’s a heat wave elsewhere but here it’s summer Bay area cool and my eyes dance in the lightness of ever-changing and nourishing light.  

Leaves dance with light