Memories

Yesterday, I was thrilled to receive a new laptop computer.  My son said it should last me ten years.  I thought then this could be my last computer, a rather sobering thought, and then I wondered what the world will be like in ten years.

A few years ago in a Sensory Awareness workshop, an elderly woman said she felt the past like the force of gravity, supporting her.  A discussion ensued as to whether for the young, the future is a force like gravity pulling them forward.  Perhaps the mid-life crisis is that place between, a place of balance and choice, an awakened urgency drawing us to pause, reflect, create and absorb.  

Today I feel like I’m balanced in the center of a teeter-totter, arms spread in honoring the joy that is life continuing at my age.  It rained in the night and now the sun is a light in the clouds.  It feels like a torch, an Olympic torch that lights the games we play as we honor individuality, cooperation, and the spirit that unites family as team. 

I went through photos last night. Here’s a taste of the past, a wee taste.

My younger cousin Lynn and me in CT for my younger brother’s memorial. Lynn passed away last August from pancreatic cancer. And here I still am!
I look up happy to be with my niece Tarik. October, 2015
In Helsinki, 350 feet underground – a mystical, magical place.
Above Rudesheim am Rhein
Slide Ranch
Face of an Orchid
Honoring
A neighbor’s yard
Blessings of Time

Transition and Preservation

A neighbor who devoted the last twenty years of her life to preserving the community in which I live passed away on Sunday.  She was young.  I know her through her weekly emails and hearing her impassioned speeches at the Civic Center when we’d gather to speak for the animals and plants who live here and prioritize them over unscrupulous and dangerous development.  

The work of Congressman Philip Burton gave us The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, a place loved, well-visited, and revered.  Sharon Rushton may not be as well-known as Philip Burton but she worked just as hard to preserve the areas that enrich and enliven our quality of life.  

Turning Wheels
Each rock has a face
Collaboration and Connection
Where the light shines
Living Between and Among

Autumn Light

Trees become bare as spider webs form revealing new lines intersecting, augmenting, and defining space.   

Reflecting on this year, I realize four friends lost their husbands, and another lost his wife.  They were in my age range so it brings impermanence even more deeply into awareness.  The gift of breathing dips in and expands out.  I’m gratefully here with leaves changing as camellia and iris bloom.

Br. David Steindel-Rast:

In the continuous flow of blessing our heart finds meaning and rest.