Some friends of friends stopped in tonight to say hello. They are young and in town to volunteer, one of the great phenomena of the Great Government Levee Failure Disaster (I still can’t find a name for it and have been refusing the shorthand of Katrina as much as possible). We are the great petri dish for the U.S. and possibly beyond because everything is a blank slate and could begin anew. Well some things…
So the NYT posts this as quote of the day: “People don’t have faith in government. They have faith in their neighbors.” MARÍA DEL SOCORRO VELÁZQUEZ VARGAS, a sociologist, on families who have chosen to stay in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, despite widespread violence. Dangermond.org takes the liberty of posting this as quote of the day: “People don’t have faith in government. They have faith in their neighbors.” Rachel Dangermond, a blogger, on families who have…
Last night in meditation we ended the compassion cycle we have been on and I have to say Thank God. There is only so much compassion one can have in their heart. Sorry, I’m limited. But when you have to go in there and place this difficult person in your life in the midst of your meditation, well it grows tiring after a while, because sometimes holding onto anger is a lot easier and a…
Two pelicans tucked into their wings in the first tree, 16 cormorants on the next tree, stopped counting at 36 ducks, 12 geese, one Great Blue Heron, seven American Coots, four squirrels, and one egret. This is what I saw in City Park this morning and it was uplifting because the day again is a grey day and again my mind is shattered into a million shards of pieces of my life. It took me…
I’ve been working on working from different places – in the house of course, but still sitting at my desk staring at my computer monitor and being hard wired to my telephone have all become barriers to creative thought. I need to move around to get my blood going. So the new writing table of course, gives me a new perspective on the palm trees and my neighbors’ yards. I wonder what it is about…
Sunday was Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday and we watched some clips last night with fascination at how this conservative almost evangelical was such an icon for this country. On the surface he was the perfect president, believed in the American pie in the sky dream, but underneath was roiling what was to become the biggest redistribution of wealth this country has ever seen. I remember the day when I was working at the Rault Center,…
Walking through City Park with Heidi straining on the leash, I marveled how this once shy dog is now a bulldozer going after squirrels, and sometimes trying to take flight and chase pelicans. Now it is two dogs who strain on the leash looking for mischief. But not me. I’ve worn too many leashes out and have now found that my leash is slack on the ground. Which I don’t mind, it comes with the…
A friend of mine is going through the sorrow of a dog who is dying. He always referred to the dog not by name by simply “the dachshund” but that belied his deep love for the dog. Now that more than 16 years have passed and the dog is preparing to go, the humans clutch and rail against the inevitable. It’s always that way. Here is another poem by John Updike about losing his dog…
I was walking home the other day from the park and saw an American flag hanging out front of a neighbor’s house and I began to say the Pledge of Allegiance in mind, only I couldn’t remember the words. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of American and BLANK. I tried several times to get the words but nothing would come. So Christina Aguilera couldn’t remember the Star Spangled Banner on…
I was about to embark on a diatribe about the maintenance that comes with age … for the body, for the mind, for the heart, for the soul, but let me rephrase this phase, it’s about fine tuning. I think it all started with a writing table that I had my neighbor build for me that went from being practical to being beautiful. Now I have a walnut bookmatched table that is where I stand…