This week it took some extra effort to rise above the unraveling of so much happening in our world. But I am grateful for the reminders from nature to do just that. Walking out under a broad blue sky, hearing the screech of hawks circling overhead, watching our grandson scramble past the bird of paradise and lizards and palm trees along the hill toward the playground all shift my perspective toward a better place, one that allows for the firm belief that goodness will prevail, as day always follows night.
Category Archives: Life
Plenty of Words
There have been plenty of words this week, trailing around, in and out of my head. I will not lie, many of them are frightening. Like when Trump said, “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military National Guard,” (abc news). And by dangerous, he included Portland, OR, which for anyone who has visited recently seems to be more absurd than just about anything he has said to date. In fact, “Portland has more than 100 miles of neighborhood greenways in every part of the city” and is a cyclist’s paradise filled with safe, beautiful paths and low-speed streets (portland.gov). (Just check out their beautiful airport– I swear you will never leave!) Trump’s lies that get pumped out as echoing sound bites are certainly the work of some legendary marketers, but it doesn’t change the fact that he is indeed a lying felon.
Thankfully, there were other words that spoke to me this week for which I am glad.
Little Guy Lessons
Despite being born in a coastal state our little grandson found the sound of surf hitting the shore line terrifying. We spend months trying to coax him out of the car to walk across the parking lot and see the sea from afar, all to no avail. But eventually, as luck would have it, he held our hands and braved the roaring din to stand along side of us, feet in the sand, hesitant and uncertain, but there. I too have felt overwhelmed causing much self-doubt and uncertainty, even fear, not emotions I had much need for until we moved away from just about everything that made me me. But watching our little guy finally get up the guts to yell back at the formidable Pacific I thought, he’s on to something here. Time to land in this here and now and let go of fears. Time to yell back too.


