Desert Gaze

Recently we spent an afternoon in Joshua Tree National Park as a reconnaissance for a longer road trip we hope to do next Fall, and wow, the whole experience was just hours of WOW. Not as hot as we expected and far more beautiful. We discovered a variety of vegetation and land forms under a blue blue sky and a sandy vast earth below. Needless to say, we were quite taken by all of the park. This post is only a first impression, laced with some factual information. The desert gaze is everything fabulous, so yes, please, come wander along with me.

Joshua Tree National Park visit

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It’s not indifference

This week Elie Wiesel’s words are echoing around my brain. As a survivor of the Holocaust death camps himself, he tried to piece together the how and the why of such an horrific event. Through his lifetime of study Wiesel came to realize, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” As I wander about in my SoCal terrain I do my best not to listen to the outrageous lies set forth from the new broligarchs on the DC block. This is an internal struggle for me as I recall Wiesel: “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.” I wish he was still alive so I could ask him how, just how can one navigate such a calculated and vicious attack on human decency going seemingly unchallenged? The list of falsehoods and fabrications broadcasted from the current White House over and over is a long one and I feel powerless to counter any of it.

Beyond staying positive, staying in this moment, staying grateful for all the gifts I receive daily, I am unclear how to combat “the flood the zone with shit” strategy of MAGA. I am struggling. All I know is it’s not indifference that I am feeling, even if all I post this week are photos of this gorgeous landscape in Southern California.

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From the Ashes

From the ashes indeed, and in record time. What a magnificent achievement is the rebuilding of Notre Dame thanks to “about 250 companies and 2,000 workers and artisans from all over France who knew the world was watching, and drove them to give their all for the project of a lifetime” (NYTimes). If you have been lucky, you have walked into that nearly thousand year old building, and have stood in wonder at the very soul of France. My first visit was in 1973 with my 5 siblings and our parents. My second was with my teenage daughter in 1997. But as fortune allowed, I returned with two friends in July of 2018. I think it was the bells that most captured the overwhelming sense of history and simultaneously kept me in the very moment as we listened in awe and delight.

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