Stillness

This morning a thick blanket of fog covers the hills.  The cool, damp, heavy air muffles sounds and it is intensely quiet.  I hear only an occasional loud THUNK when a falling apple hits the deck.  I am the only one up.  In this morning quiet, I remember years of noisy rushing to get ready to go to work.  I remember the school lunches that had to be made, the order that I thought had to be imposed, the hiding shoes and socks found.  And now our children have children and they have the busy mornings.  Here it is very quiet.  Here there is time to reflect about the coming day.  Here I don't need to get up extra early to find the moments to pray.  Here the quiet enfolds me and imposes peace on me gently. Here time moves slowly.  Here I relish the morning quiet and plan what I choose to do today.  Is this the reward of my years?  I hope my stillness brings some needed peace on to our planet.

Loving the Olympics

I'm still loving watching as much of the Olympics as I can.   Riding the bicycle at the gym, the time goes by faster when I'm watching the U.S. women's volleyball or soccer team play.  In the evenings, I'm staying up until midnight, I'm so caught up in swimming and women's gymnastics.  I'm in love with Simone Biles and the U.S. Women's gymnastics team.  How is it possible for a human being do such amazing vaults and flips and twists?   It is hard to recognize and name just one because there are so many heroes.  Just to be there, competing at the highest level of competition means they are the best in the world.  It means each one of the athletes has sacrificed so much, training unbelievably hard for years, even enduring injuries and pain.  But it is their stories that will be remembered long after the Games are over.  I was touched by the story in the San Francisco Chronicle (SF Chronicle 8-11-16 "Refugee makes a splash in Rio") about Yusra Mardini, an 18 year old Syrian refugee.  She and her sister escaped from Syrian last August, paying smugglers for passage from Turkey to Lesbos.  The rubber boat designed to hold 6 was packed with 19 people.  Twenty minutes on their way, the engine died and the boat began to take on water.  She, her sister and two boys (the only ones who knew how to swim) jumped in the water and pulled the boat for 3 1/2 hours to safety.  Ending her journey in Germany, she found her way to a pool and a German coach took her under his wing.  He found a way for her to go to Rio.  Swimming in the Olympics on the Refugee team was a dream come true for her.  She was happy and proud to compete,, but she says mostly she wants to put a human face on refugees.  Indeed, she is a true hero!  Another hero for me is Simone Manuel who yesterday tied for a gold medal in the Women's 100 meter freestyle.  I can still see her face as she finished and squinted her eyes to see the scoreboard.  The pure joy that flooded her face still makes me smile.  In the interview, the first thing she said was to give God thanks and then say the medal wasn't just for her but for all those who came before her, for  those who had helped her and for all those she hopes her win will inspire in the future when they think they can't do something.  Indeed, it an a joy to watch such amazing heroes - the winners and those who don't win.   All of them are heroes in my book inspiring me to be the best I can be, no matter where I am, what my skills are or what my stage of life.   That's what the Olympics are about.

The Olympics

I flat out love the Olympics.  As long as I can remember, I've loved watching the Olympics.  I love seeing fantastic athletes from so many different countries.  It's a visual United Nations of Athletes.  While don't particularly appreciate all the nationalistic tribal enthusiasm, flag waving or medal counts put forth on television,  I wish our human disagreements could be settled by athletes, not soldiers.  To me, the photo of the smiling North Korean and South Korean young women meeting and taking a selfie said so very much about the power of people meeting people that transcends the politics.  The athletes have so much more in common than they have differences.  I am happy to put aside politics and just watch the excellence honed from so much hard work.  For me, it is a vision of world peace and togetherness and a needed break from all the bad news in the world just now.

Be Kind

I just had tea with a dear friend, one of the kindest people I've ever met.  I'm fortunate to call her my friend, because being with her, I am always uplifted, inspired and called to be a better person.  Years ago teaching a Confirmation class, I asked the students what they thought was the most important thing about living their life as a Christian.  A developmentally disabled young man gave a wise and simple answer that I have never forgotten.  He said, "We can be kind."  When I worked in San Francisco jail, offering a "Spirituality" class to the mentally ill incarcerated women, I'd bring in a CD and play them a song among other activities during the hour.  The hands-down favorite tune was "We can be kind."  I typed out the words and we'd all sing along with the CD.  The inmates all wanted to be treated with kindness and respect.  We all do.  Kindness as a way of life goes a very long way.  There are the little kindnesses offered to strangers in a line at the supermarket or in traffic.  The bumper sticker "Do Random Acts of Kindness" calls us to be kind in the smallest interactions with other people.  There are big kindnesses too, ones that make big changes.  I'm not talking about self-serving "kind" acts, when they're done to get something.  That's just "nice" selfishness.  Rather, I talking about a way of being in the world.  Kindness is oil in the gears of our complex human relationships and kindness always makes a difference.  Kindness can be misunderstood as weakness or seen as ineffective.  Kind people can seem to be mowed down by insults and rudeness, but kindness always wins because it is about who one is.  Kindness makes the world a better place because it calls each of us to our better angels.  In these mean hard times, I want to be a kind person.  I want it written on my tombstone, "She was kind."  It is enough.  It is more than enough.

Politics and Skunks

Watching the well orchestrated Democratic Convention, I was uplifted  by its positive tone.  My values were affirmed and that felt good.  I was inspired by the speeches, especially the ones by both Obamas, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg and Khizr Khan.  But I had the feeling no matter how much it spoke to me, the whole Convention was preaching to the choir.  I can't imagine many Republican or Independent voters changed their beliefs based on what they saw.  If they even watched it, I'm sure they became more entrenched in their opposition.  Hillary made so many promises in her acceptance speech, she can't possibly keep them all.  Appalled as I am by Trump's immature responses to the Gold Star parents, Ghazala and Khizr Khan's sacrifice, what keeps me up at night is trying to understand how half of my fellow Americans can still support Donald Trump.  It doesn't seem matter what he says or does.  It must be, for his supporters, the world has really changed.  No longer is it a place of rationality, decency and integrity.  It is a place where pessimism, fear and rage rule, a place where a bully is seen to make a good strong leader.  That's scary.

Politics aside, we hired a trapper to trap the skunk I saw in our yard a week ago.  We were to dog-sit Arne's dog for 10 days while his family went to Camp Blue, the Cal family camp up in the Sierras and we didn't want to risk her getting sprayed.  As of this morning, 8 skunks have been trapped.  I can't imagine how we sustained so many in our yard.  This is a stark reminder of how we share our space with many creatures, how there are unintended consequences of having bird feeders and fruit trees.  Those unintended consequences are what we have to watch out for with skunks and politics.