English Garden Tour

I'm at the end of day 5 on my English Garden tour.  I haven't written sooner because it has been too hard to put into words the experiences I'm having.  On one hand, the gardens we've visited have been greatly varied and mostly beautiful either in the small details or the grand scale or both.  I find I'm viewing gardens differently.  I look now for contrasting colors or textures, for foliage variation and for complementing plants.  I've been looking for "garden fairies" in one form or another in honor of my Michigan granddaughters.  I found some the first few days, but there have been none these last two days which has made me sad.  What has surprised me is the large amount of time we spend each day in the car, speeding down narrow leafy lanes with dappled light and screeching around scary curves where there's only room for one vehicle.  We seem to be crisscrossing Sussex and Kent in the South of England, going back and forth from one garden to another far away.  The traffic has been terrible adding to time spent in the car.  But the camaraderie between the other participants and me has been fun.  Tomorrow Erik comes and we will spend the last four days together exploring more gardens here in Southern England.

Sent from my iPad

Free Speech

I leave today for a 10 day trip to visit gardens in the South of England so I won't be demonstrating on Sunday in Berkeley.  The question for me has been if I were here, would I participate?  After letting this question marinate for several weeks, I decided a few days ago, I wouldn't march to the Park where the neo Nazi, white supremacists are holding a rally.  The Berkeley mayor has urged people to stay away.  The Berkeley City Council has given the mayor new powers to aid the police in keeping the public safety.  The alt-right is itching for another violent confrontation.  Our minister is still planning to lead a contingent from our church to the site, singing hymns and waving posters of love and justice.  Am I afraid?  Yes, I have to say I am.  Do I feel there are other ways to protest?  I do.  I pray for the safety of our church group and all others who choose to participate in this latest Berkeley face-off.  I am interested in the tension between First Amendment rights (Free Speech) and public safety.  Such interesting times we live in!

Sent from my iPad

The Eclispe

Thick dense fog shrouded the Berkeley hills this morning.  No eclipse viewing here.  We collected our viewing devices and drove east to our friends' home on the flanks of Mt. Diablo in Walnut Creek where the sun was supposed to shine.  The traffic was heavier than usual, we thought everyone was doing what we were, driving away from the coast.  Whenever the sun broke through the clouds, people pulled over to the curb, got out of their cars and stood gazing to the sky with special sunglasses or cell phones.  There were groups of families in parking lots, kids on top of cars with matching sunglasses, everyone watching the eclipse. It is wonderful to feel the people of our nation united and excited about something other than politics.  No science deniers around this eclipse!  I find the eclipse language compelling:  the path of totality, penumbra, heliostat.  It sounds like science fiction, but it's not, it's real.  Our friends were out in their driveway with a neat binocular set-up to put the solar image on a paper (see the photo).  We brought our tools:  Bob had several welding helmets and I had a cereal box pin-hole camera.  The sun looked like a crescent moon that grew thinner and thinner.  When we reached the 75% coverage of the moon over the sun, the light dimmed perceptibly, the temperature grew cooler and it became quiet.  The chickens paid no attention to this though.  It is humbling to view such an awesome event.  Our conversations reflected who we are:  Bob was engaged in a discussion about the physics of light and the intricacies of special relativity.  I wondered about our place in the universe.  It was truly a privilege and joy to participate in this celestial event.

Sent from my iPad

These Dark Days

Terrible news again last week!   First, the dangerous escalation of rhetoric between our President and Kim Jong-un, the two acting like crazy adolescent bullies but with nuclear weapons not just sticks or guns.  How dangerous that Trump has so many generals advising him.  Then the terrible news out of Charlottesville over the weekend made more horrible by Trump's lukewarm condemnation of violent events.  The alt-right cheered as they heard support from our President's words.  The images of white supremacists marching Friday night with torches chanting Nazi slogans were chilling as were the images of violent confrontations between armed groups that left one dead and many with injuries. White supremacy is an evil concept.  Our Founding Fathers stated that all men are created equal.  We've fought the Civil War, the North won.  But the rubble from Reconstruction and Civil Rights remained and festered. These perpetrators are domestic terrorists and I condemn their violence with all I have in me.  It made me again wonder what I would have done, had I been in Charlottesville?  Would I have joined the line of locked arm clergy or passed out water or spiritual care to those thirsty or hurting?  It turns out I don't have to idly wonder at all.  The alt-right is planning a rally in Berkeley on August 27 and many are again expected to gather and wreak havoc here.  Our minister is organizing a counter-march.  Once again I face the challenge of whether to stay passively committed, watching from afar or to put my body in the line for what I believe.  Could I put my fear aside?  Would it make a difference if I were there?  I know it would make a difference to me and maybe that is all that matters.  


Sent from my iPad

Terry Tempest Williams

Listening to Forum this morning on the radio, I heard Terry Tempest Williams interviewed by Michael Krasny.  She has been an inspiration to me for a long time.  The gentle quality of her voice as well as her eloquence spoke of the power of her spirituality of the land.   She said that we must go deeper than politics to what unites us and one thing that powerfully unites us is the land, the National Parks, the wild places we all share.  We are all responsible for protecting and caring for these common sacred places.  I heard her speak a phrase "the spirituality of climate change" that got me thinking.  Given that there are so many of us (6.9 billion people now, 9 billion predicted in my lifetime), each of us must take the responsibility to use less, to leave a smaller footprint on the Earth.  What each of us does matters.  Given that we are beginning to experience the effects of climate change with record high temperatures, droughts, extreme weather and rising sea levels, we must do more than rub our hands together and bemoan the changes.  It is up to us, there is no one else.  It is our sacred responsibility to do our part.


Sent from my iPad

Markleeville

"Drink in the beauty and wonder at the meaning of what you see."
Rachel Carson.

We've spent the better part of the last week staying in a very small and funky cabin at the Carson River Resort near Markleeville on the Eastern slope of the Sierras.  We have been part of a group organized by our good friends, Nancy and Larry.  The group all stayed at the Resort together.  We shared meals, divided up cooking and shared some activities.  Our friend Larry is the main force behind this week.  He's been coming up to Markleeville for more than 60 years at the end of July.  There has been beauty in the group's generous sharing, in the many conversations, in seeing the history some bring to this week.  I wonder what brings meaning to any place, time or experience?  Most of the group (but not us) spent mornings bicycling long routes in the area.  Nancy, Bob and I explored beauty of the high Sierras hiking a bit on the Pacific Crest Trail.  The many high Sierra wildflowers were at their peak.  I wonder about the meaning of their beauty?  I wonder about the beauty and power of the thunderstorms that cooled us off every afternoon?  I wonder at the meaning of sharing what you love with others?  I think whatever meaning is here in this stark wild and beautiful place, we bring with us and it informs what we see and experience.