That there is a photo of Felix in our woods before the terrible heat wave that struck the PNB such a terrible blow. It's warmer in Seattle than LA where I am right now. Eden is doing so much better, still dizzy from the concussion but cranky and funny and adorable.
I met Elizabeth! We've been blog friends for, she says, 10 years and she is as splendid as you would expect. She took me to an enormous park, Huntington Park, with a Japanese Garden and a Chinese garden and bonsai garden and a corpse flower that was about to open. It was so beautiful. I have been staying in an area of LA full of 'old money' homes with the most extraordinary gardens. In the midst of a horrible drought, people have green lawns and lush flowers. E said that all the pick up trucks we were seeing belonged to the gardeners. Of course she's right.
Which reminds me. How is it we go on with our ordinary lives while we are witnessing a dying planet? Is it denial or magical thinking or the resilience of our species? Or all of it. We keep making art and babies and dinner. All we truly have is this moment and then this moment and then this. Our beloved children, the strangers at the airport, the woman who walks by Eden's house every evening with her little black and white dog, all yearning for the same things; connection, love, acceptance, forgiveness, a comfortable pillow.
Tonight I read about bodhichitta, the heart/mind that is awake. Fortunately for us, there is always an awakened heart within us. We can access it any time. When I'm feeling especially grumpy or critical or depressed, if I can remember that that awakened heart is here right now, I can begin to turn to another way of thinking or behaving. When I met Elizabeth yesterday, my heart leapt. Literally. I bathed in the kind regard we have for one another. Can I expand this for strangers? For those I feel ambivalence for or dislike? Can I treat everyone (and all living things) with kindness?
Dear ones. The open vulnerable heart is a great force for good. Being here with my child, I am reminded of the lengths parents go to protect and care for their children. Can I shine that light on the lizard on the wall, the pomegranate tree by the road, the tomato plant by Eden's front door?
Much love and kindness to all.
4 comments:
Oh, Beth. You honestly tweaked my universe that day we met. It was beyond wonderful, and I am still radiating from it -- from your warmth and peace and all the things we shared and the timing and the gardens and the bonsai. A miniature present that was the present, the right now. Your description of the awakened heart is what I'm going to think about now, as I go to sleep.
"The open vulnerable heart is a great force for good."
Thank you so much for this post, reminding me of the timeless power at the heart of all vulnerable families and communities and worlds.
I love thinking of you two meeting up and walking in gardens. What could be more beautiful than that image? I love you both so much, hold you both so tenderly in my heart.
What a meeting that must have been, you and Elizabeth! I smile imagining it.
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