A Hummingbird Sips Nectar from a Eucalyptus Tree

Video cameras are banned from the White House Press Room.  Really, really bad guys are running the US government and hell-bent on destroying civil society so they can plunder at will.  They are zombies.  “Must have more for me, more for me, more for me.  Kill the others. Kill the others,” their constant refrain.

Meanwhile I stand rooted to the earth, as my cat rests under the shade of a giant overgrown eucalyptus tree on a neglected, chaotic corner of a crumbling, over-priced apartment complex on the edge of the continent, a block away from the eroding cliffs above the Pacific.

We are all holding on as best we can to this earth, this place, our humanity and spirit and compassion, in the face of relentless, soulless assaults on all we hold dear.  Every moment of joy and peace and love, of anger and truth-telling and standing up for what we believe is creating a new world.

Remain calm and practice tai chi and yoga and meditation.  Sing, pray, move, stand, sit, whole body, whole heart, whole being.  Protest, march, write, share.

I stand in the sun.  My cat lies in the shade by the root of the tree.  My roots spread down from my waist through my legs and feet like a web throughout the whole planet, yielding to earth’s gravity, as my spine lightens and lifts, and my crown opens to the gravitational pull of all the other heavenly bodies. Filaments of light permeating all, a web that cannot be destroyed because it cannot be grasped, yet responds to every touch.

A hummingbird sips nectar from the tree.

It is so sweet.

The eucalyptus, an aromatic blue gum tree, is an invasive species in California that kills off natives, especially understory plants.  On this hillside, its shallow roots and strips of bark cover the dirt.  Invasive weeds that are the only plants to grow in its shade take hold.

The tree has been allowed to grow huge and hairy.  I long to trim it, even more to cut it down, uproot it, and remove the other one too and the two root stumps, and the dead palm tree, and make a garden here.  The landlord, though, has other ideas—a dog run, supposedly—but in truth, just neglect.  It disturbs my soul.

And yet, a hummingbird sips nectar from the tree, my cat rests in its shade, and I stand in the midst of it all.  I don’t know what to do yet, but bear witness, and say that when I saw the hummingbird sip the nectar, I felt five years old again and my heart softened with delight. 

In the midst of all this chaos and confusion, may each of us in our own ways experience such soft, tender, heart delight.  May all of our efforts to create a peaceful, happy home on this earth come from this place and make it so.

Bonding with Nature, Part 8: The Fine Art of Watching

Two huge eucalyptus trees rise high outside my living room window.

The hillside around them is my cat Nobiya’s favorite place to explore.

I take him out for walks every morning, and he teaches me the fine art of watching.

He runs down the stairwell, stops, sniffs the air, looks around, pauses.

Then usually he makes his way up a short concrete stairway to the hillside shaded by the trees and covered with strips of bark they shed like cat’s fur—bits of it everywhere.

Their roots are shallow and extensive, curving up and around, protruding out of the earth at odd angles.

This morning

Nobiya lies in the curve of the exposed shallow root of the eucalyptus tree.

He stretches out and sharpens his claws--

His body a perfect curve 

Aligned to the root.

He jumps up, looks about,

Finds another root and stretches out upon it like a ledge--

The root’s been roughly cut and rises up out of the ground a jagged edge--

His body fits it perfectly. He sharpens his claws.

Tail swishing, he seeks out grass to nibble

Bird trills

Lizard still, frozen on another root of another tree 

Nobiya makes his way there

Sniffs the air

Settles down on the earth in the crook of a root,

Alert, looking, watching, waiting for something to move, to shift,

Everything charged and worthy of attention every moment,

From the shade of the eucalyptus tree, Nobiya watches.

Two lizards appear on cement blocks in the sun.

They are still. 

Watching without looking.

Nobiya doesn't move, except for the twitching of his tail, which never stops. 

Watching without looking.

One lizard starts doing pushups—a lizard cobra pose--then darts away to another block, does more push-ups, darts away--

Nobiya's tail is still.

His head turns one way, then another.

The yogi lizard reappears on blocks a few feet away, does pushups, disappears.

Meditating lizard doesn't move.

Bluebonnets of East Texas, 1961

My sister Kim and I in a field of bluebonnets, the Texas state flower, Easter 1961, road between Rockdale and Cameron, Texas. She was 1; I was 2 3/4 years old, according to my Dad's note on the back of the photo. I remember the occasion very well. It was hot and sticky, and the sun was bearing down on us, and there were bugs everywhere, and there were grass burs and stickers, and we were afraid of snakes and didn’t want to get our dresses and shoes dirty, and it was itchy in our Easter dresses, and we were crying and complaining. But our parents insisted, and they always loved this photo.  My mother had it framed in her home when she died, and I have it now--a small frame made of ivory-colored bone with an oval opening for the photo, which has faded on the outside, but not on the inside.  Happy birthday, Kim, February 18, 1960, and every year.  Forever, may your light shine.

Haikus for these times: Breath

My breath is a kiss

From inside to outside and

Back and forth with God

Haikus for these times

I have been watching
The unreality show
I wish it would stop.

Antarctic ice shelf cracks

Seventeen miles, two months

Nothing to see here...

Crack in Antarctic Ice Shelf

Do you really want

To destroy all life on earth?

What are you doing?

Today a young man

Told me others are using

Pseudonyms in case

Night falls under clouds

Covering earth and water

And I am the sky.

Imagine

Imagine if someone had run as a Republican who had Donald Trump's exact same policy positions and exact same wealth and experiences, exact same personality, exact same reputation in business, exact same kind of spouse and marital history, exact same performance in the debates, exact same refusal to release taxes, exact same potential conflicts of interest, exact same videotaped remarks about how he treats women, and exact same number of women accusing him of sexual assault, and gave the exact same types of speeches, and so on--everything was exactly the same--but he was a black man. 

And almost every one of his followers was black. And his main advisor was a black nationalist known for his extensive propagation of propaganda. 

Or he was any color other than white. 

Or he was a woman.

Walls

If you think building a wall is a good idea, please come see what one actually looks like and talk to people on both sides of the wall. 

Visit Jacumba Springs, CA, for instance, with its lovely natural spring and the remnants of a spa town, renowned for its healing waters. See how in the midst of this wide open beautiful desert landscape, there is a barrier, an ugly scar destroying the continuity of the land, blocking the free movement of beings. It feels like a violation, See how it strangles and distorts communities on both sides of the wall, creating poverty and addiction and suspicion and fear and isolating people, limiting their options. Imagine what it was like when there was an open border and people crossed freely back and forth, sharing cultures and enlivening one another and creating a robust economy. 

Visit an actual wall. Talk to actual people. Feel what such a wall does to the land, the people, the beings who live on the land, and to the heart of this country.