Meditation in Grey

 

        77 years ago Mary Helen gave birth to the first born of she and Karl. That was in Indianapolis. Today that boy took a walk in California.

      It was a meditation. Each step was a celebration. Each sound was praise.

    Peace.

    See you down the trail.

Peculiarities

         The double rainbow, as seen from our deck last evening, was the beginning of the rain season on the California central coast. Rain season ends and begins in July, so our August .2 of an inch is an early start and a bit peculiar.

        And so is this. The other evening as I walked back from taking out some trash I spotted and and then was buzzed by the "smallest hummingbird I've seen" as I said to Lana.

        "Really?" she said, going back to what she was reading.

        Well, she saw it the next day, with our granddaughter and she was a bit more excited about it.

        It is not a hummingbird, but it has a wing flap rate as high as the hummers. It is a White-lined Sphinx Moth and grows to 2-3 inches. Speedy little creature.

        These we found on a lupine bush. They were interrupted long enough to be inspected by granddaughter and Nana, and photographed before being returned to their bliss on the lupine.

        

        This was a sunset cocktail companion the other evening at a Camp Ocean Pines fundraising event. 

        I frequently hear some of his cousins as they observe their nightly vespers here on the ridge.

        Time to cue the frog. Actually as I opened the spa cover yesterday a little dude had taken to napping next to the control buttons. Granddaughter and Nana got a chance to spot it, before his spoiled nap led him to leap to the step and then to dash under the spa.

        Sorry Kermit...so I'll vamp and quote your song, that Jim Henson helped you 

pen....

        "What's on the other side?

        Rainbows are visions, but only illusions.

        And rainbows have nothing to hide.

        So we've been told and some choose to believe it

        I know they're wrong, wait and see.

        Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,

        the lovers, the dreamers and me."

        See you down the trail.

        

A Day for America

         There is a moment, a threshold, when something severely injured begins to die or begins to recover. The day Donald Trump was indicted for trying to overthrow America is such a moment. 

       US citizens will watch as the nation's 247 years of history endure the spasm of trying to cure itself of a poison that sought to destroy the historic process of choosing leaders and transferring power.

        Patriots are those who stand against a nation's enemies and detractors. Those of us who live here will learn if fidelity to the cause of the democratic republic will empower our future. The indictments make it clear Donald Trump lied, tried to cheat, conspired and endeavored to destroy the nation's constitutional process, and the honor bound tradition of presidential succession. 

        Last summer the Investigation into January 6 documented the deceptions, trickery, and the role of Trump in inciting the attack on the US Capitol, the nation's transfer of power ritual, and the brutal attack on law enforcement. It was a rebellion that was fed by lies, and acted upon by gullible and malevolent forces and all of it was at the behest of a man who will forever stand as America's most vile political hustler. It was an extraordinary public documentation. 

       The Justice department has prosecuted hundreds of those who violently attacked the Capitol, as a result of the conspiracy.

        Now, the indictments of this day further turn the wheels of justice. This is for the future of our aging republic and to place Trump's name and reputation in chains and a cage for history, forever banished from civility because of his perversity. Of course he is innocent until proven guilty.

        There is no reason to trust the man to do anything but love only himself and to lie, cheat, sell our national secrets and launch armies only for his own glory. He could not accept his loss, and so he became an enemy of America. He is a tin god and we will watch our justice system flush him away.

        There are other indictments, and there will be other cases and they are an accumulative judgement that will render Trump, MAGA republicans, and his time in power as the nadir of the American presidency.

        It has been wrong, judgmental and perhaps even haughty of myself to hold those who support Trump with such contempt. This should be a nation of such freedom to survive faulty judgements and even our failures. 

        I have not been proud of this nation. I have been worried about collective bad judgments. But today is a good day.

        This is a day when, in a sense, we watch ourselves display a fealty to the aspirations and ideals of the American experiment. This is a day when there are signs we have chosen to live, to heal. This is a day of and for history. This is a day for America.

        See you down the trail.