REFLECTIONS ON LIFE – AUGUST 2019

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

For Liz’ most recent program on Howard Community Colleges Dragon Radio, go to the end of this issue of Reflections

REFLECTIONS ON HOME IN COLUMBIA

The number of lightning bugs twinkling in the night air has dwindled considerably in recent weeks.  I love these little creatures.  I can recall so clearly, as a little girl of roughly five years, collecting them in a jar with a lid that had been punctured by my mom.  She told me those little holes would enable these critters to breathe more easily.  We had a nightly competition among neighborhood kids as to who would catch the most. Now, at the age of 75, I can occasionally see a few in the dark night air still flickering outside the window by my side of our bed while I’m falling asleep.  What a lovely way to enter dreamland.

Two hummingbirds have taken up residence, we believe, very near our home.  We only see them as they approach one of their special feeders attached to window glass by a suction cup– one over the kitchen sink and the other by our kitchen table where Lloyd and I eat most of our meals.  Watching them is so much preferable to watching the evening news.  It’s hard to believe that such beautiful creature can be so aggressive.  Yes.  They are.

All one need do to believe this is to observe one trying to move in while the other is feeding.  Several years ago, Lloyd and I had an up-close and large-scale lesson in the aggressive behavior of these birds in a controlled setting in Costa Rica where they were screened in for observation.

* * *

One evening we went with friends to sit on the lawn at Merriweather Post Pavilion to watch the film of the 1969 concert held in Woodstock in New York State.   50 years ago!!!!  How can that be possible?   Millions of young people camping out on farmland for three days!  Joan Baez, Santana, Jimi Hendrix and others performed round the clock.  I was 25 at the time, and I believe sad to say, was totally oblivious to this happening.  Whatever we may think now, I found their message to be a good one.

REFLECTIONS ON ZACH

I have written in previous “Reflections” about how Zach loved to walk.  He would tell his friends “look, we’re so lucky we can walk” and then lead them on a long route to a restaurant for lunch or to a friend’s house to visit.

This month Zach’s dad and sister, John and Julia, are heading for a long “walk” with two friends who also knew Zach well.  It will take about five days and entail carrying about 25 pounds of supplies for Julia, and I don’t know how much for John.  They will be hiking in Yosemite Park in California and sleeping in tents. What a great and courageous way to honor Zach’s spirit!

REFLECTIONS ON BALTIMORE, MY HOME TOWN

The Baltimore Sun                                                         August 31, 2019

“A new chapter at the H.L. Mencken House”               by Jacques Kelly

Writer’s Hollins Street home undergoing $1.5M restoration

My mom was very proud that this renowned  journalist lived in Baltimore.  There is so much great history in his former home.  Mencken was indeed widely respected, and he also had a sharp tongue that he did not hesitate to use.  My favorite quote of Mencken:  “For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” As Jacques Kelly says, “this will be a place for an exchange of ideas about the man who wrote so much within the four walls where he lived and died.”

This is just what my birthplace city needs.

REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC POLICY

HOWARD COUNTY

Those of you who have followed any of my 33 years in public elected office or my social activism during my now five years as an unelected activist, both prior to or after those years, cannot possibly miss my oft repeated use of the phrase “social, economic, and environmental justice.  Virtually every government action falls into at least one of those categories.  Currently we in Howard County are engaging, whether or not we are aware, in a major social justice legislative issue.  Kudos to the Superintendent of Schools and members of the County Council for proposing legislation to reflect greater economic equality throughout all of the county’s schools. 

STATE OF MARYLAND

The Baltimore Sun                                                          August 26, 2019

“Plight of monarchs here and elsewhere”                     by Ellen Knickmeyer 

“Trump order weakens protections for butterflies”

Although it dwindles a bit more each spring, on the banks of the ponds beyond our home we still have milkweed that attracts monarch butterflies. “With its count falling 99% to the low tens of thousands, the monarch is now under government consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act.”

Each summer, the beauty of these magnificent little creatures becomes more apparent as our realization of the truth that we may not see them next year.

U.S.A

I found the two juxtaposed op-eds in the August 29 issue of The Washington Post very well worded, as we would expect from the authors.  Having said that, I certainly hope that Dionne is correct in his forecast about the democratically unjust Electoral College, despite the fact that I had the honor of casting the vote for Obama for those in the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the 2008 presidential election.

The Washington Post                                                        August 29, 2019

“The electoral college is here to stay”                              by George F. Will\

Some states support abolishing the Electoral College.  Others do not.

“No, it’s on its last legs”                                                     by E, J. Dionne Jr.

“Our founders admitted that the Electoral College system they created in the original Constitution was defective by altering it with the 12^th Amendment in 1804.  It’s time we followed their lead in showing the same willingness to scrap a system that is sending us headlong into a national crisis.”

The Washington Post                                                         August 7, 2019

“Nobel laureate transfigured American literature"         by Emily Langer

 Toni Morrison 1931-2019

Although I had to pay my own way through college at the University of Maryland, it never occurred to me to choose a major that would guarantee me an economically upscale cost of living.  I chose Literature.  To this day I am so grateful that I made that choice.  One of the main factors to which I attribute that choice was my observation of my mom’s extensive reading. Although she left high school in Baltimore before her senior year, I recall her reading prolifically.  She would talk with me about her favorite authors – Alcott, Austen, Blake, Carroll, Tennyson, Whitman – and the impact they had on her.  When I was in college, I recall her talking with me about a new favorite – Toni Morrison.

When I learned of Morrison’s recent death, I pulled down some of her books from the bookcase in our bedroom.  “Beloved” had been the most impactful on me, and I reread a few pages.  A very small book in that bookcase called to me most loudly – “ Lecture and speech of acceptance upon the award of the Nobel Prize” for Literature, delivered in Stockholm on the seventh of December, nineteen hundred and ninety-three.” Following is the acceptance portion of that program in its entirety.

“Your Majesties, your Highnesses’ Ladies and Gentlemen, I entered this hall pleasantly haunted by those who have entered it before me.  That company of laureates is both daunting and welcoming, for among its lists are names of persons whose work has made whole worlds available to me.  The sweep and specificity of their art have sometimes broken my heart with the courage and clarity of its vision.  The astonishing brilliance with which they practiced their craft has challenged and nurtured my own.  My debt to them rivals the profound one I owe to the Swedish Academy for having selected me to join that distinguished alumni.

Early in October an artist friend left a message that I left on the answering service for weeks and played back every once in a while just to hear the trembling pleasure in her voice and the faith in her words.  “My dear sister,” she said, “the prize that is your is also ours and could not have been placed in better hands.” The spirit of her message with its earned optimism and sublime trust marks this day for me.

I will leave this hall, however, with a new and much more delightful haunting than the one I felt upon entering:  that is the company of the laureates yet to come.  Those who, even as I speak, are mining, sifting, and polishing languages from illuminations none of us has dreamed of.  But whether or not any one of them secures a place in this pantheon, the gathering of these writers is unmistakable and mounting.  Their voices bespeak civilizations gone and yet to be; the precipice from which their imaginations gaze will rivet us; they do not blink or turn away.

It is, therefore, mindful of the gifts of my predecessors, the blessing of my sisters, in joyful anticipation of writers to come that I accept the honor the Swedish Academy has done me, and ask you to share what is for me a moment of grace.”

Reading those words of Toni Morrison is “a moment of grace” for me.

(One evening this week, Lloyd and I drove with a couple who have been our close friends almost from the inception of Columbia.  I brought up Toni Morrison and was thrilled to learn that one of them had her as a literature teacher in college.)

PUERTO RICO (A Commonwealth of the U.S.A.)

Finally, some good news for this beautiful island! Hurricane Dorian generally missed the main island and was actually helpful in providing some rain for the southwest part. Additionally, last month the very corrupt governor was forced to resign by the public protests of the local population.

Puerto Rico has hosted us for cold-weather vacations a dozen times over the past 30 years. We have just made reservations to make another trip this fall.  We usually end up on the small island of Culebra, about 15 miles from the P. R.’s northeast coast. The eye of Hurricane Dorian now bearing down on the Carolinas as I compose these “Reflections” just missed Culebra by about 20 miles. Whew!

The economy of P.R. is in shambles, recently a result of the major hurricane two years ago. But the economic downfall had its roots in a U.S. congressional decision 20 years back.

In 1975, the Feds decided to help P.R.’s economic struggle by granting large tax benefits to pharmaceutical companies that were willing to move/enlarge their manufacturing operations to/in the island. It was wildly successful. As many as 50 thousand new jobs were created and the economy boomed. Then congress decided to phase out those breaks over ten years. In response, Big Pharma phased out those 50,000 jobs between 1998 and 2007 – just as our nation went into the ‘87/’88 recession that was ignited by the banking industry collapse. Bang-bang went the P.R. economy and it continues a downward spiral, helped along by that 2017 hurricane. Weekly wage today is half of the U.S. average – about $525/week.

As many as 200 thousand, mostly young people have left and come to the U.S. mainland over the last ten years leaving an aging population to fend for themselves (although many send money back, I’m sure.) It’s a sad story. But maybe we can help this fall, even if it is only a few dollars.

Beautiful Island!  Beautiful people!  Beautiful memories!

REFLECTIONS ON OUR PLANET BEYOND THE UNITED STATES

UGANDA

The Washington Post  (Editorial)                                                  August 7, 2019

“The power of poetry in Uganda”

“Even from prison, a firebrand activist continues to denounce – and irk – the country’s dictator.”

I can’t help but wonder whether Ugandan activist, Stella Nyanzi, a “champion for women’s, girls’ and LGBTQ rights” ever read Toni Morrison’s poetry.  I would bet strongly that the answer is “yes.”

PLANET EARTH

Tricycle – The Buddhist Review                                                 Fall 2019

Lloyd subscribed to this quarterly publication for me during the ten years when I attended a weeklong silent retreat. Though I have not gone on one of those retreats for about five years now, I have attended briefer ones with Jack Kornfield and Pema Chodron in New England and New York.  The following article, “On Not Losing Heart – When we’re tempted to give up, a simple shift in perspective can remind us that everything we do matters,” struck a chord with me.  I hope it will do the same for you.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR UNIVERSE

Ever feel like time is passing too quickly?

GOOGLE:  Einstein’s theory of relativity says that time slows down or speeds up depending on how fast you move relative to something else.  Approaching the speed of light, a person inside a spaceship would age much slower than his twin at home.

I’m perfectly happy with and grateful for my speed of aging.

Across the Universe

“Pools of sorrow, waves of joy

Are drifting through my open mind

Possessing and caressing me

Across the Universe

~Lennon and McCartney

Be well and love life.

~ Liz

PS - My monthly Reflections episodes, the Dragon radio show I record at Howard Community College, can be found at http://dragondigitalradio.podbean.com/category/reflections-on-life/.

REFLECTIONS ON LIFE   JULY 2019

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

For Liz’ most recent program on Howard Community Colleges Dragon Radio, go to the end of this issue of Reflections

REFLECTIONS ON HOME IN COLUMBIA

Due to travel plans, my June Reflections were sent out on the 28^th of the month. On the 29^th I attended a large LGBT event at Centennial Park.  I rarely seek to speak at community events these days, though for this occasion I requested of our County Executive, Calvin Ball, whether I could join him in giving opening comments.  The words below of Jim Rouse, founder of the new town of Columbia were so appropriate that I deeply wanted to share them. Although his words in this letter specifically refer to race, they can apply to any form of discrimination among us human beings. Calvin graciously not only agreed, but also introduced me to speak first before his opening words for this celebration. Many in attendance requested a copy.

**

On the evening of July 12, I attended a “Lights for Liberty Vigil” at the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.  The largest worship space in the Center was filled with every seat taken and many standing.  I later learned that all of the smaller rooms in the center were also completely filled. Amidst many inspiring speakers, a young man from Central America gave the most love filled words of the evening. After more than an hour of songs of love and peace, we all proceeded outside in the dark of night, and, each holding a lit candle, encircled the brick plaza outside.  As hundreds of us simultaneously snuffed out our candles, I was aware of the presence of the spirit of Jim Rouse in this “garden for growing people.”

For what may well have been the 50^th time, Lloyd and I attended the 4^th of July parade in the Longfellow neighborhood of Columbia’s Harper’s Choice Village.  As always, it was a very “home grown” event replete with kids riding their red, white, and blue decorated bikes and tricycles.  We have so many clear and warm memories of these parades.  This year we were so deeply moved by the entry of a vehicle decorated in memory of former Longfellow resident, John Lea, the owner of JK’s PUB, for many year a fixture in the Wilde Lake Village Center.  We have countless warm recollections of sharing a meal and a glass of beer with friends in that establishment. 

**

This month we savored our first corn and tomatoes from Clark’s vegetable stand on Route 108 just east of the intersection with Eliot’s Oak Road.  I can still see Senator Jim Clark himself at the vegetable stand conversing with his constituents when he was President of the Maryland Senate.  In addition to growing the best corn and tomatoes, he did so much to advance good environmental practices in farming, among them “no-tilling” of the land, which dramatically decreased environmentally detrimental run-off. When I served as Howard County Executive back in the 80’s, I was deeply privileged to work with him on establishing one of the most effective farmland preservation programs in the country right here in Howard County.  His daughter now carries on his love of and dedication to good farming practices.  Thank you, Martha.

REFLECTIONS ON ZACH

In my June Reflections, I wrote of Zach’s so often serving as an inspiration to me, particularly in not giving in to despair at all of the pain and suffering in our world.  In the month intervening, I have never had a greater need of Zach’s inspiration.  To observe the TV coverage of the conditions under which our nation, the United States of America, is holding immigrants, many of them children, near our southern border, I sometimes feel as though my heart will break.  I have heard from many of you that you are undergoing the same hopelessness.  Then I remember to summon up my still so vivid memories of Zach and the way he truly LIVED with cancer.  Yes, he taught me, and I can now redouble my efforts to truly LIVE and work for change.

As I wrote last month, I now say again “Thank you, Zach.”

REFLECTIONS ON BALTIMORE, MY HOME TOWN

THE BALTIMORE SUN                                                    JULY 1, 201

“THE ‘SECRET’ BENEATH’

Federal Hill’s tunnels continue to fascinate Baltimoreans, visitors”

                                                                                               By Colin Campbell

Federal Hill was one of my Mom’s favorite places.  Born at home on Barry Street in 1904, she grew up not far from this “hill”.  Later in her life she worked as a legal secretary in the Matheson Building, also not far from “the hill”.  When I was attending a Catholic girls high school near the Baltimore Museum of Art (where I admittedly slipped out of class occasionally and crossed over Wyman’s Park to expand my educational experience). I would change to another public bus line near her office on my way home to Edmondson Village.  Occasionally when travelling on the bus with a girl friend from school, we would stop in my mom’s office for a visit after running up the 17 floors to her office.  Yes, I really did that.

All of that to say, before reading this article in the Baltimore Sun, I was unaware of the subject “tunnels” in this news article.  Lloyd and I will take a drive to Baltimore soon and check them out.

REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC POLICY

U.S.A.

The Baltimore Sun                                                            July 4, 2019

“Keeping ‘foreign intrusion’ from polls"                          by John Sarbanes and

                                                                                                   Brian Frosh

Now that we have experienced the TV coverage of the congressional questioning of Bob Mueller, this strong caution by two of the most courageous and intelligent elected people in our nation calls us strongly to pay very close attention. We are so fortunate to have both of them serving in our State of Maryland.  Add to that the major role played by our Congressman Elijah Cummings, and we are blessed beyond words.

The Washington Post                                                        July 19, 2019

“Harriet Tubman is no wedge issue"

Mr. Mnuchin miscalculated with his shoddy excuse for postponing a $20 bill honoring the American hero”

This American hero is also a has deep roots not only in our nation, but also in our state of Maryland

The Baltimore Sun                                                               July 25, 2019

“As the nation’s opioid crisis grew, the pills got stronger”  by Riin Aljas

In my wildest imagination I cannot conceive of an explanation sufficient to pardon this exploitation of the poor people of Appalachia by the drug companies.

           

REFLECTIONS ON OUR PLANET BEYOND THE UNITED STATES

The Washington Post                                                    July 9, 2019

“Ancient life awakens amid thawing ice caps”           by Daniel Ackerman

“Climate change stories often highlight the teetering fragility of Earth’s ecological system…but for a few exceptional species, thawing ice caps and permafrost are starting to reveal another narrative – one of astonishing biological resilience.”

REFLECTIONS ON OUR UNIVERSE

“The Universe in a Single Atom”                                   by the Dalai Lama XIV

“If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the finding of science and abandon those claims.”

**

Across the Universe

“Pools of sorrow, waves of joy

Are drifting through my open mind

Possessing and caressing me

Across the Universe

~Lennon and McCartney

Be well and love life.

~ Liz

PS - My monthly Reflections episodes, the Dragon radio show I record at HCC, can be found at http://dragondigitalradio.podbean.com/category/reflections-on-life/.

REFLECTIONS ON LIFE – JUNE 2019

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

REFLECTIONS ON HOME IN COLUMBIA

Bullfrogs have reached their melodious (at least to my ears) peak.  There must be at least a hundred of them in our two ponds.  I find their deep resonating mating calls so peaceful in the night. Not all of our neighbors agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtAdhpTKmgg

Wrens and sparrows built three nests on our home early in the spring – one above the light fixture affixed to the outside wall of the deck outside our bedroom, and two on the walls of our kitchen and dining room.  These latter two utilized forsythia branches to lend more support.  Then about a month ago we were mesmerized by the hatching and subsequent food deliveries by the parents.  Now these little birds flit around on their own among the three bird feeders on our decks and kitchen window.  What a joy to simply sit and watch them.

a

As usual I attended the Juneteenth commemoration among the African American community in Columbia.  This year it was held in Town Center.  I was surprised to learn that the main speaker, the head of Howard Community College’s Library is from Ghana.  He was a wealth of information about the slave trade,  We had learned much about this when we visited Ghana ourselves right after our marriage 25 years ago.  We stayed with our dear friends Harriett and Jim Lancaster.  Harriet had served as the first director of the Howard County Department of Citizen Services in Howard County back in the 70’s.  Jim devoted a full week of his life driving us around the country, including the gate through which Ghanaians passed to board the slave ships. 

I am deeply gratified to see that our community college has chosen someone schooled in the deep history of the slave trade. We spoke, and formed an intention to get together sometime soon.  I can learn so much from him.

REFLECTIONS ON ZACH

Next month Lloyd and I will head to the beach house on the coast in North Carolina with our kids and grandkids.  This will be our third year in the “new” house, the prior one having grown too small after almost 20 years.  Zach has never been with us in this house, but I can walk a very short distance down the ocean beach to where he played in the sand and surf.  He and his sister, Julia were the only grandkids when we first began this summertime tradition.  I can remember my daily morning walks with Zach along the ocean  (his idea). We spoke of such varied topics as the beauty of the sport of boxing (hitherto incomprehensible to me), the pull of the water returning to the sea, star formations we had observed from the deck the night before.  One memory stands out above all others - Zach’s demonstrating the style of Mohammed Ali by leaning up strong against a rope line out through the small waves.  Then those words that, although I came to love them, startled me upon first hearing:  “Grandma, that’s what I did with cancer.  I leaned back and leaned back and leaned back.” Rope-a dope!

Countless times since Zach died more than five years ago, when I am struggling with sadness about so much injustice, cruelty and hatred in our world, I remember Zach and emotionally “lean back and lean back and lean back.”  Then I become aware of all the love, beauty, and courage in our world.  It never fails me.

Thank you, Zach.

REFLECTIONS ON BALTIMORE, MY HOME TOWN

The Baltimore Sun                                                                   June 9, 2019

“John Waters deals with a life less shocking”     by Charles Arrowsmith

As a teenager growing up in Baltimore I first developed my love of good films.  What a perfect environment to nourish that love.  Barry Levinson lived to the north and John Waters to the east – one born a year before me in 1942 and the other two years after.  As a young adult I heard much more of Waters than Levinson who’s well deserved fame came several years later.

Waters, the king of nonconformists, says about the acceptance and popularity of his new book “Mr. Know- It – All, The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder” - “Suddenly the worst thing that can happen to a creative person has happened to me.  I am accepted.”

Last year Lloyd and went to the Baltimore Museum of Art, right across Wyman Park from where I went to high school, to see the extensive exhibit relating to John Waters exhibit.  No doubt he was “way out there” at times. When all is considered there is not doubt of his great creativity.

REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC POLICY

“Take the silencer off gun control                                    Editorial

This is a national emergency and must be confronted as one”

The Washington Post                                                         June 2, 2019

When I first began serving as Howard County Executive in 1986, Vinny DiMarco, leader of Marylanders Against Handguns solicited me to be the first County Executive in Maryland to take a stand against the gun lobby by publicly supporting a bill to ban handguns in Maryland.  I agreed.

Now, many years later the damage by guns is beyond our worst imagination.

Lloyd’s daughter and her husband worked in the city office building in Virginia Beach where the mass shooting took place.  They were not in the office that day.

U.S.A.  (I deliberated placing the following in Baltimore, My Hometown)

The New Yorker                                                         June 10 and 17, 2019

“Conduction ” by Ta-Nehisi-Coates

I have written of Ta-Nehisi in prior “Reflections on Life.”  Since then the subject of “reparations” for black slavery in our nation has come closer and closer to the forefront.  It is not uncommon to read about it in our foremost publications.  It is currently the subject of congressional hearings in our nation’s capital.

Earlier this month Lloyd and I drove with his sister, Jenet, to spend a few days in my daughter Chris’ condo on the beachfront in Ocean City.  Jenet rode home to Pennsylvania with her son who was staying nearby and Lloyd and I drove separately. While passing through the eastern shore town of Denton, I instinctively asked Lloyd to pull off the road and drive toward the Pocomoke River.  When we reached it, we saw a couple men fishing from the bank.  Under a nearby bridge decorated with magnificent depictions of slavery stood a young black man about 6’6” in height.  He was talking on his mobile phone.  I didn’t want to disturb him, but I did want to get closer to examine some art on the bridge’s concrete abutment.  As I got closer he looked up, and I said “Hello, I’m getting closer for a clearer look at these beautiful murals.  He put his phone in his pocket, and commenced a great conversation about the river and life in the little towns nearby.  I told him about the stories my mom told me about spending her summers on a tobacco farm owned by her father’s brother in nearby Calvert County.  After ten minutes or so, Lloyd, who had been checking out the fishing spots, joined us and we talked longer - beautiful exchange with this young man.  Although we each spoke of our own personal connections to the history of the area, the subject of reparations never arose.  Yet I knew, virtually without a doubt, that his family had cause for them.

I wonder whether Ta-Nehisi Coates ever visited Denton or the town of Prince Frederick in Calvert County where, as a boy my grandfather worked the family tobacco farm.

My experience in reading “Conduction” was as if I were there walking with the main character “to cross through Virginia by the North West Virginia Railroad and then, once in Maryland, link up with the Baltimore & Ohio and proceed east and north into the free lands of Pennsylvania, and on to Philadelphia.  There was a shorter route, due north, but there had been some recent troubles with Ryland along the rail there, and it was felt that the audacity of this approach, right through the slave port of Baltimore, would not be expected….”

“The slave port of Baltimore.” Those words on the page of “The New Yorker” burned my eyes and brought tears to them. Baltimore, my hometown, with all its painful past and present.  And yet it did give us Ta-Nehisi, who grew up there.  And even now it has the potential, through so many kids growing up there now, to bring more love and truth to the world.

The Baltimore Sun                                                       June 20, 2019

“Coates makes a case                                                   by Errin Haines Whack

Baltimore native testifies before Congress in support of reparations”

It is clear that Ta-Nehisi is extending his role as historian beyond that of an author.  We can only benefit from that.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR PLANET BEYOND THE UNITED STATES

A Great Read

On the recommendation of a friend, Lloyd recently purchased and read “Sapiens” (as in homo sapiens), a New York Times bestseller a few years ago.

Its author, Yuval Harari lectures in Israel. The book includes the Timeline of History below:

Years ago            Event

13.5 billion                The Big Bang

4.5 billion                  Formation of planet Earth

3.8 billion                  Emergence of organisms

6 million                    Last common grandmother of humans and chimpanzees

2.5 million                 Evolution of genus homo in Africa

2 million                    Humans spread to Eurasia

0.5 million                 Homo Neanderthals evolve in Europe

2000,000                   Homo Sapiens evolve in East Africa

45,000                                    Sapiens settle Australia

30,000                                    Extinction of Neanderthals

16,000                                    Sapiens settle America

Next time you have to wait an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year for some anticipated occurrence in your life, take a look at this chart and recall the virtue of patience.  

Morocco

Last month I wrote of the beauty of Morocco – its people, its souks (markets) in Marrakech, Fes, Casablanca, Tangier, its mosques, its sometimes seemingly endless desert lands, its magnificent Atlas Mountains.  I returned home with a mystical and romantic sense of the land.  Then the news of the two Scandinavian women being brutally murdered in their tent in the middle of one of the nights of their long and meticulously planned climb in those mountains whose winding roads we traversed with eight other travelers from various nations in our National Geographic touring van.  Evil and nature’s beauty intermingled.

Nepal

“The Washington Post”                                                  JUNE 2, 2019

“Mount Everest is packed.  Whose fault is that?

We hype adventure – to deadly effect says Michael Kodas”

Very poor judgment aside, where is the respect for the natural beauty of nature being viewed from afar? I cannot help but wonder whether some of these “adventurers” even see the beauty.  The international border between Nepal and China runs bisects the summit. The monks of Nepal could teach these climbers.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR UNIVERSE

Lloyd and I marked the summer solstice at 11:54 a.m. on our back deck facing south and overlooking the larger of the two ponds beside our home.  We stood in awareness that the sun had reached its highest position on this day with the longest period of daylight. I love the synchronicity of the longest day of the year, when the Northern hemisphere tilts toward the sun at its greatest angle. The direct opposite occurs on my birth date, December 21 --winter solstice -- when this part of the globe has its maximum tilt away from the sun.  Sometimes when I am in somewhat of a state of confusion and my purpose in life is not clear to me, I summon up the image of this astronomical contrast.  I remain in silence and stillness for a bit.  Then it becomes clear to me.  I am here to spread love.  Actually, I believe we are all here for that purpose.  We simply forget it.

A friend sent me the following Van Gogh inspiration earlier this month.  I have watched and listened literally hundreds of times, transported each time back to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, and then up into the starry night.

I hope it will bring you the same peace it has brought to me.

Starry Night

Peace on earth.

Across the Universe

“Pools of sorrow, waves of joy

Are drifting through my open mind

Possessing and caressing me

Across the Universe

~Lennon and McCartney

Be well and love life.

~ Liz

PS - My monthly Reflections episodes, the Dragon radio show I record at HCC, can be found at http://dragondigitalradio.podbean.com/category/reflections-on-life/.