Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I had a walk with my friend this morning and afterward we picked up her six month old granddaughter so my friend could babysit. This afternoon I spent with my my Buddhist swim buddy discussing "The Sentence". We dove into the richness of it for two hours, then I left. Of course I stopped by one of my favorite bookstores and picked up a few delights. Ah, friends. They are essential to me. Since my husband slept badly last night, due to a bunch of things, he was a complete grump this morning. He had to go to the dentist, and therefore I avoided him pretty much all day. I bear no responsibility for his moods, and I'm done with attempting to cheer him up. I'm not a court jester. I'm so happy that book sales actually skyrockeed with the pandemic, and kindles, etc lost big. Books still rule with my generation and my kids'. Perhaps the grandkids will be another story, but so far - as they range in age from sixteen to two, they are avid readers. I hope that continues. I've learned so much from books, including my sense of right and wrong and understanding of what it is to be human. Books are a treasure, and precious to me.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I finished reading "The Sentence" by Louise Erdrich last night. I was thrilled with it. It seems quite a step up from even her previous novel, "The Night Watchman, which won the Pulizer Prize. There is so much humor and lightness in this tale, which encorporates serious issues with emotional psychology and current events in a way that makes the story whole and integrated. I loved that the pandemic is part of it, and the response to George Floyd's death and what language can do at it's most powerful. I really cared for these characters, and how like REAL Indigenious people they were. They were searching for who they were, how they fit in or didn't to white culture, and their ancient traumas visited upon each generation, haunting them and causing so much suffering. The book is about love, in the end, but along the way lessons are learned and a lot of joy comes to life, especially in the marriage of Tookie and Pollux. It is a truly full hearted story, and also a antheum to those of us who love books and bookstores. It's like Louise loosened up and let 'er rip. Read it!

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Not only did I survive babysitting the two grandsons overnight, but all went smoothly. I got the older one to bed easily, and the younger one was already in his crib when his parents left. They slept until 6:45 am, and we had a breakfast of scrambled eggs and chocolate croissants. They bungled around until my husband came at ten, then we bundled them in the car and went to Little Farm to feed the pigs, cows, ducks, geese, chickens, and sheep. The rabbits cannot be fed but they may be admired. We found a picnic table on the grass and the boys had their lunches. A tree next to us had been fixed up like a fort, with branches making a hideout, and the boys found more branches and played happily for many minutes. Then we came home, and I put the younger in for his nap, and the older and my husband watched a kids' show about dragons. Then the older had quiet time for 30 minutes, and I only had to go in the room about three times to tell him to quiet down. Grandpa helped the older one assemble a toy I'd gotten him, and when the younger woke up they snacked then we went in their back yard where they managed to drag every toy out on the small lawn and destroy two boxes as a fort. We observed and kept them from climbing the back stairs to get to the upper deck. Soon their parents arrived and brought candy, which delighted us all. My husband received taffy, I got sugarfree chocolate almonds and the boys gummy sugary somethings that were colorful. Then we said goodbye, pleased that we had facilitated the parents getting away for their anniversary, and proved that we could keep their children alive and happy, at least for 24 hours. Back at home we made BLTs and watched "Bull Durham" and sighed with relief that it was R rated. Returned safely from toddlerland.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I'm going to babysit tonight for my daughter's two boys, and I'm nervous. I had developed a comfortable relationship with the older one, now five, and he had stayed with us while his parents went to Hawaii for a wedding, and also when his brother was born for a few days. But then Covid hit, and he's never spent an overnight again, and has become clingy with his parents. He always had trouble with his parents when he was dropped off for preschool, but everything has been exaserbated by the pandemic. He has no real memory of staying with us, and the enticement of treats or DVDs or Fairyland and other fun places has waned. It could be a rough night, but I'm willing to risk it because he needs to get comfortable being away from his parents occasionally. The just turned two year old may have trouble as well, but he's got a studier temperment and is at a better age for distraction. It's my daughter's wedding anniversary, and she needs a break and so does her husband. We talked on the phone last night about them going out at least one night every other week, and I've been babysitting that way once in a while. I had such fun with my foster granddaughter then my granddaughter, and last September we babysit for our oldest grandson, and he was wonderful about it. But these two little boys have been shaken up more than seems apparent by the pandemic, and the anxiety coursing through everyone they encounter. Our third oldest grandson has not stayed overnight because he's two states away and we will only see him probably twice a year. But he has his mother's family up there to stay with and probably already has. But these two a couple of miles away are needing help from us. Wish me luck!

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

This afternoon I've been listening to Mozart's Don Giovanni. I love the blended voices and switches in tempo and tone. I'm reading Louise Erdrich's "The Sentence" which is delightful. It's lighter and more joyful than anything else of hers I've read. My Buddhist buddy recomended it to me, though I'd already bought it. But I've waited a while to begin it. It's set in and around a bookstore, in fact, Louise's bookstore. I once wrote a novel where the main character owned a bookstore, and I loved the fantasy of it. I tried to buy a bookstore when I first moved back here, a feminist one, but it was too far in debt and the women themelves discouraged it. The location wasn't great either. But part of me wishes I'd at least tried. Later some women friends bought another bookstore close to me and made it into a welcoming, energetic place. It has a combination of books, gifts and plants. They just retired and sold it to a nice couple, who are doing right by the place. I tried to buy tons of books during the pandemic and they expressed their appreciation. It's like a home away from home for me. I'm so lucky: I can walk to five independent bookstores from my house. I feel surrounded by the comfort of it.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I was a young teenager when Chekoslovakia was invaded, and people kept hoping someone would stop Russia. Now the Ukraine. No one will stop them now either. There is posturing, but nothing more. I am so sorry for those people who will suffer and die. It seems calculated that Putin would act aggressively while the world reels from a pandemic, and the state of panic and chaos is widespread. He has been encouraged by Trump as well, as though the deception perpertrated during our last election proved to Putin that he could get away with anything. He has chosen a time when Americans are relieved to be out of Afganistan, and weary, and feel hopeless about defending people in other countries. We didn't manage to help in Syria, and the Arab Spring is long dissolved. We've lost faith in ourselves and we bicker about who and what we represent as a nation. Putin has read us well.

Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

We had a little swoosh of rain last night early evening. At least it watered the plants. It had been over forty days of no rain. The Sierras are getting some snow, which is helpful, because it's snowpack that counts. I've lived where it rains all the time (Fiji) and growing up in states with enough rain, as well as seven years in Colorado, which was not in drought at the time, and I'm familiar with the cycles of rain and drought in California, but this drought is the longest in 1200 years. Everyone is conscious of it and worried. Fire is our fear, but even this time of year animals are suffering, trees are dying and the west is parched. One billion trees died in the last few years. Moving from Virginia to California as a kid what amazed me was the size of the trees here and how the forests were vast and primeval. Going back to the east coast on visits, the "woods" seemed almost toy, and the lakes surburban compared to here. We are losing something precious. We are the new Anatazi, and may be driven from our homes as they were a thousand years ago. Humans have always been at the mercy of nature and now they are destroying nature out of inability to look ahead and protect what we have. I'm pretty deeply disillusioned by our species right now, and our lack of concern for future generations. I want my grandchildren and others to have the gift of nature and the health it provides all of us.