The young leaves of the Shasta daisy can be eaten like salad greens.
As I consider both what I want to change and what I am grateful for while we go through this time of imagination and possibility and grief and rage and creativity and patience and restraint and fierce need for engaged action, I realized that making offering is one of the holiday things I am still able to do that brings joy for the holiday season.
In that light, I invite you and others who might welcome starting a practice, strengthening their practice, and regardless, having an opportunity together consciously to support ourselves in body and mind, as well as spirit.
In that light, please join me and Suzanne Lynch for an all levels, all perspectives, all ages, light-hearted yoga and meditation practices on:
To register, please visit: https://www.suzannelynchwellness.com/holiday-yoga-classes
Many thanks to Suzanne for gifting the extra administrative work to open her membership platform for these holiday practices. BTW, it is super helpful to register early to make sure we can get all the Zoom link for the practice with a minimum of extra admin.
If you are moved to make a donation, please consider a local or national food bank.
I have been deeply touched by how so many have been inquiring of themselves how we can best respond from the light to the tragedy in Arizona. I received an email from Common Cause today with this beautiful quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“When evil men (and women) plot,
good men (and women) plan.
When evil men (and women) burn and bomb,
good men (and women) must build and bind.
When evil men (and women) shout ugly words of hatred,
good men (and women) commit themselves to the glories of love.
Where evil men (and women) would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo,
good men (and women) must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.”
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
When I was walking to work yesterday, I was delighting in watching a pair of red-headed finches cavorting at the very top of a newly blooming cherry tree just outside the Friends Committee on National Legislation’s building, which is across the street from the Hart Senate building. An impeccably suited man in a suit who was walking towards the Hart building said to me, “it is wonderful to see everything starting to bloom, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is indeed,” I replied, and pointed out the finches.
“I hadn’t noticed them; good eye,” the man said, “look, they’re eating the blossoms.” The finches were tearing blossoms off the tree and singing with great enthusiasm.
“You can see them even better from the other side of the tree, because the sun is lighting them up instead of shadowing them,” I added.
“I’ll have to go back and take a look,” he said and walked back to the other side of the tree to watch the birds as I headed on to work, with my day brightened by this interchange.
I often get caught looking at the birds or the trees or the sky when walking around town. When there is an opening, I talk to others about what I am seeing to invite them to pause and delight along with me. It is a rare day, though, to hear from someone who is clearly busy and has important work to say, “I’ll have to take a better look.” It is so important to me, and for all of us, to pause and wonder, to remember and recognize the beauty as we go about our day.
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A glimpse of an inner world.
I wonder whether this mural, which has been here since before I moved to DC in the mid-80s, will survive the massive construction projects going on around it. If not, will I wish I had photographed it more? I’ve appreciated it well.
