12-21-2010 0625 Muir Beach. Sala woke me, twice actually, to be sure that I was benefitting fully from the lunar eclipse. Earths umbra, wobbling around as we wobble under the influence of all our watery lurching , was gradually darkening the disc of the moon. Creating in minutes a backwards speeded up view of the monthly cycle. And a reminder of the constant change around us.
And I did get up, and out on the deck. The storm system that’s been coming across California, and will probably be getting to you elsewhere in the USA later this week, has blown through, and the full winter solstice disc should have been glowing away up there, as it was last night, as it had been just a few hours earlier when it lit my way to the hot tub. (Yes, I did say ‘Hot Tub’, and you are entitled to think ‘How very Marin’ in response.) Because of that 5 degree offset of rotational planes of earth and moon, that gives us the regular lunar waxing waning cycle (and thus all that wonderful poetry) plus the wobble of our somewhat unstable planet, we get eclipses that would not occur if things were unchanging…or perfect. Hooray for imperfection! When I got up the second time, there they were, a ‘new moon in the old moon’s arms’, as my mother used to say. Enough to make any sentient being howl, bay, or at least try to rhyme.
Yesterday I sat with Amalia, who is 8, and watched her find Australia on Maps, and then zoom in to find an isolated cattle station somewhere in the Outback. Minutes later we were looking at a Galapagos Tortoise. If I was a bit more computer savvy, we could be viewing scenes from webcams in those places. Or reading the blogs of those who were viewing the scenes and sharing their views, and sometimes feelings, with anyone who cared to find their URL.
Amalia is in a Berkeley School, since the family now lives in Berkeley, a few blocks from where Tirien grew up. Amalia went to Science School in Woods Hole during the family’s July stay in Woods Hole, and became more proficient at swimming . Yesterday, she read cautionary Mother Goose stories to Joaquin the whole hour long trip back to Berkeley yesterday, and is currently lavishing emotional energy on an American Girl doll.
Joaquin is now 5, and in a public school Spanish immersion program. His ideas on how to play chess are startling; definitely Clausewitzian. He suffered a broken leg last spring (unexpected landing on the backyard trampoline) and for a time after getting out of a walking cast ran extremely fast with a very strange gait. The amazing ability of organisms to adapt to circumstances. Luckily, his disability was temporary, and the other day at the beach with storm waves sweeping in, he rushed through a lot of running jumping and standing still challenges.
Ernesto is studying for the California Bar exam, and has been working as house husband between jobs. He runs a lot, and shares much of his creative thinking and story telling with the kids, to their enormous benefit. Tirien continues as ED of East Bay Community Law Center (think of them if you want to support Public Interest Law), and both of them are happy to be renters in Berkeley, and landlords of their co-owned house in Oakland.
Aminta is working full time now at Rockridge Kids, (yes, its true, Angelina and Brad shopped there), so drop by if you are looking for that perfect gift idea. A lot of Aminta’s thoughts and actions are about recovery, and for this her loving family and friends are really, really grateful. And Grandson Severin, now 18 going on 19 and very much his own person, is sharing a house with co-workers in El Sobrante and working full time in Landscaping…a interest that perhaps can be credited to his other grandparents, Hilde and Earl, who are respected landscape gardeners near Woods Hole, and with whom Sev worked during short stays in Woods Hole.
Yes, and Sala has been living a life of three houses…here at Muir Beach, where she says she loves the house we share with Yeshi…in the balmy summer months in the Green House, a Steinbach Family trust house… and in the colder Fall and part of winter in Peter’s house on Buzzards Bay Avenue in Woods Hole. In Woods Hole she volunteers to read to Headstart school kids, where she is known as Miss Sala and sneaks in Zen stories when she can. During the Fall and colder months, Sala continues with Biological Illustration classes. In September, she went to Devon near Dartmoor to do a week long retreat at Gaia House with her Zen teacher Reb Anderson, and then we met in London for two weeks, living in an apartment made available by Paul, a friend from my undergraduate days at University College London. And both of us read in ‘Story Hour for Grownups’ at the Woods Hole library.
If you want more about travels, try http://alantraveling.blogspot.com .
Speaking of me, Alan, I continued a two day a week medical practice while in Woods Hole, and am working on several medical curriculum development consultation projects. And will tutor medical students again as part of the medical program based at UC Berkeley beginning in March next year.
Now it’s full light, and the horizon here at Muir Beach is lost in fog…or perhaps it would be more romantic to call it mist. Yes its cold, yes the small Tibetan flags are hanging in limp lumps, yes Fuji the small ginger dog does not want to go out. But we will go out, and so will you. Its time to be greatful for the good fortune. If you are over 50 and haven’t spent some time thinking about your spiritual path, now would be a good time to start. And whatever your path, please some visit and have some tea, and let us know more about how your year has been, and what lies ahead.
Holiday Greetings!! And Happy New Year!!!
joaquinamaliaseverinernestotirienamintasalaalan
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