Great-Grandparents!

Within the month, we will be great-grandparents! I am a little overwhelmed! Not by being a great grandparent but by the title.

I think back about my own great-grandmother and great-grandfather. Great-grandpa was a tall man, six foot five, just like my youngest son. He owned a room his was in but not so much by his size as by his grace and quiet strength. He exuded an Aura of Safe, if I can say that.

Great-grandma was four foot eleven. She was tiny and yet she was bigger than life. She would sit at the table with family playing poker with a little shot glass of whiskey near her pile of coins. Her poker face could win awards except when she looked at any of us kids. Her pride and love shined when she looked at us or talked to us.

She built her own sod home in a prairie of New Mexico. She cut the sod along-side Great-grandpa, and stacked it. She was a bootlegger and had a cave carved into the hill behind their home where they stored the liquor. She had a tatoo of Our Lady of Guadalupe on her forearm! Yes, my little great-grandmother sported a tat when even most men did not display art or lover's names on their bodies. Maybe she thought the tatoo went along with the little derringer she kept in her garter!

When I was a very young girl, I remember standing next to Great-grandma's chair eye-level with her hands. Her hands reminding me of the gnarled roots of an ancient tree. The thought that I wanted my hands to look just like hers when I was her age embedded itself in my mind. Those hands declared to the world "I have lived life to the fullest!"

Great-grandpa would get up early every morning and make a pot of coffee. When the coffee was ready, he would fill a cup of the hot liquid and take it to Great-grandma in bed.  They would sit in bed and talk about the day. They shared a great and deep love for each other and for family. I don't ever remember a harsh word escaping the lips of either one of them.

Great-grandma came to visit us in California when she was in her 90's. I remember her wearing high-top tennis shoes (Keds) and jumping from rock to rock with us kids in the surf.

Great-grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was about 3 or 4. The doctor told him that he had about 6 months to live. He told the doctor that dying was not on his agenda and lived for another 6 or 7 years.

Their lives and their stories were almost mystical and mythological!

Yes, The title of Great-grandparent is definitely going to be hard to live up to.

Red Letter Days

Do you remember all your red-letter days?  Do you remember your emotions, what you wore, maybe momentous moments during the event itself?

One of our granddaughters graduated from 8th grade yesterday. Her mother was remembering her 8th grade graduation and the gifts she received from her father and me.  I bought her tickets for her and a friend for an AHA concert (also one for me!).

The concert was at the Concord Pavilion and it was glorious! I loved watching my daughter's joy more than the concert itself.

Yesterday was a little like that AHA concert. Our granddaughter shined but so did her mom. I enjoyed watching my daughter's joy and pride as much as watching her daughter dressed "all-grown-up"! It really was a pretty special evening.

My husband noticed that I was watching my daughter's reactions to the event. He put his arms around me and whispered, "I know!"  We both got a little tear in our eyes.

I thought back to the 8th grade graduations of our grandson and oldest granddaughter.  There was overwhelming love in our younger son's eyes and posture as he watched his oldest daughter walk across that stage to get her diploma. Next year he will have two graduations. His youngest will be graduating from middle school and his oldest will be receiving her diploma from high school.

Our grandson's graduation was very emotional. We were all so proud of him, shared his dreams for leaving home to study in Sacramento three weeks later. His step-father, a man who really loved him was in the middle of chemotherapy for a stage 4 cancer and was too weak to climb the risers.  Several months later our grandson had to return home to care for his stepfather and mother, who's cancer had returned.  In spite of not finishing school, the death of his step-dad and countless other crushing events in his life, he is now doing what he wanted to do anyway. We are very proud of him and his resilient spirit.

My oldest son's oldest daughter will be graduating from middle school next year, too. Everyone is growing up so darn fast!

2014 and 2015 are big years for our family. Our grandson is expecting a baby daughter any moment, 4 graduations, a niece leaving for New Zealand to study and possibly a granddaughter leaving home for college.

Time is flying by fast. It makes me feel as if I should tie a rope around my waist, and the other end to a tree, so that I don't fly off the earth as it spins, seemingly, faster and faster.

Butterflies

Awesome start to the weekend.

Last night I attended a class at Crown Camera. Rob Santry, a butterfly expert and uber talented butterfly photographer (world reknown), taught the class. Boy does he know his stuff.

He told us last night that a new butterfly has been discovered in the United States and it is just a mile or two up the River Trail from us. It is so new it hasn't been named yet! It can only be found on the last two miles of the Sacramento River Trail down river from Keswick dam!

Stalking Butterflies on the trail!

He told us how to photograph butterflies, aperture, speed, knee pads.....yup, knee pads! He also advises elbow pads if you are up in the Trinity Alps or Sierras because of the rock and granite. Then he showed us some wonderful slides of the pictures he has taken. Wow!

We headed out to French Gulch this morning to stalk the little pretties and take our own photos. There were at least 30 people, not counting Crown Camera staff, Frank, Theresa and Dwayne.

Butterfly Photography demands a little groundwork!

Most of the photographers were using a macro lens. I declined a macro as I was there to photograph people. Taking pictures of people taking pictures! That's me.
It started off slow. Lots of butterflies but they just wanted to fly, the weren't much on landing. One of the instructors poured water from the creek on the ground to form a puddle.  Then the butterflies landed, here and there. Nothing to write home about, or for that matter, nothing to write in your blog about.

Frank Tona and Theresa Wood from Crwon Camera

We stalked and hiked and wandered. One of the instructors wandered up the road and came running back....Eureka! A new hatch this morning! We hit the mother lode of butterflies. I saw 13 varieties this morning but a small group of rabid photographers hiked up a trail and found several more varieties including one that is rarely seen, let alone photographed. The rabid shooters got it, those of us not into poison oak, mountain lions and heat stroke missed out....and that's okay!

I even scored a good shot!

Butterfly chat session

Who knew they were such party animals!

Ninja Photographer! She came prepared for anything!

The "Overview Effect"

This morning a friend who I have known for at least 47 years, maybe 48 or more posted a video about the "Overview Effect".

This phenomenon begin with astronauts viewing the earth from space.

I think it might have been Rusty Schweickart who said that, in his first couple of orbits, he would look forward to those cities and parts of earth that he could relate to; Los Angeles; Houston. Before he realized it, he began to look forward to seeing South Africa, the Mediterranean. He could no longer relate only to those limited cities or landmarks, the planet earth itself became home to him. He realized that that "blue marble" floating in the darkness of space was his home, our home.

Edgar Mitchell also had a profound experience. He shared it in an interview regarding the "Overview Effect."  He said, "I realized that the molecules of my body and the molecules of the spacecraft had been manufactured in an ancient generation of stars. It wasn't just intellectual knowledge -- it was a subjective visceral experience accompanied by ecstasy -- a transformational experience."
 
He continues to explain what an impact it had on him. "The experience in space was so powerful that when I got back to Earth I started digging into various literature to try to understand what had happened. I found nothing in science literature or religious literature or doctrines but eventually discovered it in the Sanskrit of ancient India. The descriptions of samadhi, Savikalpa samadhi, were exactly what I felt: it is described as seeing things in their separateness, but experiencing them viscerally as a unity, as oneness, accompanied by ecstasy."

"...seeing things in their separateness, but experiencing them viscerally as a unity, as oneness, accompanied by ecstasy."

Have you ever experienced Savikalpa samadhi? Have there been moments in your life, however fleeting, when you don't only see but experience a sight with all you have, all you are?

 The birth of each of my babies introduced me to Savikalpa samadhi.  I, also, visited that state of being many times. Sometimes in the middle of the night, sitting on the couch, looking at the toys on the floor, blanket forts built around the table, while nursing one of my babies.  I sometimes have that experience when surrounded by my children, their spouses and grandchildren, in the middle of chaos.

At other times while floating on my back in the ocean, a lake or pool of water, looking up at the clouds or maybe sitting on a warm rock at the side of a mountain trail.  Walking through the blossoming almond orchard that I planted. Making love.

I have even experienced it standing at my kitchen sink, washing dishes as I watch my grandbabies splash and swim in the pool.

I have often dreamed of visiting space. The excitement of being strapped into a missle, vibrating with the power to shoot tons of weight out of gravities grasp and into the vacuum of space. To witness the sun surrounded by darkness and not the blue tones of earth's atmosphere, to see our entire planet, the flashes of thunder, the blues of the oceans, the desserts and mountains

As beautiful as that vision is, I would never, ever, trade the fleeting moments of samadhi inspired by being 'in" the world, being a mother and living life rather than observing it.