Passengers

It's been one heck of a week. My daughter has been facing some challenges that have had her doing some 16-year-old type soul searching. I've had my own challenges--I keep wondering if when I next get knocked down I really will get up again, a la "Tubthumping" by the Chumbawumbas (hey, I have some musical knowledge post- the 1970s!). My daughter does get up again when she falls down--and she has some very impressive bruises on multiple appendages to show for it. Today she was wondering if in fact it makes sense for her to keep on skating. Good practice for life ahead.

And we keep doing our things. Me, to the library for some books. It poured rain most of the time (almost rode my bike but mercifully took the train in instead) on my journey, so I had a chance to try out my waterproof raincoat that I got for my upcoming trip to Cambodia which will be during monsoon season. It worked. My feet (which were in sandals) were soaked.  But it felt very summery to be walking through puddles in the warm rain, so it was all good!

Cedar-Riverside train stop where I get off to go to the UMTC library.

It turns out when the going gets tough the tough go grocery shopping, and so we checked out a food co- op pretty near where we are living (closer than the Whole Foods that's for sure!). When we were walking across the parking lot we saw some folks painting on a convertible. Rachel (who apparently owns the car) keeps a stash of paint in her back seat, and whenever she's at the Seward Coop (or other locations I expect) she pretty much invites whoever wants to paint to have at it on her car. She was a beautiful woman with a HUGE open-heartedness about her (you can see her kneeling and helping a young boy with his paint). She immediately hugged my daughter as we stood and observed, then offered me some paint. I chose the silver and (old.edu-style) painted a Peace sign (I am ridiculously unartistic and apparently uncreative under pressure!) and a caption that read "Be Love." My daughter was horrified. Rachel was delighted. She would have been delighted no matter what I had painted I imagine. Her joy and love was infectious. I welcomed the hug she bestowed and the love that beamed from her. What a blessing she is to the world. I would like to bring half her light.

Once inside we had much fun shopping for fruits and vegetables, granola, and other various and sundry vegan items. We also tried their freshly made juice (see below), the name of the drink I can't recall (middle aged brain I assume), but it was made with carrot, beet, banana, spinach, and maybe orange juice. Delicious.

                               

It's nice to have company on a long drive. A passenger to help pass the time. And to help navigate. And play "Hinky Pinky" or "Geography" with. I don't recommend picking up hitchhikers, but there are all kinds of lovely ways to have someone beside you on the journey.

I keep some of my friends with me on my wrist. I'm not a big jewelry wearer as a general rule, but I have been wearing these bracelets--friendship bracelets--given to me from various friends near and dear to my heart, and keep them close by on my travels.

And finally, this beautiful poem by Wendell Berry that was read at the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis this past Sunday that resonated with me. 

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry