Our dining room, by author

Sadly, I wrote this 3 years ago and it is still true today.

Independence and Freedom July 4^th, 2023

It was another day to consider independence and freedom especially for America. Most of us remember that France was our ally. In fact, more Frenchmen than American revolutionaries died at the Battle of Lexington. But Spain was aiding France against Britain and Britain was already stressed in in its trade relations with India. In other words, the battle for freedom from British rule directly or indirectly involved other countries as well. We were interdependent in order to achieve our independence and our newly founded nation thereafter required maintaining healthy relations with the world as it was then, just as it does now.

Freedom from Britain was just the beginning of illuminating just what our fledgling nation meant by freedom. Our constitution gives broad definitions concerning the freedom to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We are well aware of the consequences of the vagueness involved in stating that, “all men are created equal.” Originally excluding other genders and races, this novel document was written by wealthy privileged white men, themselves owners of slaves.

We are witnessing the wish to control the rapid and inevitable changes of our world, by turning back the clock to the formerly well-defined social values of the past. These values happen to favor white culture, especially white men. This endeavor to go backwards for security against change is bound to fail. From breaking the mold of gender identity, the dissolution of old cultural dominance, to the rapid advance of social media, and the much-vaunted progress in the use and potential uses of AI, it is impossible to halt the need for inclusivity to reweave a healthy national fabric. The false picture of demographically white America denies the resources of the new faces, cultures, religions, and skills so essential for our future.

2026

Here we are today and even more deeply entrenched in the unraveling of what we thought we had already gained. I am not hopeless, though I am unable to foresee how we will hit bottom and eventually find that the only way is up from there. And then there will be a day, a year, years of reckoning to build a new republic. We will build new safeguards. Perhaps we can then keep this revitalized republic alive and thriving.

Interdependence and interconnectivity is evident with every breath you take. Since the first microorganisms began emitting oxygen sending evolution in a new direction, with other organisms developing to exhale carbon dioxide, this constant exchange has never stopped. No new oxygen molecules have been formed since the beginning. We are continuously recycling the same molecules with all flora and fauna. Every breath.

Every bit of life on this planet is interconnected with all beings, with all life. May we inhale and exhale with gratitude that this is so. May we learn to protect, sustain and celebrate our interdependence.

Courtyard garden, by author

Red, White, and Blue

I am weaving flowers into my flag this year.

Flowers for beauty amidst the filthy pollution of violent words and deeds.

May they bring soft power to blunt the edges of our collective fears and rage.

Their blossoms need careful attention to avoid being overwhelmed by unlimited chaos.

Care-full balancing the elements of sun, rain, fertile earth, and clean air yields flower-full results over time we have been sadly wasting.

Rigid arsenals against their enemies never work. A good flower garden must adapt to changing circumstances, alert to all internal and external forces that thwart healthy growth.

The interconnectedness of any garden community cannot thrive if it is restricted to insistent monocultures that disregard the reality of seasons. It must celebrate the innate cycles of expansion and contraction for all beings in all circumstances that surround it.

No matter who our new head gardener will be, there is much work to be done in salvaging this garden flag gone wild.

I include yellow stars for every state of being, of living, of healing and the pursuit of happiness.

It is hard to believe that I arrived here the day after the fourth of July weekend six years ago. I remember being driven by my daughter and son-in-law through mountainous upstate New York, briefly through Pennsylvania and on into open flatlands of Ohio. My first glimpse of Lake Erie was through the haze of barbeque grilling smoke as we passed the park on its shore. I spent the night with my daughter at the Oberlin Hotel and the next day I walked onto Kendal’s campus for the first time.

Now Kendal is my home. I often use the term ‘widow shock’ to describe my own haze when I first arrived. Richard’s memorial was in March, and here I was in July, moving into a small but lovely ‘hospital room’ with my own bath. The Care Center rooms were indeed designed to be for residents during recovery post-surgery or from an illness before they returned to their own cottage or apartment on campus. To my surprise, by January 1^st, I was chosen to live in an Assisted Living room down the hall. It is more like a studio apartment and larger and more spacious than the nun-like room I first thought of as mine.

My daughter and son-in-law (and now my young grandsons) have helped me over the years to make it my own bright yellow space. I am happy here. I grow geraniums that flower in the northwest light.