The Sun

The Sun has been honored or worshiped on the Solstice since Stonehenge, up to today.  Ancient mythical stories tried to explain our Sun’s creation.  Scientists calculate that the Sun is at least four billion years old, while the Universe is over thirteen billion years old.  We don’t know what created the Big Bang, but that energy is still with us in the trillions of stars in 100 billion galaxies, and also in the cosmic background energy that has been detected on Earth. Most of us feel that we are more…

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The Spirit of Water

The world is full of Eternity. And when we honor it, it speaks to us. For me, born under the sign of Cancer, a water sign, I have had many mystical messages from the world of water. And through water, I have experienced the Divine. Not one time, but many. Once I was sailing with my beloved out and around the Farallon Islands. How many have crashed and broken their boats here, I wondered. Perhaps we too shall be punished rounding this craggy lump churning waters right in view of San…

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Reversing the Tide of History – It Can be Done

War brings terrible destruction. But it also brings invention. The first World War brought about the submarine as an effective machine of war. And thus began a new possibility of learning of the ocean. The subs were not to sink commercial vessels. But as time went on, the agreement was breached. German submarines sank over 2 million tons of food stuffs on Allied ships in 1917 alone. The war in the trenches killed 9.7 million soldiers and 10 million civilians. Terrible inventions, terrible deaths. Was killing on land and sea,…

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Children Take the Lead

Many in the US adult community were startled to hear that a 16-year-old girl from Norway was on a sailboat to speak before the UN. “What was this kid all about?”  People asked each other as she came into the New York harbor. When this youth named Greta Thunberg gave them a walloping speech at the United Nations about “stealing” her dreams, she was so right on.  The whole world sat up and took notice. When Time Magazine made Greta the “Person of the Year,” the media started to scramble…

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End Violence

Jerusalem, “God’s City of Peace,” is yet again at the center of the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.  The fight goes back fifty-five or seventy-five or thousands of years, depending on who’s counting.  Both sides want their families to live in peace.  Palestinians and Jews must stop fighting, talk to each other and compromise, and end the occupation of Palestine.  They must learn to peacefully live side by side as equals in either one nation or in two states.    We are brothers and sisters, or at least distant cousins,…

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Peace Officers

Recent killings show that the police should be retrained as peace officers. They should defuse tense situations without killing anyone, and provide assistance to people in crisis. Smart phones have exposed outrageous actions and lies by some cops, yet the outrages still occur. Does a Black life really matter? Militarized police forces and mass incarceration look and feel like an occupying army. Trust in our police is low for many Americans, leading to calls for less funding.  Most police officers have been in the military, where they learned how to…

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Outside in Nature

The pandemic has forced most of us to stay home in one lockdown after another. Exceptions were made for essential work, or buying groceries, or going for a short walk with or without a dog.   My daily walk on a fire road to open space feels like freedom from the prison of my apartment.  Breathing fresh air, basking in sunshine and exercising my body helps me physically, spiritually and even emotionally with happiness inducing endorphins, views and hawks.  Many of us have discovered the priceless value of getting out into…

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Women and Children First

In the struggles for clean water and clean air, all too often women and young people are on the front lines of the battle for change. Why? Because they are also on the front lines of the fallen. This is a story of how women and young people across the country are struggling, and may very well succeed, in their battles for their, and our, safety. Their growing activism is against such toxic chemical giants – Chevron and DuPont and, in some cases, even against their own city governments.  Yearly,…

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A Legacy of Racism

America’s long legacy of racism, discrimination, brutality, and lynching against African Americans has finally been exposed to the light.  George Floyd’s killing by the police, along with the many other recent killings, brought outraged Americans into the streets to protest. In 2020, the idea that Black Lives Matter was raised up, and confederate flags and statues came down.  Millionaire athletes took a knee, and coaches and league presidents spoke against racism.  Sports teams changed their names— from Washington DC to high schools across the country.  Even NASCAR raced away from…

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A True Democracy

On the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, President Biden signed an executive order to “make it easier for eligible voters to register to vote and improve access to voting.”  The House recently passed H.R. 1 that would increase voter turnout by having national election standards.  At the same time, GOP controlled state legislatures are trying to restrict registration and voting.  America has always been an imperfect democracy, from the days of the Founding Fathers to today.  Our history is in part the struggle to create a more perfect democracy.  First…

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