THE MYTHIC MONTH OF JULY 2026

In the Year of the Fire Horse,
July was depicted as a change of power.
And so it was …

Collapse of World Order
A once benevolent United States 
left the global stage 
like an unwelcome stray dog
its drooping tail between hind legs.

The nation’s well-meaning citizens, 
having ignored the commons
in pursuit of personal security and comfort,
were surprised to discover that 
those who upkeep the lawns, 
harvest veggies from the farms,
and care for the sick and aging,
had listened on their precious cell phones
to the enticing siren call of 
a supposedly successful real estate broker
promising lower food and gasoline prices -
on Day One of his presidency.

When the reality of a corrupt, cruel, deranged idiot,
bereft of common sense registered, it dawned
that climbing out of shattered norms and
structures would be steep and perilous.
Nevertheless, small groups of concerned citizens,
fired government servants, and not-for-profit organizations
spoke up, overcame lethargy, and undertook 
the task of rebuilding the once-neglected commons.

No Kings marches morphed into people rejecting
Energy-hoarding data centers and federal overreach.
Resistance to ICE raids led to supportive bonds between 
cultural groups committed to being good neighbors.

And just in time, as Gaia released fire everywhere. 
By the time the reality of global warming hit home
Solar energy had become cheaper than coal, oil, or gas.
Growing food and grazing animals under solar arrays
Introduced Agrivoltaics, a win for small and large farmers.
Beyond fantasy, Don Quixote windmills became powerful. 

OPENING TO THE FUTURE

Letting Go

In the first part of June a friend helped me give away six of the trees from the tree nursery I started at my former home. Even as I knew they needed to move from pots into the ground, it was still gut wrenching. These were my babies! As wee sprouts, I had rescued them from oblivion, given them a home, watered and fussed over them. 

I spent a couple of days feeling empty and forlorn.But it turns out that giving away these now solid young trees would be the last time I would grieve for my former home of 20 years.

Finding space for the New

For several days I contemplated the empty spaces left on my two decks. I began to see how the Buddha that graces my east-facing deck could be moved into a more central location where it could be seen from several views. And if I moved a couple of younger trees to the back deck there would be space for my three potted Hydrangeas on the shady side of the deck, a move that would allow them to flourish. 

There was still space for two of my youngest most fragile trees: a pink Korean Dogwood gifted to me for taking care of someone else’s lilies and a baby I had rescued from a negligent neighbor when I saw that it was stunted from lack of water. A few faithful geraniums would add some color.

Opening to the Future

I gathered my remaining eight trees on the back west-facing deck, grouping them into a grove that would protect my living room from intense afternoon heat. 

As I began enjoying my two new and enlivened spaces, I realized that my transition from homeowner to aging renter was over. During my twenty years in my former home I had grieved over the death of my daughter and participated in helping my grandchildren grow into amazing college-educated adults. 

Now one grandchild is a businesswoman, yoga teacher and mother with a baby – making me a great-grandmother. The other has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and has launched a professional career in research and teaching. 

All of this means I am launched into a wide-open future. What and who will I become?

Dogwood Blossoms

 LOVING TREES

Watching from my baby carriage 

Sunlight flitting across wiggly leaves above me. 

Shuffling in autumn’s falling leaves.

Resting under a Mango tree 

On a hillside in rural India.

Loving trees …

Rescuing tiny Pine shoots in Victoria BC.

Planting Arbor Society’s free trees 

At my condo in Eugene Oregon.

Capturing and propagating Maple starts

In my Marquis front yard.

Loving trees …

Beyond watering and nourishing

These awesome friends of nature, 

Each life change becomes 

A new twig or branch 

On the tree of my own life. 

Gifted Honeysuckle 

A New Branch

After over thirty-six years of living from village to village around the world, at age 63, I bought my only home – a condo in Eugene, Oregon. Immediately I started planting trees and creating a tree nursery. 

Crepemyrtle

Three years ago, when I sold my home of twenty years, I left behind two Dogwoods, a Quince, and a Lilac bush. I gave away potted Honeysuckle and Jasmine.

Dogwood beside Hydrangeas

My life as a homeowner ended. 

Lilac Bush

Two audacious movers transferred my hefty potted Japanese Maple, an Arborvitae, a Crepe Mrytle, three Jasmine plants, a Honeysuckle, peony and hydrangea bushes and numerous baby Maples to the driveway of a rented one-bedroom cottage.

Crepemyrtle, Arborvitae, Growing Maples

Painfully, in fits and starts, a new life branch was grafted on the trunk of my life tree. I replanted the Jasmine, honeysuckle, peony, hydrangeas and flowers in the planter of the cottage. 

Baby Pines

My tree nursery increased as I captured numerous new starts of Maple and pine from the surrounding area. My potted trees flourished.

(To be continued)

 HUMAN INTERCHANGE

TALKING STONES

A knock on my kitchen window drew me away from chopping veggies. A UPS delivery person was smiling, holding up a package and motioning toward my front entrance. I dried my hands and scurried to the door. 

As he handed me a shipment of postcards, he motioned to the deck beside the steps up to my second-floor apartment and said, “Those stones encourage me to pause and reset. Is that what you intended?” 

I smiled and said, “You got it!” 

“I don’t use the lock box,” he continued, “because I like to know who I’m delivering packages to. 

Usually, when I bring a package, if you’re not here, I’ll place it over there, away from visibility of the door.”

“Great! I should have another package coming in a few days.”

We nodded and he descended the stairs. 

As I watched him head for his truck, I was caught up in a cloud of gratitude for the human connection two strangers could have just because I put a few lovely stones where they could greet visitors. 

VISUAL MESSAGING

I noticed that the woman waiting at the bus stop was wrapping a long, knitted sweater- very stylish - tightly around her thin body.

She nodded when I said, “It’s a bit chilly, isn’t it?”

I pointed to the fleece jacket under my old Indonesian-made all-weather coat, sayng “I almost came out without my coat, but then I went back and got it. I’m glad I did.”

“Yeah, I wish I had.” She began telling me that even though it’s chilly here in Oregon it’s still way better than living in Chicago, a city where I had lived off and on for over ten years. I nodded and grinned.

The bus door opened. Indicating my cane, she motioned for me to enter first. I took a seat near the door. She followed and asked if she could sit in the adjacent seat. I nodded assent. 

As she sat down, she pointed to my cane. “I really like what you’ve done to your cane. It says who you are.”

For the next fifteen minutes, she told me about her health challenges, divorce, husband’s death, children and grandchildren, and working at MACY’S. Occasionally I would comment and ask a question. 

Arriving at the shopping center where MACY’S is located, she rose and motioned for me to precede her to the exit. I remained seated, smiled and said, “Have fun!” Surprised that I wasn’t getting off, she left – eager to see her friends at MACY’S.

Eight minutes later I got off with my cane, backpack, and shopping bag. The driver and I thanked each other.

NEW STORY 
RIGHTEOUS POWER OF ART
by Bruce Springsteen as quoted by Heather Cox Richardson

“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll in dangerous times. We are here in celebration and defense of our American ideals, democracy, our Constitution, and our sacred American promise. The America I love, the America that I’ve written about for 50 years, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration,” he said.

“Tonight, we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unrivaled corruption, resistance over complacency, truth over lies, unity over division, and peace over war.”

Springsteen represents the oldsters among us. 

NEW PERSPECTIVE
FLY ME TO THE MOON

For ten days and counting, teams involved in sending crew Reid Wiseman (Commander), Victor Glover (Pilot), Christina Koch (Mission Specialist), and Canadian Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist), on a trip around our moon, kept us riveted in a new perspective of our planet as seen from space. 

For those of us who over fifty years ago had watched the first trips to the moon, this was like a Phoenix Rising from the Ashes. Young people from that era were inspired by those early pioneers and dedicated themselves to the sciences that made this possible. 

Yet, as Artimis II orbited the moon, it was not so much the crew’s stem-science knowledge that wowed us as much as their human capacity to honor and respect each other in arduous circumstances. Articles are being written about how they exemplified Emotional Intelligence (integrity, humility) as a necessary leadership quality. 

From lift off at the coast of Florida, to orbiting in a vessel made in Europe and controlled by NASA in Houston, splashdown off the coast of California, and recorded minute by minute by BBC, we witnessed mid-life humanity at its best. 

 

NEW GOAL
CARING FOR PLANET EARTH

Christina Koch described planet earth as a lifeboat and humanity as its crew. For me this perspective is exemplified by the climate care nonprofit Actions Speak Louder.

For years they have been calling upon the fashion and clothing industry, as exemplified by exercise clothing leader Lululemon, to stop using fossil fuels. Publicly Lululemon has reported some miniscule efforts. Actions Speak Louder decided to show that their excuses are nonsense. 

Using Lululemon’s designs and messaging, they created a no-fossil-fuels clothing brand called Mumumelon and opened an outlet down the street from a Lululemon store in London. Because their audience is Lululemon and its followers, they invited staff at the Lululemon store to attend their Mumumelon opening. 

These young people are prepared for lawsuits. While acknowledging that they have infringed on Lululemon’s copyright, they assert they have NOT infringed on the rights of Planet Earth. In an era of competing values, they are claiming that of integrity: “focusing on verifiable, renewable energy (wind and solar) to set a higher standard”.

While every generation stands on the shoulders of those who went before them, it is also true that the solutions of yesterday become the problems of today. We all have a role to play.

 YES, WE CAN!

City Hall to City Hall

I want to take you behind the scenes of the massive numbers and amazing signs at 3300 NO KINGS rallies and marches, covered by mainstream media. There was a lot of grassroots organizing that went into these events. 

To support the combined Eugene/Springfield rally & march held jointly in Springfield, two young female bike riders arranged for bikers to assemble in Eugene and ride together from Eugene’s city hall to city hall in Springfield, the site of the No Kings demonstration. 

I learned of this grassroots-organizing because another person in her eighties and I had decided to for-go the massive crowd and traffic in Springfield by demonstrating alongside the major bridge crossing the Willamette River, accessing Eugene’s sister city. Arriving at 10:00, we noticed bikers with signs assembling below us at Eugene City Hall. 

We walked down to check it out and were present as rally-goers of every age kept arriving. Conversing with a few demonstrators, we learned that two young people had arranged for bikers to meet at Eugene City Hall for a joint ride to Springfield City Hall, site of the rally. We also learned that non-biking groups were organized to meet at a University of Oregon rapid transit site to travel together to central Springfield.

I walked among the bikers taking photos of their signs and trying to capture their multi-age nature without giving away too many identifying characteristics.

At 10:15 one of the leaders stood on a cement ledge and explained that she would be going now to the head of the line to lead the group. A second young woman stood beside her and gave an excellent explanation of biker etiquette: visual and auditory signals. She would be at the end of the line with someone who would be counting as each biker trailed the leader.

After waving a couple of late arrivers on, my friend and I walked back up to our site, unaware that we were launching another much smaller group of protesters. 

Streetside Rally

One demonstrator was already down the road from where we chose to stand, waving two bright green signs. A man across the street from us called over to ask where the rally site was, nodded when he heard Springfield and took off to get there for the 11:00 launch.

Soon a woman in a green frog suit appeared across from us. She tested waving her sign, seemed satisfied, then went and got two carloads of older people who positioned themselves at a corner where they were visible to cars joining the main traffic from a feeder route. 

Minutes later, a gray-haired woman approached us from behind and pulled out two signs. When my companion told her about the bikers, she pushed her signs back in a bag and said, “I’m going to get my bike and ride over to Springfield.” We grinned and said, “Go for it!”

Out on the road, cars began honking and waving when they saw us. Soon I began noticing that small groups of cars were coming off the feeder road onto the highway. They had their lights on and were honking as they passed. These appeared to be self-organized groups who had figured out a common parking spot in Springfield from which to walk to the rally. 

As noon approached, our arms were getting tired, and we were thinking we had probably done enough. Another gray-haired lady came up behind us with a sign that said, ‘Not Your Oyster Bed’. As a caregiver for her husband, she explained that she couldn’t go far and for very long, but she really wanted to make her voice heard. Our site would work well for her. 

We left her in charge of our rally site and dragged our tired hips and aching arms back to our car at Alton Baker Park. My sign is parked on my back deck, a blister on my left thumb carries evidence of all the times I waved it to people about to cross a bridge into the future.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

Blooming Cherry Tree

Ever wonder how this beauty came to be?

A photo meditation on my balcony garden

will unravel that for you. 

TAKE THREE DEEP BREATHS AND BEGIN

In the photo below:

See the red aura on distant trees? 

... the not-yet-open bud at the tip of a branch

of a baby Maple tree on my deck?
... two mating ducks in lower left corner?

See the red stem and green buds on the baby Maple tree?
That red stem ending (new growth) creates the red aura in previous photo.

Maple buds are growing! 

A green aura will soon emerge.

Watch me now!

Three stages of Maple leaf growth.

Look at me now!

Tulip buds under a baby Maple tree.

Tulip bulb gathers energy as duck below forages for food.

Tulip ready to open ...

 baby Maple leaves say Hi.

See the growth buds 

on this four-year-old baby Pine tree?

Its root system is intertwined 

with its partner Maple tree.

CLOSE YOUR EYES.

REFLECT ON THE MIRACLE YOU HAVE WITNESSED.