It is warm here tonight and nothing compared to the heat of southern California. I think with the flooding in the Midwest and the heat out here, McCain is going to have a tough time getting people to believe there is nothing to worry about climate-wise.
We approach the longest day of the year, always an exciting time for me, as we then start sliding back toward darkness. I am enjoying the extra light on both ends of sleep.
I am reading a wonderful book called Astonishments, Selected Poems of Anna Kamienska.
At the end of the book are excerpts from her notebooks. The following is from 1976. She was born in 1920 and died in 1986.
Anna Kamienska:
We talk too much using big words about love for people. Sometimes just a bit of attention would be enough, noticing your neighbor with respect. Attention - a favorite term of Simone Weil. It includes an element of will and reason. The term is free of the sentimentality and insincerity that the word "love" pulls behind itself.
One should distinguish between two things: isolation and real profound loneliness. Can a tree feel lonely? Its strength comes from the fact that it does not dissipate its energies. It is completely focused on its own important life functions and endurance. Its biological force goes beyond mere inert existence. It shows a kind of trustful immersion in the elements of the world, taking from it and giving back. The tree is an example of a reasonable balance in giving and taking. We learn this laboriously in the spiritual sphere.
Take time in the heat to savor the life of trees.
