It is 9:30. I will now get a cup of coffee and sit here with you.
Yesterday Jane and I worked on what we want to do with a new blog-website we plan to set up called Connection Well.
To sell a book, one needs a platform, but we are not so much interested anymore in the selling of the book. We are more interested in what we do now as our little part in helping the world. We are of an age where our contribution to what we leave when we die really matters to us. The book may sell, and that will be lovely, but it is a side-bar to living life as intensely involved and compassionately as we can, each moment, each day, each "right now."
Jane's vision of Connection Well is big. Stanford has a program that sets up blogs for children who are ill. They are now wanting to expand to offering therapy for children who survive the torture of cancer treatment and the repercussions, to help them adjust back to life. Kaiser has thought of offering blog support for their patients, but the doctors nixed it. It feels threatening to them to have their patients commenting on treatment.
How might we step in to offer some way of connection for those who are ill, and ill in many ways? I feel unsure, unclear. I say we start small, just write some articles on subjects that interest us and begin posting and reach out. Jane sees this as much bigger. I think I am tired, and thinking small is all I can handle right now.
Jane and I worked until 7 last night, and then, I shared dinner with Chris and Frieda and we met with the wonderful man who will photograph their wedding. I got home late, dealt with what I could, set the alarm for six, and woke, then, fell back to sleep despite ads, news, and classical music blaring away, so my morning call to Jane began with my glasses on, rather than my contacts in. I find glasses discombobulating. We are also working on a new query letter, so she sent me her version from yesterday and I worked on that. She wrote a heart-breaking piece on her son. All this amidst how we begin and focus Connection Well.
Chris called and he was stopped in traffic. There was a fatality around Hayward. We talked about the wedding, and he said I could google a satellite photo of Wildwood Retreat Center where they will be married. I did, and yes, there it is. He said I could google a street in San Francisco, and walk a little body around and I did. First, I had to download a new version of Adobe Flash.
Yesterday, Jane and I looked at the blogs of children who are ill. She has a good friend whose child has been dealing with treatments at Stanford for three years. I spoke of Mitchell for whom I pray each day. We spoke of when our technology may mean too much. I talk to Chris about this. We talk about the right to privacy and cameras everywhere. I check my email and delete 100 spam, and then, a few minutes later, 35 more, and they are not all about penis enlargement. Some of them are from the many organizations I support and from petitions I've signed, and it is too much. I can't rescue a park this morning, a politician, otter, wolf, or bear. I might have gotten up earlier and taken my morning walk and meditated as I plan to do each day, and yet, somehow I seem to be behind in a way I don't understand. My morning was more complicated than I am presenting. I am simplifying. I love simplicity.
I bought a book yesterday in one of my favorite book stores, the Architect's book store on Fourth Street. It is the not so big life, making room for what really matters book. It is by Sarah Susanka. She wrote The Not So Big House ..... I hope to make room for a time and place to read it.
I go to Mount Madonna tomorrow, a retreat center in Watsonville, where I will attend a conference on Sensory Awareness. I'll stop at Jeff's on the way down to talk and on the way back for fresh tomatoes and more talk. There is no internet at Mount Madonna. Cel phones don't work. It is like the "good old days."
I love my home, and it itself is a retreat center. My garden is exquisite right now, and I am calm, despite all this, and I am aware that we live in a rapidly changing world, and I am looking forward to finding a broader hook on which to hang and share what life means to me.
I love life. I accept that our brilliance has led us to traffic jams and survival rates beyond what we could ever have imagined.
I am grateful today.
Happiness, ease, and joy, to you All!!
Peace and Connection are the most important things of all!! May we live and connect!!