"... you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone ..."

Sitting inside with the air cleaner on, along with an air conditioner, what came to mind was Joni Mitchell's song that I first heard in April 1970 when I was 20 years old.  Turning to YouTube, I found this cover that I love, posted in the last few days.  

The unhealthy air due to fires is teaching me to appreciate being able to go outside and breathe fresh air -- one of the simple joys of life that is not available for the time being.

*

 

!

PM2.5

x3

PM2.5 concentration in Bellingham air is currently 3 times above WHO exposure recommendation.

This is an improvement from yesterday's 9 times above but fire season is not over and continues to jeopardize the health of countless sentient beings throughout the world.

It is occurring to me that when I left the San Francisco Bay Area late in the summer of 1973, there were days when the air quality was not all that different from what I am experiencing today.  In those days, the source of the pollution was not smoke from fires.  Much of the air pollution from 1974 is gone from the west coast of the United States, but now we are dealing with a form of unhealthy air that is beyond control and is world-wide, affecting environments where other forms of compromised air are minimal or non-existent.

Living in a world where smoke-free air cannot be promised is sobering, to say the least.  So much that can no longer be taken for granted.  

Is it ever a good idea to take something or anything for granted?  

Someday Soon 1970 / Day Lilies / Someday Soon 2016

Yesterday I looked out on my porch and saw a brilliant golden daylily. Last fall, I dug up the bulbs because they had grown so crowded that there were very few blooms in June 2015.  I replanted only three of the bulbs, thinking I would have plenty of blooms this summer.  Although there are usually blooms in early June, they waited until August 3 this year.  There is no bloom today for me to photograph, but there will be more blooms this week.  Their appearance this year in the early days of August brings emotional healing to me.

This morning while looking for something else, I came across these photos that I took of myself in 1970, just after I had turned 21.  That was the year I waited for the man I loved to return from the war in Vietnam.  He had turned 21 on the day after I did.  The photos were taken with the Minolta camera that he bought while he was in Vietnam and gave to me during those months of waiting during which I attended peace marches in San Francisco.

This afternoon a friend who is dear to my heart and who went to live in Canada during the Vietnam War said that we would be taking a walk again someday soon.  He paused and then said, "Like the song."  I said, "It's always about music, isn't it?"  He laughed and said, "Yes."

We are 67 years young and old this year.  Today is his birthday.  Mine is in October.

"Pretty Saro" / Bob Dylan 1970

Looking forward to hearing more of "Another Self Portrait" when it is released on August 27, 2013.

Standing Bow Pose Revisited / Sweet Baby James Revisited

It wasn't until 2007, when I was 57 years old and in a Yoga Teacher Training setting, that I ever tried the Standing Bow Pose, although I had taken my first yoga class in 1970 when I was 20. I think that my pose from 2007 or 2008 (the second photo) looks better than my pose this morning, but I haven't been doing that pose regularly and plan to add that to my home practice. A few weeks ago, I returned to classes at the B.K.S. Iyengar School of Yoga in Bellingham after many years of a regular home practice. It is good to be working with my old teacher again. She has suggested several poses for me to add to my home practice.

Last week, Richard's sister and brother-in-law sent me the James Taylor Greatest Hits CD which includes "Sweet Baby James," which, like yoga classes, first came into my life in 1970 when Richard was in Vietnam.

Listen

Talking Karmic Debt Blues / Like The Moon And The Stars And The Sun

Listen.

This morning I was listening to Jakob Dylan's CD "Seeing Things" in my car just before 9 a.m. He was singing "Everybody Pays As They Go":

Look up and see the men returning
In their winter coats
Some of them in one piece
Some of them got rolled
Some less than others
Some right through the nose
But everybody pays as they go
Young old rich and poor
Your mother she too owes
Cuz everybody pays as they go.

I thought of John Lennon's song "Instant Karma":

Instant Karma's gonna get you,
Gonna look you right in the face,
Better get yourself together darlin',
Join the human race,
How in the world you gonna see,
Laughin' at fools like me,
Who on earth d'you think you are,
A super star,
Well, right you are.

When I woke up this morning and turned the calender next to my bed to August 1, I found a wonderful woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Above is a detail from "The Hanging-Cloud Bridge at Mount Gyodo, near Ashikaga," which can be seen at Museo Chiossone in Genoa, Italy.

Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
Well we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
Yeah we all shine on,
Like the moon and the stars and the sun.

(Recorded by John Lennon on 27 January 1970 and released on 6 February 1970, it ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, recorded (at London's Abbey Road Studios) the same day it was written, and coming out only ten days later. Lennon remarked to the press, he "wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we're putting it out for dinner.")
















Thanks to the Turtleback Dome webcam for the sunlight of the spirit image from Yosemite Valley.

OBOE LISTENING TO A WINDY DAY IN EARLY OCTOBER

Listen.

"She once walked right at my side. I'm sure she walked by you."
(Mimi Farina)

"Kiss the 21st century for me."
(what I heard Janis Joplin say in a dream I had in 1999)