The recent smoke is slowly lifting / So happy just to be alive

!

PM2.5

x1

PM2.5 concentration in Bellingham air is currently 1 times above WHO exposure recommendation

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This morning the sky had cleared enough for me to have my first glimpse of Orion above the mountain to the east.  I look forward to the turning point every year when Orion appears again. There is still smoke in the sky above 3044-foot Stewart mountain which is about 7 miles east of here, but most of the sky has returned to a reassuring blue.  Our astounding faithful sky is at work, clearing itself of smoke.  I don't take this for granted and feel immense gratitude and love for the endlessness that we look out into, beginning with our sky, which reminds me of :

George Harrison realizing something endless within:

"... Try to realize it's all within yourself, no one else can make you change, and to see you're only very small and life flows on within you and without you ..." 

"... I keep traveling around the bend
There was no beginning, there is no end
It wasn't born and never dies
There are no edges, there is no size
Oh yeah, you just don't win
It's so far out - the way out is in ..."

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"... So happy just to be alive on this new morning ..."  (Bob Dylan)

UKULELE / MIRACLE

(1 hour drawing, 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. -- 6B pencil on heavy weight, medium tooth surface, 9 x 12 Canson drawing pad)

For the Christmas before my father died on St. Patrick's Day in 2003, he gave me some money to buy myself a present. Inspired by George Harrison's ukulele playing on his final album, Brainwashed, and learning that George had dozens of ukuleles around his house, I used part of the money to buy myself a ukulele in honor of George Harrison. When I visited my father on his 89th birthday, the last time I saw him, I brought my ukulele and played him a simple 3-chord tune in my goofy not-a-natural-musician style. My last visit with my father was peaceful. It seemed that whatever had been the problem between us was resolved. We had dinner in the assisted-living community dining room. He introduced me to his friends. I felt that he was proud of me, something I didn't usually feel. After dinner we watched an interview on TV with Elvis Presley's ex-wife, Priscilla. As I was leaving, he said, "I'll see you in the spring."

From "Pisces Fish," by George Harrison:

". . . and the river runs through my soul"

See One Word, Miracle.