It's Today

 

JOURNAL

It’s Today

Bill Barksdale, Columnist

It’s Farmer’s Market day in Willits.  It’s a hot day, high 90’s.  I’ve walked downtown with my market basket even though I’m only intending to buy a loaf of that wonderful bread.  My favorite is walnut-cranberry sourdough. 

Walking past all the stalls I see some other things I need – tomatoes, eggs, lasagna for dinner, a freshly harvested organic cabbage  - I’ll make coleslaw later, cabbage is also great just steamed with butter m-m-m-m love that!  I still have to walk home and the basket is getting a bit heavy so I pick up a copy of The Willits Weekly from Mathew, and I’m on my way home after hugging my way through the crowd of shoppers.  Willits is a town of huggers.

The sky is that amazing deep cornflower blue.  I can just stare at that sky and get lost for a minute. It’s almost intoxicating.  The heat doesn’t seem so stifling. Guess I’m getting used to it.  I look for the shady parts of the sidewalk.  Well, there’s enough time to drop into The Book Juggler for a quick browse around. I can set my basket down for a few minutes. Can I handle a cone from J.D. Redhouse?  I decide “yes”.

 I stop to chat with Mary on West Mendocino.  She gave me a stationary bicycle the other day which I use when it’s too hot out to go for a walk. Mary and her mother, also Mary, are always good for some stories about Hawaii in the old days or her daughters or her latest redecorating project – and a few good laughs. 

The lavender bushes along the way are full of bumble bees, those improbable, beautiful bees that I’ve heard should not be able to fly – but do. Improbable doesn’t mean impossible obviously. There’s a squawk from a Stellar Jay in a tree. He’s not flying around in the heat.  Smart. I pass a cat sunning itself. What is it with cats?

There’s a bit of a breeze coming up.  Ah, feels so good.  I notice quite a few canna in full bloom in some of the front yard gardens. Canna seem to love it here.  There’s a garden on North St that is lush with tall flowers in full bloom. This garden is so beautiful every year. Rich with color and those huge blooms.  Magnificent. My friend Gail Richards would have loved this garden. I miss her. There were few things she loved more than a beautiful garden. Some people have the grace of a blessed spirit, here for a while to remind one of the good things of life. 

Finally home.  Rosie is here to greet me, almost crazy with her wiggly dance as if I’ve been gone for days. I just have to laugh from her enthusiasm. She’s tiny so jumps on the back of the sofa to be taller. I have to set down my basket full of stuff to give her a noogle and a kiss.  She’s as soft as silky satin with her big floppy ears and smooth coat.  Thank goodness for the Humane Society where we found her, rescued by her foster mother, Henrietta Simonson, who slyly showed me a short video on her phone one day at the bank. I couldn’t resist that sweet little bundle running toward the camera, now every moment with our Rosie is a moment of pure unconditional love and joy.

What brought us to this place anyway? The caprice of life. There is that sweet fragrance in the air as the forest heats up. You notice it as you drive up the grade from Ukiah.  The air changes. There’s the golden meadows with those grand, elegant oak trees with their branches reaching out, always green even on the hottest days. The structure of their branches is a marvel of nature’s engineering and art. Each tree is an elegant creation. 

Local artists, Judy Hope and Tom Zephyers, have a talent for capturing the beauty that so abundantly surrounds us here.  Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a work of art – I suppose I am really.  We all are. We can taste, smell, see, and feel it – breathe in the art of living here.  It’s everywhere.  This is truly wealth, and it’s ours for the enjoyment of it.  True wealth is a simple thing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, once said “A man (or woman) is what he thinks about all day long”.  Emerson who lived from 1803 to 1882, was a great influence on American great thinkers like Henry David Thoreau, perhaps best known for his book on simple living Walden – Life In The Woods.  He also influenced poets Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson and many others. 

Emerson believed in the intelligence of the individual.  In his essay Self-Reliance he says “Your conformity explains nothing.”  He goes on to say “…man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future.  He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present above time.”  In other words, real life is in the present moment.  What one thinks about in the “now” is what determines what happens next in one’s life.  Moment-to-moment is how life, in fact, proceeds.  One thought leads to the next.  One act, leads to the next. 

Joseph Campbell, the great American professor, mythologist and writer (1904 – 1987) said “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”  It seems to me that in these days we sometimes tend to let media like TV, “social media”, other peoples’ propaganda and ideas – blur out our own critical thinking, our own inner knowing right from wrong.  Ignoring one’s own intuitive path can lead to a dark place, and unsatisfying dead end.  One of Campbell’s books, The Hero’s Journey, talks about the human architype of The Hero, woman or man, who goes on the sometimes perilous but rewarding journey through life to find the bounty of a life well lived. 

The simple pleasures I get from noticing and enjoying what’s in the here and now of my daily life here in Willits, or wherever I may be, helps to keep me in “the moment”, that powerful place where I can choose the thought that feels better.  I know I hound on that phrase often, and it’s not always the easiest thing to pivot from a fear-thought to something a bit better, but it works.  Life is, after all, lived moment-to-moment.  One thought at a time.

We live in a place that is rich in better feeling thoughts if we just look for them.  What one thinks about all day long is what that person is and what they become in the next moment.  Can you wrap your head around the fact that you are a creative being, always creating yourself?  I know I’ve made plenty of poor choices.  That’s part of it.  As humans, we have a great gift, the gift of creation.  This is what all of the great and wise teachers have taught.  Let go of the crap. Just let go. The next moment is Yours to create.

“Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain” and perhaps, like the bumble bee in the lavender flower, you will find a more nurturing and joyful life.  Something to think about.