Poem for Monday and Golden Gardens Sea Lions

Sanctuary 

By Donika Kelly 

The tide pool crumples like a woman

into the smallest version of herself,

bleeding onto whatever touches her.

 

The ocean, I mean, not a woman, filled

with plastic lace, and closer to the vanishing

point, something brown breaks  the surface—human,

 

maybe, a hand or foot or an island

of trash—but no, it’s just a garden of kelp.

A wild life.

 

This is a prayer like the sea

urchin is a prayer, like the sea

star is a prayer, like the otter and cucumber—

 

as if I know what prayer means. 

 

I call this the difficulty of the non-believer,

or, put another way, waking, every morning, without a god. 

 

How to understand, then, what deserves rescue

and what deserves to suffer.

 

Who.

 

Or should I say, what must

be sheltered and what abandoned. 

 

Who.

 

I might ask you to imagine a young girl,

no older than ten but also no younger,

on a field trip to a rescue. Can you

 

see her? She is led to the gates that separate

the wounded sea lions from their home and the class.

How the girl wishes this measure of salvation for herself:

 

to claim her own barking voice, to revel

in her own scent and sleek brown body, her fingers

woven into the cyclone fence.

-------- 

Monday was cooler than Sunday but still pretty, with all the rain overnight and puffy clouds alternating with sunlight. I had a bunch of chores to do, primarily laundry, and a computer project on which I made some headway, but we took a nice walk in the afternoon and got to see eagles, mergansers, and lots of ducks. 

We had yogurt bowls for lunch. In addition to on-and-off baseball (the Orioles won, the Nationals and Mariners lost), we caught up on Watson -- enjoyable this week -- and Suits L.A. -- less interesting every week, they needed a better case and a better actress playing the opposing counsel. Now we're watching House for the first time in several days, also a kid episode. 

At Golden Gardens, we saw a group of California sea lions rafting -- something we'd never heard of before, but apparently it's how they thermoregulate, with most of their bodies underwater, only flippers and tails and the occasional nose surfacing. There were also a couple porpoising further out, so it was an exciting day at the beach! 

Greetings from Farrel-McWhirter Park

Sunday was a beautiful 65-degree day. We had some morning chores, which we finished while watching the Orioles lose to the Blue Jays and then part of the figure skating exhibition from the world championships, then we went to Farrel-McWhirter Park to see the animals on the farm and walk in the woods, which we hadn't fully explored since the storm that took out our power and knocked down many old trees there, crossing some of the trails. We got to watch a riding lesson and also to be snuffled by horses, plus I made friends with a sheep and got close to a banana slug in the woods.

 

We headed to Bear Creek Village in the late afternoon, where I stopped at a couple of clothing stores while Paul went to Safeway for food for the week. Then we came home, had a mix of leftovers and homemade potatoes for dinner, and caught up on the day's sports. We watched this week's crazy White Lotus episode in which surprisingly little happened given that the season finale is next week, no big questions answered, and now we're finishing Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, which as expected is excellent, infuriating, wonderfully acted, and beautifully filmed.

Greetings from Everett

We spent the morning watching the World Figure Skating Championships' free dance, which was glorious (happy for Chock/Bates and the top three were all lovely, but my favorite routines were the Spanish team skating to Dune and Carreira/Ponomarenko interpreting Carmen). Then we spent most of the afternoon in Snohomish County, parking by the waterfront to see the cherry blossoms and the boats before going to the Evergreen Arboretum, which has its Color Storm: Yarnbombing wrapping the trees among the daffodils. 

From there we drove to Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, where we browsed a little in stores, particularly Kohl's, Box Lunch, and Phantom Zone Comics. Our reason for being there was that Paul had a coupon for a free slice of cake for his birthday from The Cheesecake Factory, so we ate dinner there before a big dessert. Eventually we got home and started watching Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, which has such superb acting and settings that I forgive it when it takes liberties with historical events and changes timelines.

Poem for Friday and Afternoon Rainbow

The Sunrise Ruby 

By Jalaluddin Rumi 

Translated by Coleman Barks 

In the early morning hour,

just before dawn, lover and beloved wake

and take a drink of water.

She asks, "Do you love me or yourself more?

Really, tell the absolute truth."

He says, "There is nothing left of me.

I'm like a ruby held up to the sunrise.

Is it still a stone, or a world

made of redness? It has no resistance

to sunlight."

This is how Hallaj said, I am God,

and told the truth!

The ruby and the sunrise are one.

Be courageous and discipline yourself.

Completely become hearing and ear,

and wear this sun-ruby as an earring.

Work. Keep digging your well.

Don't think about getting off from work.

Water is there somewhere.

Submit to a daily practice.

Your loyalty to that

is a ring on the door.

Keep knocking, and the joy inside

will eventually open a window

and look out to see who's there.

-------- 

I had a lot of chores to do on Friday on account of having had company all week, but of course it was worth it. We watched the ice dance rhythm dance performances at the skating world championships, which was very enjoyable, while doing work and eating lunch, and we watched most of the Maryland women's game (which unfortunately they lost to South Carolina, but if they were going to lose, that's not a bad team to lose to) before we took a walk as the rain slowed to a drizzle. 

We watched more skating in the evening, the fantastic women's free skate in which I kept thinking it can't get better and they kept doing so until Alysa Liu did what everyone including her had thought was impossible a few weeks ago and it was absolutely thrilling to watch. Catching up on The Wheel of Time, Doctor Odyssey, and Suits L.A. was very anticlimactic after that. Here's what the sky looked like between our walk and the evening skating, with eagles posing as the rainbow intensified:

Greetings from SeaTac

Back from taking Adam and Haley to the airport. He had to work much of the day, as did Paul, so we just enjoyed the neighborhood parks when we went to take walks and watched sports while we were on our computers -- figure skating in the morning (Ilia Malinin was fabulous), baseball in the early afternoon (Orioles had a phenomenal opening day), basketball later in the afternoon (Maryland gave it a good try but couldn't beat top seed Florida). 

We went to dinner at Crossroads Bellevue's international food court (some of us had Indian food, some of us had pho) en route to SeaTac. Now we're home and I'm catching up on The Masked Singer from yesterday and comforting our cats who have had to contend with a dog, a closed guest room door, and an allergic visitor who could not tolerate them jumping on the dining room table in the middle of meals as they like to do. Family, food, and fun today:

Greetings from Marymoor

We had a fairly quiet Wednesday, since Adam had to work a long day and Paul had to work his usual hours. I got on chat with two of my high school friends briefly -- Haley got to see her mom -- and we had the World Figure Skating Championships on all morning, the women's short program. Paul and I walked to Idylwood to see the eagles while Adam was on a work call, and Haley stayed back to keep him company. 

In the late afternoon, we went to Marymoor Park to let Pepper run around and to walk along the river, where we saw many nesting herons, a few ducks, a lot of songbirds, and two garter snakes. We picked up dinner from Bangkok Basil, and afterward at Haley's request we watched Emilia Perez. I can see why it's so controversial and condemned, and at the same time, I found it both moving and extremely well performed. I will never regret watching it.

Greetings from Seattle Neighborhoods

Paul and Adam both had to work Tuesday morning, but we packed a lot into the afternoon: a walk around here with Haley and Pepper to see the wildlife, then a drive downtown first to Ballard to see the seals, cormorants, and herons there, followed by a visit to Golden Gardens Park, where a group of seals was hanging out in Puget Sound while ducks, turtles, and herons were in the ponds nearby. From there we went to Green Lake and walked around the water looking for cherry blossoms and daffodils, after which we met Daniel and Cahaya at Mykonos Greek Grill for dinner. Now we're home catching up on Daredevil while Adam finishes work for the day!