Setting Sun. Rural Peacock.

The area surrounding the remote hamlet of Hrastovlje, Slovenia is locally well known as a truffle growing region.  Enjoying a superb dish of handmade pasta in the setting sun, the atmosphere was suddenly altered by the shrill call of a stunning peacock.

Wildlife in the City

I saw a deer in Ljubljana.

Wall Street at Apartheid Avenue.

Creativity is resistance in the streets of  Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine.  Until the Wall comes down, "I'll meet you at the corner of Apartheid Avenue and Wall Street."

The web of barbed wire in front of the Apartheid Wall is at Bil'in Village in the West Bank.

Peak Experience. Peek Experience.

"I'd rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than in church thinking about mountains."

 ~ John Muir

 

Along the Manaslu Circuit, Nepali Himalaya.

Blood Red Moon. Sort of.

The wind was howling and the tide was high as I went outside in search of the lunar eclipse the other night.  An atavistic call to commune with the cosmos stirred within and I responded.

 It was quite cloudy, so instead of seeing the blood red moon everyone was anticipating, it mysteriously drifted into a gauze- like mist. Suddenly and completely unexpectedly, a skinny coyote appeared on the shore and a troubled man cursed me out. I am not kidding. Beasts and humans alike could not resist this mighty celestial pull.

While the red moon may have ducked out of sight behind west coast clouds, I nevertheless had an extraordinary lunar, or was that - lunatic encounter. 

Bethlehem Today

Walking along the streets of Bethlehem, I am struck again by the obscene enormity of the Apartheid Wall. It is a huge embodiment of the human rights violations that characterize all aspects of life in Occupied Palestine. When I spotted this young woman's determined image on that hideous structure, I understood clearly that we cannot remain complacent until the Wall comes down and her freedom is no longer curtailed by this cruel anachronism. 

Lady in Black

Feeling that I would drown in the ocean of grief that surrounds me, I could no longer tolerate another dehumanizing, heart-wrenching, trauma-inducing scene, when in the streets of Haifa, I met an angel. The lady is a Holocaust survivor who demonstrates with Women in Black against the Occupation each Friday in front of the Baha'i Gardens. Thank you, Stella for telling me that what motivates you is to remind us all to stay human.