Notes From A Bear's Journey

Deer eating trailside at Silver Lake      The other day I happened to be back at my local library, looking for the recent animated film from Pixar, Soul , a children's film that deals with rather adult topics such as what have you done with your life  and what really matters to you.   The library showed that the DVD was there but in the "children" section; so off I went to their racks (our local branch carries over 5000 DVD selections, from foreign* to comedy) but, after combing through the "animation" section, I couldn't find it.  "Oh," said the librarian, "you want the children's section."  What??  She pointed me to a part of the library I'd always seen but for some reason, sort of never knew was there.  I walked over and there, taking up nearly 25% of the building, was an entire section of yet more DVDs, not to mention books and CDs and who knows what else.  How could I have not seen that, this huge chunk of the library that I

     In less than a week I shall begin my seventh decade orbiting the sun while here on this "pale blue dot," a famous description of Earth from the late Carl Sagan (an atheist, no less).  It has indeed been miraculous for me just to ponder how fortunate I have been to have come this far and to have emerged so content at the way things have turned out.  Almost daily I am aware of how I am blessed in so many respects, not only physically and mentally but also regarding my relationships, including my relationship with that of our home planet, Earth.  Was any of this the result of the way I chose to live or what I chose to do, or was it fate or just sheer luck...maybe it was just a random roll of the dice?  Whatever it was, to have made it this far is absolutely amazing to me.  As Lao Tzu reminded us, "He who is contented is rich."     My brother and I often talk about such things, about the bell curve of life and how our wants and needs change as we age.  Luckily for

    Okay, there's been quite a pause between this and the last post so you may be wondering...what happened?   Here's how Amy Stewart  put it on her own blog : First I want to say this: Not everybody had a chance to rest up and re-think their priorities during the pandemic.  Lots of people worked harder than ever.  Lots of people scrambled to keep their families safe, dealt with an impossible school situation for their kids, and faced all kinds of losses and hardships.  But…some people got some rest, or experienced real idleness for the first time in years, or found themselves unencumbered by the demands of their old lives – flying across the country for meetings, sitting in a car for an hour commute every day, juggling three part-time jobs–and had a little time to think about what they’d really like their lives to look like, if they were in charge of deciding that.  And now…it kind of feels like it’s time to decide.   Offices are opening back up.  People are flying on planes.