Baruch's Blog

Heat and humidity, sunshine and torrential rainstorms; New England summers are glorious and extreme. So much water, so much green, and in the yard in front of this house so much zuchini and mustard greens and beans (almost ready!).

My life, right now, is pretty low key. I stay home most of the time working on interviews for the radio show, or teaching classes online. Much of my focus is on providing a stable calm home for Lasky the dog, who is nearly 17 years old. She's gradually becoming less steady on her feet, and she spaces out a lot, but she's still her very sweet self. I promised her that I would see her through to the end of her days in that body, and I am keeping that promise. It may seem silly to some, but making sure Lasky is happy is one of my jobs at this point in my life. Chloe the cat too, but she is not approaching the end of her life as far as I can tell. At nearly 17 she has another 5 to 10 years to go.

Something happened on last week's radio show...well a lot happened, but there was a moment when I acknowledged, on the air, the shadow side of the show's theme. The theme is to explore visions of a viable future for life on Earth including humans. The shadow is, of course, the form which says there is no viable future for life on Earth including humans. By acknowledging the shadow on the air I seem to have freed something up within myself, or around me. In any case I feel less constrained by the theme, freer to explore with less structure in the interviews. I interviewed three very interesting people this week; Coleen Rowley, Antor Ndep, and Medea Benjamin. The interviews will air on upcoming episodes of Paradigms.

And now it is August, Lammas, Lughnasad, the festival between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. The gardens are ripening, the harvests are starting, the sun is still hot in the sky but the promises of autumn and winter are already dawning. I love feeling the wheel of the year as it turns. The older I get the faster the years go by, and yet the older I get the more I slow down and enjoy it all.