SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com: April 2021

5 star wildflower bike ride for (sexy! & tops!)

prior to this, we had always stopped, turned around at the sycamore resting place..

but learned from a husband/wife at that resting point, that the finish was only 5 or so miles ahead

so!

we did the entire 30 mile ride, hellyer to anderson lake and back

and were rewarded all along the path with spectacular views

hallelujah! & amen!

Liberty Gardens in Pacifica, CA by (mike mooney!) & community contributors #libertygardens #pacifica

i had read this, among other articles prior to our visit, and so, when we met and he started talking... and i heard that Irish accent..

what a great pleasure.. an honor meeting you Mike Mooney Sr.

what a beautiful, great thing you started here

outstanding.

i did stop and pause and remember..

and share here, that during our much longer conversation, Mike Mooney, -as if it happened last year, not two decades ago

with fresh anger and frustration he spoke of the 'red flags'

pilots from saudi arabia learning to pilot american aircrafts

i could see the ache in his eyes..

hear it in his voice

how could they have missed that!?!

and i think we simultaneously let it -very briefly- enter our hearts and minds

the lives that could have been saved, spared...

had we known; had we realized.. had we seen/addressed the red flags..

***

i had been journaling weekly, monthly..

sat paralyzed, just about, in front of the tv news trying desperately to process..

i covered our entire front window with an american flag

-didn't journal again, until october of the following year

****

but we talked about many other things.. the amazing garden among them..

the loss of his beautiful wife, only 3 weeks ago..

how touched he is by the growth of the garden.. the number of contributors..

how frustrated he is by the city/waste water treatment plant; the silly restrictions!

which prevent non-drinkable, but garden-grow~able water from being used to support the gardens

the highly unnecessary way each gardener is forced to

bring in their own water... container by container, to water their individual gardens

when, if the restrictions were lifted

the water would be -write there.

[the gardens literally and gloriously frame the entrance to the waster water treatment facility]

how pleasing, rewarding that people, like ourselves, travel from varying distances

just to see and visit these gardens

how creative, as new garden sections have been added on..

the gardeners have become at designing drought tolerant patches of beauty

we talked about our families, children, pets..

and got an all together lovely visit in

which included a visit with Diana (contributor), and two passersby, which were friends of Mikes.

-all of us, in this conversation circle were Christians

-we talked about how rare that has become..

and each shared being 'rescued & restored' in one fashion or another.

***

silently to myself.. over and over...

is this my life now Jesus? "I LOVE MY LIFE!"

we went next to visit

the pacifica pier

and learned it is dungeness crabbing season..

and enjoyed watching

a few great catch n' release moments

because.. there are size requirements..

but the pier was loaded on both sides with crabbers

good music here and there

picnic supplies

portable chairs

countless fishing/crabbing poles

and lots of happy, relaxed, cool people of many different ages

thank you Jesus and amen.

p.s. -forgive me! almost forgot to mention how we ended up at the liberty gardens to begin with. our neighbor, jen, shared some pictures from her visit with us..

she had walked over to comment/share about my sweet pea square garden.. and shared with us also, how the flowers and leaves are edible. that, you can boil the leaves, and add it to your plate.

i never knew! i only knew, "i love how these smell!" -having been introduced to them at filoli, when i went for the 1st time with gerry

so, i was curious... can i grow these myself? in my little square? and the answer is YES! we have a bouquet in our bedroom write now...

CH= gardening experiments in my sidewalk squares

ricks picks memory archives from (anne!)

anne just text this photo memory to me... which had just been sent to her.. treasure! and when i consider just how many memories... creations... the adventures of ricky picky photo book...

nothing but smiles "thank you!"

embarrassing moment 7962

is my mom going crazy?

ricks picks

In God I Trust (me!) ~tops

and so yesterday, when we were leaving to run errands, i saw these

"sexy.. did you leave two pennies write here?"

because they were sitting side by side on the back bumper of our truck

"no."

-but someone did

and i have it in my mind that whoever it was that did leave these two pennies on the back bumper of our truck

that person(s) meant them for me specifically

and that person(s) knows things like this about (me!):

take a look at the date(s) on the pennies

and so of course! the second i picked up the pennies someone left for (me!), i looked at the dates.

1983 -the obviously older looking of the two pennies

the cerebral hyperlink/memory opening -hearing footsteps behind me, coming toward me from behind. thinking it was my boyfriend (and later 1st husband) trying to sneak up and surprise me. i was on my way to his apartment. but when i turned around in effort to surprise my boyfriend, and beat him to the surprise punch...

instead of surprising mark -i landed in the chest of a black male, wearing a hoodie, smelling of alcohol, and with a gun to the temple of my head

i never made it to my boyfriends apartment. i was kidnapped at gunpoint.. and the rest i've written about enough that i won't bother now -but not just 1983, but that entire decade.. trauma, trauma, trauma..

and before i move on to the date of the second of the two pennies,

i want to link the lyrics to this song, chain breaker by zach williams

because it captures my experience with Jesus, the Bible, the Christian walk.. the teaching of Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Bishop TD Jakes -Pastor Mike Barris.. among many others

Who is Jesus? Chain-breaker. Pain Taker. Way Maker.

2020. That's the date on the other penny; the shiny newer one...

And the most important thing I can point out is that in 1983 -I could not see, dream or imagine that in 2020, I'd have new memories like these:

Glory be entirely to God! hallelujah

let me close with a public "thank you!" here to whoever it was that left the pennies.

may YOU be blessed and highly favored.

amen.

The Heart Seen -spring season contributions: #filoli #theheartseen @writeousmom

from our recent visit to filoli

***

and via email, these treasures from squidmann & spike:

Sure, they make heart-shaped cookies all the time on Valentine’s Day. But this one was found in a package of our regular round chocolate chip cookies from Safeway. Was it a mistake or perhaps done on purpose by a bored baker? We may never know!

Found this unique stone on in a small cave on Cove Beach. It’s so odd that the round-y parts look like they were carved, like this broke off an ancient statue!

A shell heart left on a rock by the low tide!

****

my goodness, do i ever LOVE these new contributions

each one with its own way cool factor!

"thank you!"

...your blessings continue...

LUCKY (me!) ~tops

FiLoLi.org photos & collage by (me!) ~tops #filoli

spectacular! and remembering with gratitude my first visit there -amen!

our growing homeless population by (me!) ~tops #NOTonNOBLE

on a recent visit to see my mom & rick, in san leandro, california -during a much longer conversation, rick said, "i'm going to do something to help the homeless.. i don't know what yet... i just know i want to help"

-this conversation has never taken place before...

the reason it is taking place now, early 2021, is because the homeless population is growing, and has been growing

exponentially. across the entire bay area and beyond.

the picture above is from just one pocket of homeless in san jose, california. this scene is repeated in hundreds of locations throughout the city

i wrote a letter of concern myself, when i started seeing homeless at our local perc ponds...

because i see how rapidly homeless encampments grow, spread..

because i know homeless people -without access to restrooms, plumbing..

because i know homeless people.. -do not have garbage cans and recycle cans, and green waste containers that they can fill and have picked up weekly

because i did not want to see our perc ponds polluted with human feces, waste and garbage..

i had to write

my motivation was to protect this gorgeous landscape, the water, the landscape, the wildlife, the current safe feeling families have as they walk through the area

-there is a spiritual art to managing compassion for the homeless, with protecting the beauty, safety, cleanliness of areas i consider on the endangered list

note: we brought 7 sleeping bags to a designated location for the homeless. said location would not accept the sleeping bags because they were not -new. -we cut out the middle men, and brought the sleeping bags directly to a group of homeless men who were residing in a local parking lot. -they were very grateful, and did not mind that the sleeping bags were not new. -they were in fact, clean and in very good condition.

note: prior experiences with homeless include, a man in a wheelchair, who popped up, and out, and started walking after i provided him some money. and a young woman, who i provided some food to, and then who ended up in my backyard knocking on the back sliding glass door -scaring our family. i had to call the police to have her removed.

and so,

whenever someone -and there have been countless someones,

whenever someone video tapes and shares a wealthy person, leaving a nice restaurant, and walking past a homeless person begging for food

and the intention is to demonstrate greed and indifference

i don't buy it.

it is actually very complicated; very layered; very difficult

it is, in my estimation, a problem which can only be solved by -geniuses.

-as stephen hawking was to...

-as albert einstein was to...

[this person/these people] are to solving the homeless crisis.

i've written before... i don't even like it when people use the word 'homeless' and group different problems together. -there is not one group of homeless

there are those who have hit financial hard times.

there are those who have addictions; who have had their brains/minds high jacked by drugs, and who are incapable of holding down a job...

there are those who are mentally ill...

there are combinations, variables, and unknowns..

but i think about it often, because i am faced with it; directly; often... every drive from here to there.. whether that drive is short -5 miles, or long, 20+ miles

i look through the car window and see homeless encampments here, and new homeless encampments there..

and i've also said before, -i know gavin newsom is not personally responsible for the growing population of homeless in san francisco -but during his time of leadership, it grew exponentially... and then he was promoted, and it is my opinion/observation, that now he is leaving the entire state of california in the same filthy, unaddressed, unsafe, highly toxic state he left san francisco

anyway,

when i took the picture i've used for this post... i was silently asking myself, "who is responsible?"

who is responsible for mentally ill? who is responsible for the addict? who is responsible for the person living on the margins -and who covid robbed/starved into homelessness?

and the vision of those videos -wealthy person walking past the homeless, will play in my imagination..

-nope.

that wealthy person is not directly responsible for that addict over there... or mentally ill here... or poverty stricken homeless person over there..

and i will let my mind imagine different scenarios... each person responsible for themselves? accountable for their own actions? decisions? circumstances?

who has been exploited? manipulated? -tricked into taking.. or selling drugs..

-interesting to consider the population of people living -as i have in the past

from cash advance to cash advance... from pay check to pay check... from loan to loan... etc.,

-you can live in debt, in growing debt for an entire lifetime actually, but

COVID

covid took everyone on the margins, pulled back the curtain.. it was the big unveiling...

i think on these things... capitalism, culture.. how can the most people thrive?.. and repeat here

i don't think we've found the 'ism' yet where the most people thrive -capitalism, marxism, fascism, communism, socialism...

"we need a new 'ism!'"

-these paradigm shifts of the cultural, economic, political kind, -a call to geniuses

the world's best problem solvers!

and to tackle any problem -first you must identify, describe, understand..

the knowledge, the facts, the unknowns, the variables, the numbers, the stats

the hearts, the minds, "the services already available!!"

this brings me back to the letter i wrote when i started seeing homeless at the perc ponds

the upshot of what i learned is this:

in san jose california -there is no shortage of services already available

the cdc, has recommended that no homeless be relocated at this time, because of covid

and so i closed my letter with the following statement

1. -you are already aware of the problem (in fact they are bombarded with phone calls daily)

2. -the services already exist

3. -you are waiting for the cdc to give green lights to relocate homeless; please let us know when you hear from the cdc

****

let's talk about "relocating" the homeless

-to where?

prior to my living in this neighborhood, there was a suggestion

-a very stupid suggestion, in my opinion,

that a homeless camp be made available next to an elementary school.

-PAUSE. -talk to Jesus...

I can't believe ANYONE would even consider for half a second.... homeless; addicts; mentally ill next door to an elementary school

but that is when i learn...

there are really -for real- people who suggested this.

and i cannot under any circumstance, using any of my greatest imagination, stretch... and figure out who, why, anyone..

but,

the good news is that it was successfully voted down.

THANK GOD HERE.

-now,

once you rule out having a homeless encampment next door to an elementary school,

where can you rule in?

and i am sidetracked..

i believe in 'human dignity' -that is to say, i believe, every single human being,

whether an addict, mentally ill, or forced, due to financial hardship, into homelessness

i believe every human being, male, female, young, old, non-binary, whatever, -every human being

should have a safe, clean place to use the restroom; basic plumbing...

a place to wash hands, brush teeth...

food to eat, -a place for their belongings; a place to put their trash

and hope for a better future.

***

if i were a social, humans in crisis genius...

we would differentiate: addicts, ill, hardship...

different places/solutions, for different problems..

***

we would have hospitals for the ill...

we would have rehab for the addicts...

we would have bridge homes for the unemployed...

***

in addition to believing in human dignity,

above that... i believe in the safety & clean environment of hard working, tax paying, law abiding citizens

i place their rights highest

to protect and preserve their rights

and 'sanctuary' is given to our residence, families, individuals who are working, paying, abiding..

they get a say, a vote, the final word on where homeless should be located

****

turns out, there is also a population of homeless, so far gone, either from drugs, or mental illness,

that they will not be relocated without physical force.

i support law and order, and the right for our officers to physically relocate resistant homeless

***

due to covid, we have large numbers of commercial real estate buildings vacant..

commercial real estate, -warehouses, industrial areas

AWAY from neighborhoods, with children, families, singles... AWAY from schools...

AWAY from parks where children should be able to play and run free...

***

i believe we should relocate homeless to buildings with plumbing... basic needs can be met...

intervention/social services can outreach..

***

i know some people would live out their entire lives, short or long, in these places..

and for some,

it would be a temporary circumstance they ultimately overcome.

***

but to watch, freeway overpass, after freeway overpass, become homeless encampments..

to watch otherwise 'safe, clean, neighborhoods' become toxic with trash, human feces, threatening the safety of children...

***

i have no delusions, that i can stop, reverse, minimize, reduce... -i have no delusions that i can personally solve this exponentially growing human crisis

but i do believe the mind power is out there...

not just to relocate...

but,

always the goal with a crisis of any kind

PREVENT. PREVENTION.

***

perhaps i will cc: this to ivy league schools...

and anywhere else i might find the brightest minds, and selfless hearts..

or just someone(s) who feel inspired/challenged by the nature of such a complicated problem with incalculable rewards for solving....

In Jesus name, I pray... i write, and i pray, i pray, and i write...