Autumn is in full leaf in California. The Golden State literally becomes golden in some areas, as bright yellows tend to dominate the deciduous trees of fall.
There are splashes of reds and oranges of course, but usually from a few maples here or cottonwoods there, unlike the upper Midwest or northeastern US.
The morning in the backyard is so beautiful in its uncharacteristic stillness and quiet, looking out over the dark and bright reds, yellows and oranges of a maple against a cloudless blue sky, that one begins to feel something unnameable totally beyond thought and self.
The flame of attention intensifies, incinerating every thought and emotion as they arise without a trace of smoke or ash. The stillness enters one and grows acute, bringing a silence that is palpable and all-consuming. No noise disrupts it, not a leaf-blower on a nearby street, nor a plane flying overhead.
Though I’m in the familiar backyard of over 20 years, everything is new, and there’s the feeling, without fear (indeed with bliss) that I don’t know anything.
The branches of the fruit and olive trees are still heavy and mostly green. They hang like silent sentinels in the sun, waiting beyond time for the winter rains.
In California, autumn is long and mild until the rains begin in mid-late November. This season’s El Niño is expected to bring heavy “atmospheric river” storms, with massive ocean waves and coastal flooding, which have already begun.
I live at the northeastern corner of the Great Central Valley, which is technically about 450m/725k long and about 50m/80k wide, stretching from Mt. Shasta in the north to the Tehachapi Mountains in the south.
In December 1861-January 1862, the Central Valley completely flooded, creating an inland sea enabling steamboats to travel all the way from San Francisco to Bakersfield! That could happen again, obviously with far more devastating consequences.
But it would make the fat ass in the White House happy, since he hates California almost as much as he hates Hispanics and other immigrants from what he calls “shithole countries.”
At the same time, as reported today, his evil administration is pushing “nearly 200 pipeline projects that would collectively span 17,000 miles (27,000 kilometers), while targeting laws that protect the environment and human health from pipeline risks, and pledging not to enforce regulations around them.”
Meanwhile, Cop-31 opens tomorrow in Turkey, with representatives of nearly 190 countries. Except the United States of America, which the Trump Administration vomits: “It wants no part of extremist climate policies” being embraced by the rest of the world.
Well, at least they’re not hypocrites about it. Australia, a coal-exporting country, and Turkey, a coal-addicted country, co-host Cop-31. Is that some kind of cosmic joke, or is humankind hitting bottom?
It’s sunset, and I’m standing in front watching spectacular colors change on the western horizon. Two young men in ties walk up, and ask if they can speak to me about Jesus. I point at the sky and ask, have you ever heard the expression, “color is God?” They turn around and look at the sunset, probably for the first time. I ask them what faith they’re representing (Mormon). We fist-bump and they walk away.
So what is the relationship between this reverence and reverie for the essence manifesting through nature, and the wholesale malicious and malevolent destruction of the Earth exemplified by the Trump Administration and its criminal fossil fuel partners?
None, but without experiencing that essence on a regular basis, we sure as hell can’t deal with the stupidity of man.
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