If I get too close to the bird, or deer, or lizard, they simply move away. My patio friends enjoy their lives regardless of me, or other animals. We are irrelevant to the world.When I sit on my patio watching the birds and bees, it’s clear that I, and all humans, are irrelevant - except to us.

I know we are brutal, but I don’t need the media shouting out an endless stream of our inhumanities. I do my best to understand and appreciate us - and forgive us. I try to accept me and accept what’s happening, particularly with our politicians here and worldwide. I’m not a collection of “shoulds”, I’m just a bunch of “ams”.Īs a species, we are what we are, we do what we do, from the cruel to the sublime.

Likewise, it’s in my nature as a person, as a human, to do what I do. I don’t criticize birds for singing, deer for eating my roses, or lions for killing gazelles. The real me is full of contradictions, good and evil, ambivalence, frustrations, conflicts, happiness, and guilt. I am a real animal, not an idealized being. Does our anxiety with Climate Change also come from changes that are too-much-too-fast, and from the loss of what’s familiar?Ģ. When I realized that my anxiety came from all the changes, I relaxed and became a tourist, seeing the street as new, without the feeling of loss (death?) of my past. I knew Bette when her restaurant first opened. Why was everything so different? Where were all the stores I knew? Surely, we don’t need this many clothing stores! Bette’s Oceanview Diner is now Oceanview Diner. I hadn’t been back for a while and the changes were so great I felt disoriented. I recently visited the 4 th Street area in Berkeley where for twenty years I had my office. Before the industrial revolution, the pace of change was humane. Change is constant, too much is stressful.Change is the nature of the universe. To keep the postings short, the list is divided into two parts.

When I remember to use them, they help me stay calm. To help me cope with today’s brutal speed of change and our media’s anxiety-producing firehose, I’ve gradually assembled a few simple practices and truths.

Wherever you go sublime mp3