Today is launch day for my 12th book, A Life in Light. I also have an essay about light in the New York Times. As a girl I wanted to write, but I didn’t believe I could do it. In my 40s, I decided I would study writing. Reviving Ophelia was published when I was 47. And now at 74, I am still writing. I never imagined I would be so lucky.![]()
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Opinion | How I Build a Good Day When I’m Full of Despair at the World
www.nytimes.com
Be the person you want to live with every day of your life.
Since the heat wave arrived, I’ve been walking at sunset and early morning. Last night, the air was as thick as pudding and the gnats and mosquitos were out. The swallows dived overhead as they chased their rich feasts. The first lightning bugs of the year lit up the grasses. Frogs croaked from Holmes Lake. ![]()
This morning, the world seemed new again. Meadowlarks and red-winged blackbirds called out their greetings. Pink, yellow, white, and purple flowers dotted the meadows by the walking trail. The leaves of the cottonwoods shimmered. The cattails nodded with the breeze. As the sun rose, the halfmoon crossed the southern sky.![]()
What is the purpose of all this beauty?![]()
To remind us that life is good, that we are good, and that we have every good reason to work for a peaceful world and a sustainable planet. Where there is life, there is hope. And we can always find life by walking outside.
Yesterday I spoke with an environmental club of 4th graders. They were knowledgeable and earnest, ready to go to work. One girl mentioned her concern for Dolly, a dolphin who lost her tail in a crab net. Several felt that zoos should be illegal. I gently suggested it was more complicated than that. ![]()
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One boy said he and his dad only hunted when they could use every part of the animal they killed. He told us he would shoot a deer or a pheasant, but he wouldn’t kill an elephant or a lion. ![]()
All the students wanted to talk about plastics. We discussed not using plastic bags, straws or utensils. At the end of our session, three of the students vowed that, next weekend, they would pick up all the plastic bags in their areas.![]()
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As I listened to such dedicated young people, I felt more hopeful. Not all the important news can be found in the media.
Last night at sunset, we had a big storm with tornado sirens, greenish/gold light, high winds, hail and a sky full of lightning. All kinds of lightning—sheets, cloud to cloud, cloud to earth, and bolts that were as delicate and curvaceous as embroidery or Pashto script. Jim and I sat in the living room and enjoyed it all. We are two old mammals, together for over fifty years through all kinds of storms.