Summer Evenings

Under the light of a rising full moon, I went to pick a few eggplants from the garden for dinner, and there was "someone" moving about in our backyard. It looked like a cat (well, sort of). But then I smelled "something" like burnt coffee grounds, or garlic -- yes, a skunk! As I walked by, the skunk quickly shifted around to position his raised tail toward me. So I kept a respectful distance as I clipped off a few eggplants and returned back to the kitchen...

Summer is finally here again. The weather in Los Angeles continues to be quite sunny and intensely hot during the day with high temperatures up in the 80's and 90's (degrees F). It does cool down to around 60 degrees at night, but maybe not cool enough. We leave the bedroom window wide open at night to cool down the house. An occasional cooling breeze blows in along with the moonlight falling onto our faces.

Hikaru's been having some difficulty sleeping. He gets hot -- especially his head that gets sweaty and he scratches himself like crazy. The other day, he finally pointed to the electric hair clipper. We asked him if he wanted a haircut, and he nodded "yes" (believe it or not), so we gave him a short baby buzz cut this evening. And now he's "cool".

It's been a busy couple weeks, especially at work. I was feeling a little unbalanced, so it was nice to finally spend time today taking it easy. Reversing some of accumulated stresses is not always easy as it sounds. But I discovered just the right quote for the hot summer and the evenings where one can feel a certain stillness and healing...

"Just as activity beats the cold,
and inactivity (stillness) beats the heat,
Purity and stillness can heal the world."
-Lao Tzu

In this photo Hikaru wears his favorite "monkey" shirt, and he is trying to make a "point" that we can understand. He's 22 months old.