The Best Presents (Presence)

On Thursday night, I had the privilege of being a listener on a conference call with one of my care-giving role models: Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.  Her talk was about making medicine whole again, through re-claiming healing elements of care-giving. Chief among those elements is attention, or presence - the practice of simply being with what is another person's experience in an open, non-judging, courageous way.

Dr. Remen's book, "My Grandfather's Blessings" is on my list of books to read over and over again. In it, her view of how medicine can be practiced as a healing art comes clearly through her words and stories. The conference call was full of such stories and lessons. You can download a recording of it here.

With the first days of summer, the "super-moon" has been visible here. According to the Farmer's Almanac blog,

"A supermoon is when a full or new Moon phase coincides with the Moon’s perigee, or closest point in its orbit to the Earth. A full supermoon can look up to 14% larger and be up to 30% brighter than a normal full moon...Even though the Moon won’t officially be full...waxing gibbous Moon will look full, and will also be exceptionally big and bright."

This event coincides with very low tides - one of my favorite things to enjoy in summer. Gregg and I took a walk on our beach Saturday morning in the sunshine. It was a perfect day.

Gregg with our neighbor's dogs on the sandspit

There were dozens of starfish and varieties of seaweed on the beach, in many shapes, textures and colors

This is the actual color - Mother Nature is astonishing!

Moon snails were digging in the sand and laying their eggs. I don't know if this starfish is trying to escape the sun, or eating a snail, but it doesn't quite fit into the shell it has chosen

The Evergreen State with blue sky is incomparably lovely

There is no place like home - especially in summertime

The best present, for me, is time spent together - preferably in nature, particularly on a beach. Every year around my birthday, for some time now, the gift I've requested from my family is a day hiking on the beach, followed by dinner at a favorite restaurant.

My sister-in-law, Caroline and I share the same birthday month. Though our birthdays are only one day (and eight years) apart, neither one of us makes a big deal of marking it, so we have never initiated a shared celebration. This year, I invited Jim (my brother) & Caroline to join us; they accepted, and David was able to take the day off from work.

As Jim & Cara live about an hour and a half to the east of us, they spent Saturday night in our home so that we could get an early start on Sunday. I made breakfast wraps and smoothies for us to eat in the car on the way to Port Townsend, and Gregg made sandwiches for our picnic lunch.

The weather changed overnight, so we were hiking under cloudy (but warm) skies. There were a few sprinkles of rain, but they served to cool us off, and actually felt good. Washingtonians know how to dress in layers.

Taking a little break during the 9+ mile hike

Gregg, me, David, Jim & Cara topping the day off with excellent Thai food and dessert

I'm thankful for a happy weekend filled with my favorite activities, and the best present of all - the presence of those I love!

P.S.: thank you for the sweet wishes - 

my birthday isn't until the 26th. 

We celebrated early due to work & tide schedules.