Why Don't You Become Fire?

Today is Pentecost, and it was a hot and sunny day. We didn't have to wear red collars, but the keeper did wear her red shoes. She was off to several festivities. But we all went outside once she came home. She was particularly impressed by the morning's rousing preaching (if it had been at St. T's--there would have been Amens) and the reminder that although the Spirit had been with the disciples after the first Easter appearance (Jn), 50 days later that Spirit needed awakening out of the fear which had stifled it so quickly. Fr. R reminded them that all carry the dormant Spirit, which needs a gentle, or not so gentle, awakening out of its numbed slumber. She also commented on the powerful way the Cathedral composer had woven in ethereal sounds, groans, sirens, moans, in and out of the chanted music today. She felt that the sounds were the alarms which rouse the Spirit as well as the disturbing noise of spirit finding its way out of hibernation--not an easy or a comfortable journey.

Squirrel!

"Squirrel!" We wonder if other animals are talking about the new movie Up that features the crotchety old widower who ties the helium balloons to his house and lifts off with a stowaway boy scout inside. We are most interested in the dogs who have collars which speak their thoughts, and because they are so easily distracted, the collars are constantly shouting," Squirrel!" Well, we ae not as easily distracted but the squirrel in the back yard was very entertaining today. This afternoon the keeper was sitting out on the deck reading with us and we heard all of this noise in the tree. She thought it was the raccoon, but it was a squirrel, stripping the leaves off the upper branches of the red maple and carrying them in her teeth to a nest she is building in the elbow of the tree. She must have ripped 100 leaves. We stood underneath and could see them all stacked up in a pile on the elbow. The camera couldn't catch it though. Does this mean baby squirrels soon? or will all our seeds and fruit disappear?

We don't have to worry about the bear anymore (as if we were); it was captured and moved out to the mountains yesterday. We hope it survives out there.

Our keeper made us watch the continuation and finale of the Susan B. Anthony And Elizabeth Cady Stanton DVD tonight. Actually, it was very moving. They were friends for 50 years, and died without seeing their huge dream of women's suffrage come to fruition. Women wouldn't vote until 12 years later. It's hard to imagine, but the seering passion and the steely resolve of those two to bring about justice was incredibly prophetic, pain-filled, and now, taken for granted, with their names and stories barely remembered.

Tomorrow is Pentecost. We may get to wear red collars. The keeper will wear red shoes. Ven, Espiritu Santo, ven!

Sun

What a difference a few sunny days can make! We love the sun, and we love the sound of the hose spraying the plants in the garden, we love the smell of the hot hose as it begins to shoot out the sun-warmed water and the dry earth as it receives the drops of water. We love to sit out on the deck in the morning and listen to all the birds, hundreds talking back and forth, some chirruping, some singing, some squacking, about who knows what. We love the fact that the wood on the deck is warm and the grass gives cool respite. We love it when the keeper comes home early enough so we can all lounge in the yard, contented sun lovers. And th neighborood smells like grilling meats and poultry. HEAVEN.

Quetzcuatl, Rats, Reredos

Did we ever contribute to the well-being of the household today! The keeper went off to SU for a presentation and came home for lunch before going to the office. She let us out while she prepared herself a little lunch. We rushed right out and guess what I brought to the back door...

a little rat! I know how much she spent this winter getting rid of them. So, I dropped it at her feet outside the door. She brought out a spinach container and coaxed it inside. So we were allowed to admire our catch. So we had fun watching it. And it watched us back. Finally when the keeper went to work, she took it and let it out into the forest. We think the little guy was shocked to find himself free. But we strutted around like the proud hunters we were. The keeper gave us pieces of turkey for lunch and salmon for dinner.

After we calmed down about our catch, she told us about the profound presentation her friend T gave at SU for her M Div. Synthesis: how her indigenous roots feed and challenge her baptismal call into Christianity. As she began the talk, she opened a red woven package and drew forth the mantle placed on the shoulders of leaders in her indigenous community and wrapped it around herself. At the end of her presentation, the class affirmed her priesthood and called her to be the theological bridge between her indigienous roots and the Christian tradition. We would like to see the feathery serpent called Quetzcuatl. We doubt that we could catch it though.

Then, being churchy cats, we were thrilled to know that the word reredos was used in the last rounds of the Scripps Spelling Bee.

Gratia Plena

Today we began our days of staying in since the keeper is back to her other work--she says that when she leaves with the briefcase she is earning what pays for our high priced cat food and our vet bills. When we asked her what she was doing today she said that she had some important meetings, one at SU. She told us how she likes to go to the chapel there and take in the sculpture Gratia Plena.

She said that life these days seems like Gratia Plena, with the beautiful garden, with the long spring light, with connections with friends and colleagues, with new possibilities into the future. Out of doubt, loss, distress, come grace in abundance.

Tonight she made us watch a Ken Burns DVD about Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and we heard Sojourner Truths' words about women's suffrage, "We'll have our rights. See if we don't. You can't stop us from it. See if you can. You may hiss as much as you like, but it's coming!" We think that this may be a good refrain for the recent women's convocation. We understand the hissing part ...so much noise and commotion when we are afraid. It's hard to understand how some could be so afraid of equal rights for women in society and religious institutions.

Wisteria and Sunlight

Another great day outside on the deck. We lolled while the keeper did gardening and house cleaning. Such a life! It smells so good out here--wisteria and lilacs and cut grass. The keeper started shopping for a new washer and dryer. Last time she used the washer, it wouldn't wring out the clothes and the dryer started making so much noise it bounced around and knocked off the iron and broke it. We think they are telling us they want to retire. We hope it's at least a two week notice before they check out. The keeper came home from her shopping and did more gardening. She showed us an herb called bee balm which is supposed to bring butterflies and bees. We found a new hornets' nest, and it is under our bed in the side yard. Those annnoying meanies chased us out. We think it's time for the keeper to call Two Savages and exterminate them. Bears, raccoons, roosters, and now, hornets. What's next?

Memorial Day

What a wonderful day we had. We finally got to spend the entire day outside and so did the keeper. We took turns sneaking out of the yard to explore the neighborhood, and Alice went was gone for over an hour and she was terrified when she came back. We are not telling the keeper where she went, and we will not share it with you either. She has slept the whole afternoon on the deck. While Alice was out running wild, the keeper saw a mother raccoon in the yard. She was digging in the garden and was not afraid of the keeper who chased her away anyway.

While we fooled around the keeper worked in the garden. She told us that she added some "texture" ??? to the front flowerbed. We saw her mound up more dirt and plant more flowers on it. The side front garden is all blue now, and it has blue flowers exploding everywhere, covering up the roses almost. She won't clean the birdbath though. She knows we drink out of it. But it would certainly help all the birds and the wild animals.

Then, the keeper started to work on her shade garden in the back. She cleared out more ivy and old vines and cleaned it up, and planted ferns and salal from the beach. She put in some rocks too. She says she wants to have a little shrine out there. OK, just as long as there is room for us to hide in the bushes still. She cleared away all of the smells we made to warn everyone we live here. SO we have to start all over again. SIGH.

Finally, she brought out popsicles and rested, sunburned and with a tired back and feet. she hauled out the free chairs she found in front of someone's house. They are supposed to be old and valuable. They look old, but they sure don't look valuable to us! They are metal and hard.

Before we had dinner she made us think about why we celebrated this holiday and all of the people who have died in wars and those whose bodies lived, but whose spirits have died because they were fighting in wars. She also said we needed to be mindful of the many innocent people killed, maimed, interned in all of these wars. We nodded, and decided that perhaps we will join Cats Against the Bomb. Then we had grilled chicken.

Ascension

Such a beautiful

Sunday.

We (of course)

had to observe the beauty from inside.

The keeper spent most of the day (of course) in church celebrating Ascension and the need to look up and look within and look out, according to Fr.Ryan. Then she celebrated Confirmation with 18 young people from the Eastside and she said that in the quiet prayer of calling down the Spirit, she prayed for all of these children of immigrants, many of whose futures are so fragile in this land-- for all of them in their beauty, in their unidiscovered power, timidity, awkwardness, wisdom beyond their years, in their hopefulness in this land of infinite possibilities for some and less for others. She prayed for their safety, for good mentors, for strength of soul and spirit and that they could know deeply their own cristic power to help them navegate the torments and storms which will threaten them. She prayed that they ascend, like the young boy in the church's tree, to find a bigger vision for their lives and futures.

She said the later part of her day (while we still waited in inside) took her to to a hill in the West where you can look back and see the glistening city. That's where the sisters' residence is where her friend K is recuperating from surgery. She said they had a great time visiting and a good dinner, and she is happy to see her friend recovering so well. The residence is run by the sisters who taught her, and it is a holy place. She said she walked through the halls, recognizing many names on the rooms' doors of sisters, who once commanded the attention of 60 students at once, helping them to solve complicated new math problems, to understand great art and literature. But now many of these same lionesses are so frail they don't know their names, or the keeper anymore. The halls filled with a special light, a peace, a holiness that is as palpable as the lilacs perfuming the gardens there.

By the way, the keeper came home finally, and we did go out and it was heavenly. Tomorrow we are going to be there all day.

Anniversary with Wooden Boats

She left us and went off to an anniversary party for her friends where of course she met more friends. The party was on Lake Union at the Center for Wooden Boats and the anniversary couple and their chldren had prepared a lovely and rich feast with juicy foods, fine wine, and sweet desserts. The bride's uncle played the bagpipes on the dock and they all reveled in the company and the heavenly evening, reconnecting with old friends.

Wasting a Perfectly Beautiful Morning Inside

This is the face I gave her when she told us that she was going to the office on this beautiful Saturday. Neither of us were pleased, to say the least. She thought we were cute and took a picture. We sat at the window and watched birds--hummingbirds, little sparrows, and a new bird that is as big as a robin but skinnier with spots and a black bib on its breast and a long bill for scooping out bugs in trees. She is not feeding them this year because she got over excited last year and the rats showed up. We won't talk about that. So we have less birds than before. Now she is home for awhile and we are sunning on the deck, but we now this will end soon. She always has someplace to go besides home.

Farewells and Lilacs

A lovely day tinged with goodbye. It was sunny and warm, and of course, the keeper had to go to a funeral and work. We spent most of the day inside. She did give us some new mice to chase. WOW. Eventually she came home and told us about the funeral for Fr. Joe Doogan, who was an unbelieveably humble man, faithful to his priesthood and through his ministry, built so much. She said that the stories were many and they captured his holiness and his fervent embrace of life. Very inspiring--he emptied his life out for people, and so many were there they needed a video feed to another room. She saw 100s of her favorite people and her 6th grade teacher was a gift bearer.

Then, we got to watch a PBS segment about the death of Abraham Lincoln and how the people mourned wildly and she said that she hadn't realized how radical he was and the pain of the country which had just come through the war and in shock about how they could ever reconstruct without him. Then she recited parts of Walt Whitman to us, " When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd and the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night, I mourn’d—"

Blackened?

We waited for the keeper to come home. It was very quiet here today. No rooster. No news trucks. No bear. But the keeper brought an old friend home and they grilled chicken and although they called it "blackened," we saw all of the flames and the smoke when they forgot to watch it. It tasted good though. The salad was good and some of it came from the garden. After it all quieted down, she told us about the rest of the day and how much passion for life the Spanish-speaking people have in spite of many obstacles. She said that much of the human race could learn a lot from them, especially those who are up- tight non-profit and religious workers who miss the rich music and the beauty of life and community to enforce the skinny rules of a too small horizon.

Bears Beware

When we finally woke up this morning we found news trucks with satellite poles out across the street. The keeper was hoping that she had won the Publishers' Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. But
instead we won a bear in the neighborhood. First, a rooster, now a black bear! The newscaster told the keeper that it was not very big and wouldn't eat us. He said that if she had a salmon for a pet she should keep it in. The poor bear, they think it was kicked out of the den by its mother and is trying to find its way home to ? The forest is its home, and the park is a lovely forest. Maybe he will become a neighbor. The wildlife ranger said that people had a bigger chance of being hit by a news truck than being eaten by a black bear. The black bears are shy. Nevertheless, we had to stay inside until the news crews left. But it was rainy, anyway. The flowers need the rain. Our keeper cleaned the house and read her books, and we had to listen to her practice her Spanish. The only worse thing is listening to her sing.

Veriditas

The rooster is still in the neighborhood, but he is getting quieter. Today was a quiet day for all of us here. Our keeper decided that she was going to pull out all of the ivy along one of the back fences. She filled one dumptster and a garbage can full, and then she started mounding it up in piles. She still has one section left--the middle section, and it is the thickest. But she probably won't be finishing it up tomorrow because she has blisters on her hands and it is raining. Later this afternoon she went to the outdoor garden store and found ferns and other shady plants, because she is going to make the newly cleared plot an official shade garden. When she is out in the garden and in the dirt, she is very very happy, and we are content. It also means we can lounge around on the deck and chase the fattest bumblebees imaginable. She brought home more plants that attract bees today. She taught us a new word today, "veriditas"--- freshness, greenness, growing-ness. She says that the Rheinland mystics used it as a word for grace and God. We wouldn't know about that, but we know that it smells like the warm earth after the rain begins to fall.

The Filly Won the Preakness!!!!

After 85 years, a filly won! The keeper was very excited. The rooster woke us up again. We think he might be lost and living in neighbors' back yards. We would like to invite him to come to ours so we can see what he looks like. We are getting used to his strange noises. It was sunny and warm today. After the keeper came home from the office we all went outside and celebrated the filly's win. Alice discovered a little sparrow with a nest at the top of the palm tree which died because of the cold winter. We watched her burrow into the top center of the dying fronds. Maybe we will have to wait to cut it down now. We lounged in the sun and grilled more vegies and chicken. Tonight we will watch Slumdog Millionaire with the keeper.

Roosters and Wisteria

This morning we were awakened early by the most sorrowful sounds. It was kind of weepy, crow-y, croon-y. We kept looking out the window for what it could be. The keeper woke up thinking she was back in Mexico. She told us that it was a rooster and he had either gotten himself a little lost he was being kept illegally in the neighborhood. We would like to see what he looks like because he sounds so strange.

We also found that, once more, the raccoon tried to drag our lounging pillow from the side yard under the deck. She didn't get far this time, but it was covered with mud. Last time she got it as far as the deck but it got stuck in the passageway and we reclaimed it.

The wisteria is out and it fills the whole yard with perfume.

We got to stay out for a whole hour while she went walking. We came inside and ate grilled chicken with her. She told us that the rooster is a chicken too. But we can still hear him. So he was not our meal.

Is God a Silver Jellyfish?

It became sunny again after the grey chilly morning. We watched the change from our window perches. We were happy. The keeper drove out to the country and came back telling us about how as she drove home in early evening the clouds draped like silver satin shot with light as they hovered above, and in some places she said they were silver jellyfish floating overhead. She thinks the combination of the light and the silver and the green is GOD. We have no idea what was in that altar wine out there. We just wanted her to get back so we could have dinner and watch Ugly Betty.

Green Curtains

Vacation is over now for awhile, she said as she left us for work. At work her curtains are green bamboo and when the rains came this afternoon they shivered and shimmered. We spent the day knocking over things and sleeping. Our new food has herring in it.

She said she is sad about so many immigrants who do not have work and are struggling to pay their rent and keep food on their tables. The jobs are disappearing in construction and tourism and food industry. They are hard-working people. She would like to start a company which is a co-op where they could work for food or rent or pride or to maintain their sense of dignity. It's all very complicated if people don't have green cards, she said. There has to be a way.

She prays to St. Frances Cabrini at the Cathedral regularly.
Frances used to spend time in that holy space, and gave her life for the new immigrants. Cabrini's spirit still lives and moves there, and hopefully in many of those who share that space. The keeper used to spend time by AB Murphy's crypt asking for church guidance. She will leave that up to others now, God knows, it is still needed. But Mother Cabrini
has offered consolation and a new way of envisioning a pastoral response.

Harvest

Today was the keeper's last day of vacation and so she slept in way beyond our breakfast time, but we kept up the annoying behavior until she finally got up and fed us. We slept the rest of the day and she harvested lettuce and other greens from the garden along with rosemary, thyme, and oregano. Also the wisteria is starting to bloom, and the smell of oregano, wisteria, thyme, lavender, and spearmint in the garden takes our breath away.

She sat until she finished reading Water for Elephants and and wants us to recommend it to everyone. She says the animals (at least some of them) come out okay in the end.

Then she was all crazy about How Big is Your God? by Paul Coutinho, S. J. He referred to the image of religion as the well which takes us to the river of God's love and divine life, or grace. She read us this quote which made perfect sense to us: "When the Lord comes, he will ask, "Did you know me?" "Have you seen the face of God?" "Have you experienced the Divine?" "Did you see the river, or were you so lost in the well that it became an obstacle rather than a pathway to the river? Once you have seen the face of God. . . [t]he well will no longer be a barrier between you and God but will open up to the river. . ." We agree with that. We see the face of God everyday, leaping out of the most amazing faces and places, surprising us like a hummingbird hovering for a breath or the wasp that got in the house last night.

Monday, Sun Day

Today was supposed to be rainy, but after the keeper came home from errands, the sky cleared and we all went outside. She worked in the garden and dug up another flower bed, staked vines on the fence, planted flowering beans and zinnias, cosmos, and vine shoots. The wind was up, but the sun was warm. She went walking for a few miles because she is trying to walk 4 miles a day, and we stayed put and slept on the deck.
When she walks she says that she studies gardens and flowers and gets ideas for projects. She was excited about the yellow chairs she found on a porch in LFP, a black and white cat who posed for photos on its terrace, and the curious fire hydrant on the trail.

Mother's Day

Happy Mothers Day!

Today when we got to go outside, we decided we would stay with our keeper and sleep on the deck while she read the paper. Although we missed climbing into other yards and driving her frantic, we know she was very pleased. It was the best gift we could give.

But she did tell us about St. James today and how at the end of the May Masses the choirs all sing a final antiphon at the Mary altar. Today the male choir members gathered in front of the shrine and sang a most tender Biebl Ave Maria, and she was overwhelmed to see the tears running down the faces of all around her. The young couple who were sitting in front of her with the lovely new daughter embraced each other, wiped away tears as they rocked their daughter. It was about Mary, it was about new mothers, grandmothers, weary mothers, widowed mothers, martyrs' mothers, crazy mothers, forgotten mothers. It was about mothers who now sang from the other side of life. For those few minutes, all were joined to infinity, to the communion of saints. And they knew it.

Old Tugs

Today we watched her run off to the tugboat races on Elliott Bay. Her friends L and S were throwing a joint 50th birthday party for themselves, lovely old tugs that they are, on the Royal Argossy tour boat. So she spent the afternoon in the sun on the water , talking to many freund and watching some of the races. They are not the swiftest of boats. But she remembered how the tugboats used to push the barges up the Columbia River, and how tugboats, like draft horses, are not as appreciated as Arabians or throughbreds, but how essential they are.

She brought us pictures of some of the old tug friends and a boat that is more like an Arabian.

Home Again

We are all back together again. She returned home with this picture of the canal in the evening after the sun came out and before it set. She really likes it there. We are happy to see her but we don't want to seem over-excited or anything. Maybe she will let us go out.

Dinner with Deer, Dessert with Otter

In the late afternoon, as library hour ended and dinner hour started, our keeper said she heard a scraping at the sliding screen door that looks out on the canal. She looked up and locked eyes with a deer which was starting to make its way through the partially opened door. She invited the doe in, but it was clear that the food was better outside. So the doe grazed the young shoots surrounding the yard until she disappeared back into the woods.

Then, after dinner an otter visited the reeds by the dock, munching his way through the lilies down there. He was camera-shy, though, and swam away once he realized there might be paparazzi.

With the sunlight and drying air, the geese and the ducks paraded their babies up and down the canal, with little swallows flying in canopy formation up above. "Who needs movies down here?"

Library Cats

We have had news of the keeper. She sent us a photo of these two beautiful beasts. It seems that the city library has two working resident literary cats. They sleep a great deal in the daytime but they ferociously guard books and DVDs all night--- difficult work.

She tells us that the rain flew down the canal today in great sheets of mist, like Harry Potter special effects. So, the keeper went to the community club gym and had library hour all afternoon at home. We hear that the rain stopped in late evening and the moon came out and flooded the canal and came pouring through the skylights.

Wild Beach

Still raining at home and at the beach. The keeper tells us that the coastal landscape is very very green and lush and the beach is wild, and we wouldn't lke it. Although in warmer days she has seen cats on leashes walking with their keepers on the beach. You will never catch us in that humiliating condition! The keeper says she will stay home and read all afternoon--right now it is They Come Back Singing about Gary Smith's life with the Sudanese refugees in Uganda and Water for Elephants.

Moss Mantillas

We understand that there are beautiful old trees at the beach but that they are covered by mantillas of hanging moss that catch the light and the raindrops. They look beautiful and elegant but they may be draped in green death. Ick. The keeper almost hit a young deer on the road from town today. He was grazing the salal and blackberry bushes alongside the road and it was difficult to see him in the mist.

She told us that it was pleasant last evening and that the otters came out and swam the canal with the baby ducks and geese. And the water was orange and silver. But then it started raining nails again, so she will be reading her books again. She finished Devil's Highway last night. A seering true story of the ill-fated crossing of 20 some immigrants and their coyotes across the Arizona/Sonora desert.

Wind Beach

We are home with the pet sitters. She is at the beach where the wind shakes the very roots of the trees that hang over her house. She said it rained nails on the roof and the skylights most of the night. And in the morning the sea gulls glided on the big gusts and then huddled together in bunches while the wild sand spray swirled and ruffled their feathers. She said that is why we are having so much rain and bad traffic here at home today. Of course we wouldn’t know much about it since we can not go out anyway.

They Are White This Year

The lilacs came out. We thought they were purple last year. But they are very beautiful. We watched as she planted purple phlox and blue litho-something with petunias. It was a quiet day. We even came inside when called in. We are having petsitters live with us for a few days starting tomorrow. We know how that works. We stay in. "Oh well." It is supposed to rain anyway.

New Mown Lawn, Rain, Impasse

A long day and it rained. But the sunflowers lit up our living room and we watched them mow our lawn for the first time this year. But we couldn't go out and smell either the rain or the lawn because, of course, she was gone, and didn't return till late. We don't think she even knows the lawn is mowed. And the new mowed smell is being washed away by the wind and the rain.

When she got home she was tired because she talked to her favorite 500 friends and that the convocation was great and she really liked what Ivonne Gebara and Shaun Copeland said about embodying hope on and in the margins. And she met Maria who spoke about negotiating impasses and a Carmelite named Connie Fitzgerald. Then she talked about having dinner with friends and learning about Mindsprout and Tune Town from their children.

We think that is all very fine but we hope that tomorrow we can negotiate the impassable door to the back yard and smell what we have missed these last days.

"Oh Well"

We were patient all day. It was a sunny warm day that needed us outside. But we were in, and as often is the case, the keeper left early and returned late. We waited patiently for a sign of the car. But no, just the classical music and the refrigerator humming.
When she came back she was all abuzz about a convocation for women about radical transformation of the world, and how someone named Cokie Roberts talked about how the phrase "Oh well" is very useful in moving past impassable obstacles like "No you can't" and "It's forbidden by law to do that." Cokie's mother used "Oh well" a lot when she was the ambassador to the Vatican. And very shrewdly and charmingly, she creatively moved people and causes past the immoveable point. The keeper also told us that many of the founders of women's religious orders enabled the impossible in the same way, and they were canonized saints while the bishops with who often put up the obstacles were not canonized, and in some cases, not well remembered either.

It is dark, it is late. The wild animals are out. Oh well, we would like to go out anyway. We don't think she is listening.