Glow of Hope

 It's been a wet week and I'm grateful for it. We head up to the snow today but I wanted to catch up here first. The spring is bursting out despite the cool temperatures.. turkeys and pheasants gobble and toot their presence and the starlings are in the canopy... already massing for the fruit they know will emerge eventually from the hard kernels that now form at the base of where the flowers once were. The road flooded last night  and more rain is still pushing along...it's so good to be back in that flow again. Everyone watches the weather now for rainfall amounts as the water wars intensify. (This photo of a turkey hen is along the Diamond Match border taken from the car--there were a dozen more turkeys inside the fence)

 A little bit of good news from the international scene. There was a sold out benefit last week for a village in Pakistan. It was my second fashion show in the weekend! The first was celebrating Karen Laslo's birthday with friends and going to the Shalom Free Clinic's Thrift store fashion show. I must say though that the style, colors, fabrics of these Pakistani inspired clothes were really beautiful... art, culture, fantasy... I loved everything but the torturous shoes the models clomped in...heels like that should be as avoided as drone strikes. The dancing is so energetic and lively...I love this culture!

 Then yesterday I took the liberty, as a retired person, to go to the casino. (So many older folks at those machines!) I went to see for myself what a home foreclosure auction looked like. It was worth doing both to appreciate the normalization of the sleeze factor plus to make some contacts. One was with a very distressed renter who can't afford to move-- I hadn't thought before of the plight of renters in this mess. Chico Occupy consented to becoming a Foreclosure Prevention Zone and now we need to decide how to help make good on that.

 The most delightful man came to Chico yesterday! Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs. We had a very soggy meal with him out on the city plaza and then met back at the Chico Peace and Justice to hear the evolution of Food Not Bombs over the last 30 years since they have been feeding people. It was funny, it was inspiring and at the end, talking about this present era, it was also a bit intense. The main thing is that we are on the right path and in good company.