July 26th through 28th: Leaving Fresno, arriving in Tahoe

July 26th: last day in Fresno

Paul, me, Bruce and Lisa wine tasting

This was my last family visit on this trip. It has been such a joy to be able to spend time with my family.

July 27th:

sunrise on the road to Tahoe

I was thinking about snakes this morning, and shedding skins. When an old skin is no longer useful, when it no longer serves its purpose, when it has been outgrown, the snake just sheds it. How I wish, at times, that I could be a snake.

The Merced River

Don Pedro lake

Sylvia and John Schofield

John and Sylvia live in a small cabin outside of Volcano, a small town of 200 souls south of Tahoe. They have spent much of their lives living in foreign countries, working as teacher and nurse in places like Germany, Brazil, and Korea, while raising 5 children. I met John and Sylvia my freshman year in college - parents of my first true love - 34 years ago. Our relationship started a little rocky, to say the least (which was fun to reminisce about on this trip). Their current project, inspired by their latest trip abroad to Africa, is to help the girls they met in a small town in Tanzania, with their educational expenses . I am honored to call them friends.

sunset from their balcony

It was so great spending a little time with John and Sylvia. It is such a blessing - this life on the road - the opportunity to explore, to be free of schedule, direction and path. What a blessing to meet a new person and connect in that empty space of newness. Maybe even more a blessing to reacquaint with old friends, share familiar memories, with the ease that trust allows.

July 28th: I spent my time slowly driving up to Tahoe

Silver lake, Highway 88, south of Tahoe

or maybe this is Silver Lake

Could be this photo too

picnic dinner on Lake Tahoe with Chris and Scooter

I have known Scooter since I was 14 years old. About every couple of years I come driving through Tahoe, and their door is always open. And though we haven't talked to each other for 2 years, it seems like it has only been a week. Some friends are like that. Good friends.

We went for a three hour work from Scooter's house, through the Shasta daisies (also known as mule's ears) and mosquitoes

We made it to a section of the Tahoe Rim trail

July 25th in Fresno

dinner:

front row: sister Lisa, Uncle Bruce, friend Lori

back row: Lisa and Paul's nephew Ben, my nephew Joel, Lori's husband Doug, Paul and me

Rocky

Penny

A really bad but funny picture of a really cute dog (looks like a troll doll)

July 24th: On to Fresno

sunrise light somewhere in California, west of Tonopah, Nevada.

High desert in California

Mono Lake

Tioga Pass, Eastern entrance to Yosemite

Top of the pass, over 9943 feet (about 3031 meters)

View of Half Dome from Tioga Pass. Half Dome rises almost 5000 feet (1500 meters) from the valley floor.

Yosemite Valley, with Half Dome in the background

Yosemite Falls - the highest measured falls in North America at 2425 feet (739 meters), and 6th highest in the world.

Yosemite Valley as I left, heading south to Fresno to visit my sister Lisa and brother-in-law Paul, and Uncle Bruce

Fresno:

Lisa and Paul's dog, Zoey. She sets the ball on the counter and waits for someone to throw it to her.

Zoey is a little obsessed with balls

July 23rd: Colorado, Utah and Navada

Western Colorado

To my eye, there is something spectacularly beautiful about this scenery as I move west, away from the lushness surrounding Denver, away from the high mountains and steep gorges of Central Colorado, and into the open spaces and stark mountains of the dessert landscape of Western Colorado. I try to think about what this means - why this landscape touches my heart, and realize that it is in my blood. I am of the desert. It is where I was born. It is my nature, my joy, and a blessing to be connected to it in this way. It is my birth rite.

The road to Moab, Eastern Utah:

The road is one of my favorite places in the world. I drove through here on my first road trip with my sons, Noah and Natan, in the summer of 2005

Moab is also the site of one of my favorite Torah stories from Rabbi ted Falcon:

After leaving Egypt, Moses and the Israelites were wandering in the desert for 40 years. They came upon the land of Moab. Balak, the king of the Moabites, was afraid of this huge tribe of wandering Israelites, so he hired Balaam, a professional curser, to curse the Israelites. Balaam prayed to get a really good curse, but when he saw the Israelites, he could not curse them. He said, “How fair are your tents, o Jacob, your dwellings O Israel.” Balaam was commanded to curse, but he chose to bless. At every moment, in every interaction, one has a choice – to curse or to bless.

I used the story of Moab as a meditation for my students in Vietnam this year, when we were visiting Thien Mu Pagoda in Hue, Central Vietnam, the Pagoda of Thich Quang Duc (the Vietnamese Buddhist monk who lit himself on fire in 1963 to protest the mistreatment of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government):

The Dalai Lama, the exiled King and religious leader of Tibet and considered the reincarnation of the God of Compassion, once said, in response to a question about his 50-year exile from Tibet at the hands of the Chinese, (I paraphrase) "The Chinese government has been a great teacher. It is easy to feel compassion for those that are like you - your family, your people. How much harder has it been for me to feel compassion for the Chinese government."

Anger, jealousy, pain, frustration, hate - they are all feelings inside of us.

No one else is responsible.

Each one of us is responsible for our own thoughts and feelings.

This doesn't mean that bad things don't happen.

Or when they do happen, it doesn't mean that they are an illusion.

They are real.

But there are many realities that exist side by side.

Some people feel that the only true power each of us has is how we respond to the things that happen to us.

Thich Quang Duc chose how he lived is life, and he chose how he ended his life.

The land mine victims which we will meet tomorrow did not choose what happened to them.

But each of them has chosen how they will live their life.

I hear students say to me all the time, "But this is who I am."

And I cringe inside, for at each moment we have a choice.

I am not denying the power of conditioning, or that we each have propensities and limitations.

But we each have a choice.

Each moment is new.

Each one of us must choose how we will live our life.

Central Utah:

Nevada:

After 14 hours on the road, I entered the state of Nevada, the state of my birth. When I entered from Utah, I was in the high desert. After half an hour, I made it to Ely, a town I had heard of but had never been to. I drove around, wondering if I should stop for the day, but decided to drive on. One minute after leaving the town, I saw the lights of a police car behind me. Apparently I was driving 45 MPH in a 35 MPH zone. After looking at my driver's license and registration, and asking me questions about the painting in the back of my car, where I was coming from, and what was my line of work, the police man let me go without giving me a ticket. A mile up the road I passed a sign that read, "Next gas in 184 miles" (about 300 kilometers), so I turned around, went back to Ely, and filled up my gas tank. I drove west, winding my way through the high desert, over a pass of 7000 feet (about 2100 meters), then down into the flat desert. The mountains in the background, the road a straight line as far as I could see in either direction. I stopped for half an hour, admiring the beauty of the place. It was totally silent, except for the sound of a few flies. A small rodent scurried across the road. In the half hour that I sat, only two cars passed, one stopping to see if I was okay. That was it. The few flies. Every so often the feel of a slight breeze. Stillness. It was disarming. "Beautiful" does not do it justice. There is a power in it - indescribable.

July 16th through 22nd: Littleton, Colorado

It has been a wonderful week of family and friends connections: good food and kid stuff - rollerskating and roller coasters, driving back and forth to gym classes, watching jump roping practice, playing foosball and watching movies. It has been a blessing spending time with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew, aunt and cousins, and reconnecting with old friends. It has been a blessing seeing the world through the eyes of children (as best I can) - remindful of my time with my own boys as they were children (as well as giving thanks that they are no longer that age). It is so cliche to think how quickly time passes, and how important it is to appreciate whatever stage your children are in, for before you know it they are on to another stage, and it is also so true.

Nephew Rory

My friends Mark and Lisa's boys, Samuel and Thomas

Samuel, Mark, Lisa and Thomas

On the drive to Boulder to visit my cousin Dana

Cousin Dana's daughter Alexis and my niece, Ricki

Dana, Alexis, Ricki and me

My sister Amy, Aunt Laurie, Ricki and Alexis

The whole family with my mom and dad (except for my brother-in-law Russ, who went fishing with Rory)

Tomorrow I head west, across Colorado, Utah, Nevada and into California. I don't know which route I will take, for I will try, once again, to stay off the freeways. The shortest distance between Littleton, Colorado and Fresno, California is 1200 miles (2000 kilometers) - this is one big country! I am excited to get on the road again and see where I end up.