Beauty and Sadness
Nature — a never ending source of wonder and awe. Most of us turn to nature for beauty, calm, and inspiration. But nature also reminds us of harsh realities. We make the most of our daily outing under shelter-in-place rules, taking our autistic son for a long walk without fail. Work deadlines had me thinking to stay home one day, until I remembered hearing that a whale had washed ashore nearby. “We have to go to Baker Beach!” I said, my enthusiasm boosted by the rare opportunity to observe a whale up close. Though family and friends laugh at my morbid curiosity, apparently I am not alone. Others had come to see the whale as well. While the young humpback whale’s death brought sadness, it also brought a sense of wonder. Researchers had taken necropsy samples to understand what caused the whale’s demise. The remaining form was a sculptural addition to the Golden Gate Bridge view. The whale was gone the next day. Nature brings both beauty and sadness, sometimes intertwined. Life is a long lesson in how to embrace both light and dark, while we have the opportunity. This week’s Hike Notes are from the archives, Lobos Creek to Baker Beach. The long list of Hikes can be found on the Quick View Hike List and on the main Hikes page. All past Insights posts can also be viewed in the Insights/Hike Update News archives. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Please feel free to share. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 25): Lobos Creek to Baker Beach
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Spirit Lifters
Not a mystical entity. Not a traditional sacred object. A spirit lifter is any simple thing that brightens the moment. In this destabilizing time of the pandemic, we all need to lift our spirits. Trading chalk sidewalk drawings from a distance with kids next door. Accepting extra household items from a neighbor when all you find is empty store shelves. Adding their shopping list to yours for your next grocery trip. Other people-related “spirit lifters” might be surprising someone sheltering alone with a call, or doing family activities you hadn’t thought possible under normally hectic schedules. But sometimes we’re alone, and just need to lift our own spirits. Though our family walks familiar paths for our daily fresh air and exercise, things are different every time. Cherry blossom petals like confetti on the ground. Wildflowers in every color along trails. A songbird singing from a nearby branch. A beautifully colored duck. Unusual cloud patterns. At home, it could be the color of a sunset shadow, the sound of birds you can’t see, watching a spider build a web from your window. Nature offers an ever-changing array of spirit lifters. Take a deep breath, and keep eyes and ears open to things that offer a mental break from the cacophony of the news. This week’s Hike Notes, Stow Lake Outer Loop, takes readers on a walk along the outer path around San Francisco’s popular Stow Lake, a place our family has walked countless times, but where we always find something new to appreciate. The long list of Hikes can be found on the Quick View Hike List and on the main Hikes page. All past Insights posts can also be viewed in the Insights/Hike Update News archives. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Please feel free to share. New this week: Hike Notes 105: Stow Lake Outer Loop Blurred Reflections
Parents of special needs children sometimes feel like they’re interpreting the world through a wobbly funhouse mirror. Attempting to raise a child with exceptional challenges following guidelines that work for “typically developing” kids leads to frustration and heartache. (And those of us with “typically developing” kids know that no child develops in a uniform pattern.) Like images on a wind-rippled pond, though we can identify sky, clouds and trees, the unpredictable distortion of the reflection due to wind, rain or falling debris makes everything feel tenuous. Helping a child who learns differently navigate the world means walking on unsteady ground. Despite decades of autism research, it feels like the harsh reality of the condition hasn’t changed much in the twenty years since our son was diagnosed. Years of helping our son function in a world his brain isn’t wired for have been like trying to stabilize the rippling pond reflection. Things are always changing, and just when a branch or cloud comes into focus, the image changes again. Despite the struggles, there is beauty in that ever changing reflection. This time of pandemic when information changes minute by minute feels similar. Just when we think a solid scientific reality is coming into focus, an element of unpredictability ripples the reflection. Our path forward is muddled, but we soldier on based on the best data we have at the time. This week’s Hike Notes are from the archives, Bison, Fly Fishing and Horses – Golden Gate Park. The photo for this Insights post is from a shelter-in-place neighborhood walk to Anglers Lodge and Casting Pools near the bison paddock in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The long list of Hikes can be found on the Quick View Hike List and on the main Hikes page. All past Insights posts can also be viewed in the Insights/Hike Update News archives. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Please feel free to share. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 80): Bison, Fly Fishing and Horses – Golden Gate Park Future Dreaming
In dark times like our current frightening pandemic, we can feel trapped in the anxiety of the moment. We forget two calming anchors: the past and the future. There were happier times before, and better times await us ahead. We do need to face the current challenge head on, learning how to protect ourselves from a still mysterious and dangerous disease. The guidelines for handling the crisis change as fast as the numbers of people affected by it. Processing the threat of this new disease is important, but we don’t have to spend every minute of every day escalating into panic mode. Absorb the important information for safety and survival, and then try to spend time on calmer, more uplifting thoughts. Being of help to others—calling friends and family to lift each other up, helping an elderly neighbor get groceries, giving donations for online classes by teachers now out of work—is a way to help ourselves. Lifting our own spirits amidst more quiet time at home is also important. Within the safe space of our homes, we can take a walk down memory lane, looking through old photos or communications from happy times with loved ones. We can also dream of happy, pleasant things we’d like to do in the future, knowing that unavailable activities will be allowed again one day. The new Hike Notes for this difficult time is a location that I associate with both the past and future. Once barely able to leave our own house (see background story on the Home page), our family has enjoyed special trips to the Monterey, Pacific Grove, and Asilomar area with our severely autistic son. Images of magic moments like walking along the water’s edge at sunset not only brings back happy memories, but gives us something to look forward to again. This week’s Hike Notes, Lovers Point Sunset Stroll, offers images of an iconic part of the Pacific Grove/Monterey area at a magical time of day. The long list of Hikes can be found on the Quick View Hike List and on the main Hikes page. All past Insights posts can also be viewed in the Insights/Hike Update News archives. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Please feel free to share. New this week: Hike Notes 104: Lovers Point Sunset Stroll |
Lisa LouisSharing insights and hiking highlights (Hikes, Hike Search by Area) from the special needs caregiver front in San Francisco. Archives
February 2025
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