Lesbian Dad

Godot, schmodot

By Lesbian Dad on May 23, 2013 in Mostly a picture, Re: the bairn

Waiting for Mama, Berkeley, CA

Mama went on a phenomenally unusual (for her) week-long meditation retreat last week. Since she gave birth to the first of these kids, she had never taken that much time for just her, and she returned a remade woman.

We all made it through the week intact (a feat made nearly inevitable by my current status as work-at-home, self-employed Baba), but lordy did we miss her, and lordy were we happy for her to return. After a long drive from the Santa Cruz mountains, she texted us to say that she was at the local market picking up provisions. From that point onward, I couldn’t pry the kids off the porch. And when mama finally arrived, I couldn’t pry them off of her.

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From our kids to your families, OK and beyond

By Lesbian Dad on May 21, 2013 in Mostly a picture

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Weekend bonus shot, 05.12.13

By Lesbian Dad on May 13, 2013 in Re: the lil' peanut, Weekend bonus shot

Happy truck washer, Berkeley, CA.

This time I convinced him to get outside the vehicle as I washed it (last time: he stayed inside and listened to a Sondheim musical). He had that huge spray nozzle thingie in his hands for a mere moment, and he instantly understood why Baba has so dadgum much fun washing the vehicles. And he was danged good at it, too.

I tried to convince him that going on a dump run was about as much fun, maybe more. “Huge piles of garbage, taller than that building there!” I said. “Ginormous tractors just pushing the garbage in a huge pile! So much flying dust they have to spray a mist of water down on the pile every so often! Can you think of anything more fun than that?”

As it happens, he could. Spraying the nozzle thingie with soap and water all over the side of the truck. I’m going to keep working on him about the dump run.

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Weekend bonus shot, 04.28.13

By Lesbian Dad on April 28, 2013 in Re: the lil' peanut, Weekend bonus shot

Farmer’s marketeer, Berkeley, CA.

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Face as canvas

By Lesbian Dad on April 26, 2013 in Mostly a picture, Re: the lil' peanut

Body crayon-faced boy on swing, Berkeley, CA.

Courtesy his sister, who knows whereof she colors all over someone’s face, based on personal experimentation. I can’t say what in the Sam Hill they were aiming for here. One version was a dog, I remember that. But it kind of took off from “dog” and headed in more of a “Dali” direction.

Feeling a bit less verbal here, a bit more photographic. For perhaps evident reasons. World’s a bit spinny lately.

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A cookie story in four parts

By Lesbian Dad on April 25, 2013 in Mostly a picture, Re: the lil' peanut

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To Boston

By Lesbian Dad on April 16, 2013 in Mostly a picture

Robert Indiana sculpture, W54th & 6th, NYC.

Whenever I hear the sound of an ambulance, I pause and do a little tonglen. It’s a Buddhist meditation practice, intended to take in pain and send out compassion and relief. Wherever there is an ambulance or fire engine siren, I know someone, somewhere, is in distress. So I try to do what I can to relieve it. Not much, but something.

From the other side of the country, I’m not sure what I can do. But I can say that doing tonglen, as a distance healing of sorts, also heals the healer. A bit. Here is a pithy instruction in how to do it from my main teacher, Pema Chödrön. Mostly it’s breathing in and breathing out, but slowly, and with very focussed intention. If you are in distress, or feeling very heavy hearted about others in distress, it may help.

And may love and a sense support from near and far flow in abundance to all who need it in Boston right now.

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Weekend bonus shot (Monday edition), 04.15.13

By Lesbian Dad on April 15, 2013 in Mostly a picture, Weekend bonus shot

View from below, Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, CA.

I was heading to an event up there, on the balcony of the top floor of Cal’s remodeled Memorial Stadium, overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Having managed not to read the directions explaining how to enter the building, *cough*, I had a little time to spend outside it, watching my chums schmooze.

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