Not Moaning Monday, as I appreciate a fresh start.
And no Meatless Monday recipe, either. The schools had Teacher In-Service Days so we took our kids and friends to San Francisco for the day – hooray for flexible jobs that allow such freedom! We started at the California Academy of Sciences, walked through Golden Gate Park to lunch at a creperie, drove through Chinatown (no parking meant we didn’t get out), and finally made our way home again. We’re still full from lunch so dinner, when we get around to it, will likely be a light salad.
Marvelous Monday. Understatement of the day: God makes marvelous beauty!
We watched the new planetarium show, Habitat Earth, which emphasized the connections between species and habitats and humanity. I am reminded that the way we live makes a difference for good or ill, and that we are all of us more connected than we realize.
We wandered the rainforest biosphere, which feels and smells like a shade of Costa Rica. I miss cicada-song! The snakes, the geckos, the spiders in terrariums, familiar and foreign, intricate and inspiring.
The butterflies and birds flutter overhead, landing at impossible angles and impossibly willing to be ‘held’ as Guy gently offered his finger as a resting spot.
The biosphere exits into the aquarium, from beauty overhead to beauty underwater.
From the aquarium, one emerges to visit Claude, the albino alligator and Cal Academy’s mascot.
We took a quick walk through Africa Hall to visit the penguins. We pet a leopard pelt (poor leopard!) and examined the difference between leopard and cheetah skulls and pelt markings (cheetahs have simple spots while leopards have florets). My kids are the scientists in this family, but I asked a question the docent couldn’t answer:
Q: What would a full-size leopard weigh?
A: About 140 pounds.
That’s a lot of weight on big paws leaping out of a tree at you. See, I learned a few things!
The deYoung Museum faces Cal Academy and currently has a Keith Haring exhibit, including a fun statue outside. I led the troops through the forest of trimmed trees to the deYoung so I could take pictures. They posed in imitation but you get to see the statue dancing with palms:
Psalm 150
1 Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Today we could add:
Praise God for his land creatures, sea creatures, air and African creatures.
Praise God for His children-creatures, playing, laughing, exploring, learning.
Praise God for connections between all His creatures.
Praise God for His beauty reflected in beautiful creatures.
Let all God’s creatures, with every breath, praise the Lord!
