What will you do with your time?

o7”Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.” f7 Henry David

Thoreau

An armada of pelicans swoops low over sparkling blue water whose

rise and fall along the shoreline offers up the only sound on this

perfect morning. What a day! What a way to spend time! Two dolphins

arch up and with a smooth and graceful movement dip their snouts in a

deeper dive for food. Black-suited surfers idle on their boards in a

lazy wait for some yet more perfect wave. They have all day. It seems

in this moment that we all do.

Thoreau had his stream. I have a vast ocean. This long weekend

getaway to Rosarito Beach in northern Baja California has settled

over me at last as I loll in the warm sun, a gentle breeze playing

over my body. The soft clatter of bamboo wind-chimes that hang above

fragrant ginger lily is the only sound other than the crashing surf

below. Startled by the screech of a gull, I open my eyes and gaze out

across red-tiled roofs and let the shimmering silvery-blue light warm

my mind.

Rosarito has changed much in the 30 years since Las Gaviotas,

where we are staying, was built. It won’t be long before the

shoreline between Tijuana and Ensenada will be solid with homes, just

like our own southern California landscape. What problems will this

growth bring? What will be done about them? What part do we visiting

Americanos have in all this?

Friend Catharine and I talk often of the changes in Laguna over

the many years we have both lived here. Traffic, long a problem,

continues to thwart and annoy. Noise pollution seems to increase

daily. Water pollution continues to have no easy solutions. Still,

where else could we go and still have paradise? Where else could we

go and still have access to so many of the cultural

o7accoutrementsf7 to which we have become accustomed?

If only.... If only there could be enough time, we could use the

city’s transportation system. If only enough time, walking -- beyond

that of our daily exercise -- might be an option for avoiding traffic

snarls. If only there were some way to raise people’s consciousness

of pollution, its effects, and their part in it. If only the

landslide in Bluebird Canyon had not happened. If only its

devastation could be remedied easily and quietly. As I sit on the

deck of our rental condo in Rosarito -- where I have nothing but time

-- I ponder the possibilities.

It is often said that if we are not part of the solution then we

are part of the problem. While I do not believe that activism is for

everyone, I do think that it is important to become aware. There are

many environmental problems in Laguna. For some, the solution will

require an expertise not possessed by all of us. Conscious awareness,

though, on the part of each individual member of the community, can

be a part of the solution. It may take a few minutes of extra thought

time to come up with ideas for what you, personally, might do to

help. It will definitely require conscious intention. We can all

become part of the solution.

So, as I scan the gorgeous, peaceful setting in front of me, I

think of both this fast-growing place and another -- the one where I

live -- and what I can do to retain the things that I so love about

Laguna. What is my part in preserving this earth for the future? My

reverie has caught some rather inedible “fish.” What will I do with

this catch? What will you do?

An Anna’s hummingbird hovers around the rich deep-violet

bougainvillea blossoms that drape the deck’s overhanging trellis.

Waves crash on the rocky shoreline below. Time. Plenty and not

enough.

* Cherril Doty is a creative life coach and artist, exploring the

mysteries of life as they come. You can reach her by e-mail at

[email protected] or by calling (949) 251-3883.

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