A quiet Christmas day

 

"Jesus Christ was an Educator of humanity. His teachings were altruistic; His bestowal, universal. He taught mankind by the power of the Holy Spirit and not through human agency, for the human power is limited, whereas the divine power is illimitable and infinite." -Abdu'l-Baha

 

It is Christmas day, and I seem to be getting sick. Still, my parents wanted to get out of the house and take a walk, so we bundled up and headed over to Davis to take a walk through the Botanical gardens at the University of California at Davis. It was a slightly overcast day when we set out on our walk. The waterway we walked along was dark and speckled with fallen oak leaves. There was no breeze blowing. It was very still. We walked along reading the placards in front of every plant and the descriptions of what the place we were walking through used to be like. Apparently the land that the university sits on used to belong to Native peoples, and the section of the garden we were in seemed to be devoted to their communities. The descriptions of what the area was like about two hundred years ago were evocative. The air full of smoke from women cooking in a camp, the sound of the water moving along next to their camp, and the complete absence of roads or cement. As we walked along I tried to imagine it. It was hard to imagine, as the strip of vegetation along both sides of the water is now surrounded on both sides by buildings and roads as far as the eye can see. It is amazing to me that only two hundred years ago Native people still lived in this place in relative peace, surrounded by the uninterrupted wide open valley landscape. How much the place has changed in such a short period of time. 

 

After our walk we drove up and down the abandoned streets of Davis looking for somewhere to get a hot drink. We were unsuccessful. Not one place open. So we headed back into Sacramento and repeated the process, only to find that in the entire city of Sacramento only one coffee shop (that we could find) was open. It was packed, but we managed to snag a table, and settled in for a hot drink and a chat. This evening, after dinner, we are planning on checking out War Horse. 

 

Wherever you are, friends, and whatever you are doing this Christmas day, I wish you a joy-filled day, and a warm evening with family and friends!