To Refresh the Soul, Became An Islander for a Week

Escaping from smart gadgets, social media and the incessant outrages of a poisonous presidency, became an islander for a week this summer. Victoria, capital of British Columbia in Canada, is a nature-lover’s paradise. A day after arriving, headed for Butchart Gardens. Among the floral wonders of the world, surely this one must rank among the top five. Driving past picturesque farms and placid lakes, I finally enter the garden of my imagination. 

On the way to Butchart Gardens

It was everything I thought it would be, only more. The rose garden alone has over 2,500 plants, comprising 250 varieties. Their names and the year they were planted add to the romance of the roses: Winter Sun (Germany, 2001), Gold Struck (France, 2012), Always & Forever (USA, 2011), Sunshine Daydream (France, 2006), Opening Night (USA, 1998), Candella (New Zealand, 1996), All My Loving (England, 2011), Bride (England, 1995), Lasting Love (France, 1993), and many more. And the waterfall in the sunken garden? Must savor it to believe it!

About 10 miles away is the Butterfly Garden where I counted about 30 species of iridescent beauties fluttering around me and teasing me as I tried to get the perfect shot in my camera. They fly tantalizingly close but at the last moment veer away. Two hours passed in two minutes. It’s true: When you are spellbound by transcendent wonders, time sprints.

Next day, it’s the Abkhazi Garden in a leafy residential section of Victoria. It’s the garden that love built, result of an unlikely romance between a Russian prince, Nicholas Abkhazi, and Peggy Pemberton-Carter, adopted daughter of a wealthy British couple living in Shanghai. They crossed path in Paris and became friends. World War II intervened and the pair lost track of one another. Decades later, they met in New York after the War. In Peggy’s words: “We met again, we married, we lived happily ever after (40+ years!), and we created a garden.” If you visit, don’t miss the classy Afternoon Tea in the Teahouse, after a leisurely stroll past the rhododendrons, water lilies and the baby-blue hydrangeas.

Took a ferry – more like a cruise ship – to Vancouver one day and to Salt Spring Island, one of the many Gulf Islands around Victoria, the following day. Vancouver is just like San Francisco, another big city with congested traffic and harried tourists. But Salt Spring Island, well, that’s another story. This quaint island, home to about 12,000 hardy but contented souls, is full of charming boutique shops and eclectic restaurants serving food that only islanders can: Out of this world. There was also humor in front of a restaurant at Fulford Harbor, giving a spin to Einstein's famous formula.

One mystery that baffled me: The river Ganges flows through India and assumes the name Padma when it flows through Bangladesh. So what exactly is "Ganges Alley" doing in Salt Spring Island, 7000 miles and several oceans away from Ganges-Padma? Oh well!

Why travel to bask in the wonders of nature? Found the answer in downtown Victoria, in the splendid Beacon Hill Park.

"Families Belong Together" Rally in San Jose, California

On a sweltering sunny summer afternoon on this last day of June 2018, when we could have been at the shore relaxing and watching the waves of the Pacific roll in, about 1,000 of us gathered in the plaza in front of City Hall in downtown San Jose to protest Trump Administration's inhuman practice of separating children from their parents at the border and caging them like animals. We were joining millions of our fellow-Americans in 750 cities across the nation in telling the Trump administration in loud and clear voices that "Families Belong Together."

"Whose Children?" asked the man with mike. "Our children," we responded. 

"A People United Can Never be Divided," we thundered. Cars honked, and drivers raised their fists in support.

"This is what Democracy Looks Like!" declared one of the organizers from the podium. "Yes," we echoed, "This is what Democracy Looks Like."

Nothing will change, said one of the speakers, unless we vote. "Will you vote," she asked? "Yes, yes, we will vote," we said in unison. 

"Zero-tolerance for Trump's 'Zero-Tolerance' policy," we asserted. Children brought cages to dramatize the cruel policy of ICE snatching babies away from their nursing mother's arms. "Amber Alert: ICE kidnapping children," shouted an activist from the stage.

The posters captured our spirit and passion as powerfully as the speeches by ordinary folks, activists, immigrants and politicians opposed to Trump's policies.

Here are some photographs I took of this passionate event in downtown San Jose today, June 30, 2018, that I hope will give you an idea of how we Americans around the nation are seeking to save the soul of our nation being relentlessly destroyed by Trump and his sycophants.