August, the vacation month. Summer evening dinner on the gorgeous deck my brother Roy built at their home in the Oakland hills (all rebuilt after a firestorm destroyed all the homes in the area a few years ago).

August has become the "end" of summer and the beginning of the school year, as more hours are now required for a full school year.
I am so glad to be retired so that my summer extends to September and I can pack in more wonderful activities. "August" means venerable, worthy of respect, illustrious. In case you are interested, you can read the following. And learn why the eighth month would be called such (Octavius) Augustus Caesar (27 BCE – 14 CE) was the name of the first and, by most accounts, greatest Roman emperor. Augustus was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus on 23 September 63 BCE. Octavianwas adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, and then took the name Gaius Julius Caesar. In 27 BCE the Senate awarded him the honorific Augustus ("the illustrious one"), and he was then known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus.

Owing to the many names the man went by in his life, it is common to call him Octavius when referring to events between 63 and 44 BCE, Octavian when referring to events between 44 and 27 BCE, and Augustus regarding events from 27 BCE to his death in 14 CE. It should be noted, however, that Octavian himself, between the years 44 and 27 BCE, never went by that name, choosing instead to align himself closely with his great uncle by carrying the same name; a decision which prompted Mark Antony’s famous accusation, as recorded by Cicero,“You, boy, owe everything to your name”.

I am surrounded by people with lives and stories I admire and which inspire me. Here are a few from the past week.

My Aunt Julie Marx celebrated 90 years ...she doesn't look a day over 70! Her 4 children, their spouses and kids and some of us nieces and nephews (some not pictured) joined the fun at a rental house in Bodega Bay about 1 1/2 hours north of San Francisco.

Below, the Marx family 

All of us there that day


We all love the California hills (which hopefully will not catch fire this summer/ fall), and especially the beach. As children we spent a week every summer at a beach cabin in Soquel (closer to home). Apparently I insisted, as a teenager, on hiding behind the gate, embarrassed by my silly younger siblings who have not changed much....

Our maternal grandmother funded the cabin which we still rent today. Sunday, the 40th anniversary of her death, we remembered with great fondness and respect, the tremendous legacy she left us. She passed on her love of education, music, art, travel, nature, people, as well as her kindness, open-mindedness, patience, humility, appreciation for life, her optimism and cheerfulness. She lived near-by and celebrated life events with us, and spent quality one-on-one time with each of her grandchildren. In those 40 years since her passing, this redwood tree I planted then has grown from a 3" tall sapling to this magnificent 60+ foot tree in my back yard. Unfortunately the roots are shallow and it endangers the foundation of my house and the neighbors'. Can I bear to cut it down?

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In the temple today, everyone in the sealing room was greatly moved by the story related by a young woman who came to seal (unite for eternity) her mother to her parents, her father and his brother to their parents. We stopped everything we were doing and just listened. She said her mother had joined a wonderful church, though she herself had little interest and didn't remember the name. After her mom's death she came to her in a dream, but she still didn't catch the name. One day she was in a doctor's office and felt a beautiful spirit there. The 6 doctors were all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (was that the name?) About the same time she visited an uncle in Georgia, was going through old photos and came across one (which she showed us) of her mother's baptism with a picture of the Oakland Temple on the wall of the baptistry. She put two and two together and started studying. She is so grateful for the legacy her mother left, and would like to find the elders who baptized her mom in Turlock, CA, to let them know she is now an endowed member and that the other ordinances have been done today for her mom and dad. I was so touched that I was hardly paying attention to all the details, so this is an approximation of the miracles that make up her story. Another "august" woman.

Our young friend Sterling Hancock is following his dream and was selected to be one of 14 members of the national men's soccer team!

another: my friend from the Oakland Temple, Lorna Rayos, who served as a temple missionary in Ecuador while I served in Chile, but who went above and beyond in so many ways (never missed the opportunity  to give missionary messages to every taxi driver and casual acquaintance).

Three books to recommend that I have read in the past 1-2 weeks, about "august" and courageous young individuals, make my childhood and youth look like a "piece of cake":

Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan (Barbados slave boy's evolution)

Enrique's Journey, by Sonia Nazario (Honduran immigrant boy who travels through hostile worlds searching for his mother who left for the U.S.)11 years earlier.

Please Enjoy your Happiness, a Memoir by Paul Brinkley-Rogers

(a wonderful chaste love story between a young sailor and older yakuza (Japanese mafia) woman in 1959, in the wake of WWII. The book is a tribute in part to the women of Japan, who, as their men died, lost their homes, families. Between 1947 and 1959 31,080 became war brides of American servicemen. It is poignant to me, because he is remembering it all as a 75 year old! 

There is so much that is quotable in this beautiful story, such as: 

"The measure of love is when you love without measure."

"It is better to lose your pride to the one you love than to lose the one you love because of pride."

"We need to perfect the love we give rather than looking for the right person to love or finding fault with those we already love."

"You can't make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved."

5 simple rules to live by: free your heart from hate; free your mind from worries; live simply; give more; expect less. (and enjoy your happiness!).

I'm grateful that my world is filled with venerable individuals. You, my friends and family, are some of them!