Some critters to share

 

Mountain goats by Marilyn Spears (look just right of center)

by Mikell Harick, Spicebush Swallowtail

Today marks the summer solstice,  late tonight actually at 10:22 pm, the longest day of the year. The heat will continue as the minutes peel away toward the Autumnal equinox. Enjoy the hours of sunshine while we have it!

Sharing with Saturday's Critters

*******************

By .Rina Khatun

Not asleep but dreaming

 

************

Shared with Sepia Saturday

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

 "The medicine wheel is the basic structure, or the essential metaphor, for all that is. Picture a medicine wheel, a circle divided into four parts. Think of the segments as winter in the north quadrant, spring in the east, summer in the south and autumn in the west. There is a line between winter and spring, showing the equinox where winter ends and spring -begins. Exactly at that line is an opening that allows, and in fact demands, for new ideas to enter. Right at the line between winter and spring, new ideas enter via a slice of light into the medicine wheel. These lines between the seasons represent gates or doorways. Among my people, it is believed there are gatekeepers. These gatekeepers are referred to as grandmothers or grandfathers — or, in Tiwa, as mother- father beings. Their responsibility is to let in the new ideas or to refuse their entry. At this precise point immediately after entry chaa-ched happens. Chaa means the here-and-now. Chaa creates presentness in linear time. In the word chaa-ched, the ched means that which is perceptive. Before ched we do not have cognition because we cannot perceive. Ched is the vibration of perception."

Joseph Rael - SOUND - pg 25

Brought to you by Jane Innmon, Dancer, Chief, Chamber keeper and grateful Student

******************

Sounds like "Be Here Now," by Ram Dass.

***************

Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.

SIMONE WEIL Some interesting symbols **************  I watched Michelle Obama's whole speech, but not Barak's. The day was sunny and hot, and Hillary was wearing a hat and sun glasses on the stage, and one of the Presidents even had a fan in his hand. At one point Biden seemed to have fallen asleep. Poor guy is sick, after all! -------------------- PS: Heather Cox Richardson summarized some of Michelle Obama's speech, and so I'll just paste it here (for my own historical purpose.) For the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, former first lady Michelle Obama and former president Barack Obama welcomed living presidents and first ladies, except the Trumps, who were not invited: President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton, President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush, and President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden. The crowd at the center was packed to hear speeches by the Obamas and longtime friends and aides, and to hear performances by Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony, Common, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Marsai Martin, The Roots, Bruce Springsteen, Tems, U2’s Bono and The Edge, Eddie Vedder, and Stevie Wonder. Tens of thousands of people also packed the nearby Midway Plaisance Park to watch the event on jumbotrons. In both places, the mood was jubilant and warm. Comedians Stephen Colbert and David Letterman and Obama Foundation board chair Martin Nesbitt all showed up in tan suits, a reference to the tan suit Obama wore in the Oval Office in August 2014. Although past presidents including Ronald Reagan had also worn tan suits in the White House, as Jacob Gallagher of the New York Times noted today, Obama’s suit led to a right-wing meltdown about how the suit was too informal for the West Wing: then-Representative Peter King (R-NY) called it “a metaphor for his lack of seriousness.” The story of the South Side of Chicago, from which the Obamas hail, is “a story of possibility,” a video introducing the center said. “[W]e can come together and create the change we seek. ‘We.’ It’s the single most powerful word in a democracy: ‘We the people.’ We shall overcome. All things are possible. Yes we can. ‘We’ includes everyone.” The emphasis of the event was on new leaders shaping the future. “The future is now, and it starts with us.” Mrs. Obama urged Americans to make a choice to change the future. “The Obama presidential center is a living testament to the power of choice,” she said, “the historic example that millions of you gave the world about what this imperfect democracy has strived for and achieved.” And, she said, it is “an urgent call to go out there and do it again.” She said she hoped the center would remind people “of the power of choice. And the steady work of change. The arduous, unglamorous march up that mountain, one foot after another, day after day, generation after generation. But I…also hope you fully absorb the elation of achieving something together. You know, that feeling when you clear the tree line and see a vista that takes your breath away. A feeling that can never be erased.” “I know that can be hard to grasp right now,” she said, “when everything feels so upside down. When fact and fiction run together, when folks seek to stifle speech, limit access to education, devalue diversity, erase the inconvenient parts of our history. When our phones constantly buzz with the latest outrage.” She hoped the center “can reignite the optimism and empathy and ambition that has always powered this country’s greatest change.” “[W]e want you to come here and put away your phones and talk and laugh and cry…and make new friends,” she said. “Get your hands dirty in my garden. Push your baby on a swing in the playground. Have a romantic picnic on the great lawn. Because that’s the work of democracy too. Being neighborly. Taking care of public spaces. Having some fun enjoying each other. Shaking out of the isolation and division that have crept too deeply into our lives.” She championed the power of the people as she urged the center’s South Side neighbors “to make this campus a part of your lives. Be inspired by the world-class art. Check out the books from our beautiful public library—and bring them back on time. Drop some beats in the recording studio, hit some corner threes at home court, hold birthday parties, jump-start clothing drives. Host citywide cleanup dates here. Use this campus to show off this place we call home. This joyful place where Marian and Fraser Robinson taught their two kids to dream big. This hopeful place where an unknown guy with an unknown name took flight. This stubbornly optimistic place where family after family scrapes and claws and laughs and dances their way to a better tomorrow. That’s what this has always been about.” She told Chicagoans they “have shown the world what we are capable of. You’ve proven that a lasting legacy isn’t an award or a name on a building or a number of zeros in a bank account, but the difference we make in one another’s lives. It’s about seeing each other, and showing up for each other, and carrying each other when we’re weary or faltering or losing faith. That’s how you build something that endures. “And that’s what you all have done at every twist and turn of this extraordinary journey,” she said. “You have protected and proclaimed the hope that beats within the heart of this campus. You’ve rekindled and renewed this untameable, unpredictable, and unbreakable democracy. And I know that you all are gonna astonish us even more in the months and years ahead. Because you all have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that when we truly see each other, when we strive to bring out the best in ourselves and one another, oh, there is no limit to how high we can go. Thank you all. I love you all. God bless you, and God bless this country we love.” ----------------------------------- Today is a national holiday - Juneteenth  Link is to my Open Yesterday's Pages blog.

Relief and working

 It's like the drain which has been stuck has finally been released.

The manager emailed that I can move in on the date we wanted to (last week of July) and she said that I can sign the lease on that day and pay the rent starting that day! So Durango it is!

Whoo hoo!

I notified all my family and friends (and now you!) that I'm moving to Durango!

I'm so relieved that they figured things out so well! (Finally!)

And now I've got a zillion boxes half full, trying to figure out how books and silverware and dishes and clothes and pottery will all go together to be stacked in a little U-Haul truck in a bit over a month.

And having a real address to forward mail and so forth, I can actually give my notice here at the present apartment...a bit more than 30 days. But I know someone will move into this place quickly. The present management also won't charge me for the remaining month on my lease, because of the demand. I waited a year to get this apartment, and just the same for the one in Durango. Having some housing for low-income seniors is a premium need everywhere.

Hey real-estate people who've been building MacMansions teetering on the highest slopes of the mountains...there are a zillion people turning 70 and 80 who need a place to live. We survived lots and saved and paid our social security, and now there's not much money left to match the life left (with or without medical needs!)

And I'm working again...moving throughout the apartment with different tasks about half completed. There's a packed tupperware tub on the bed, ready to be put on the floor in the dining area. But first I need to vacuum that carpet. I just moved the table out to the middle of the floor so I can start stacking boxes and tubs over at the wall in the dining area. And the passthrough needs to be cleared off, with all that stuff to pack, then clean the passthrough well. It's not been touched for quite a while. So it should be the first thing to do.

But I've also only packed some books that remain...there are pottery books to give to the studio where I used to work. And some for the library, and perhaps some for a "little library." So it's time to get going back to work!

So what has gone down the drain (which was plugged up?) My anxiety while waiting for this manager and all her "rules." There's about a handful of anxiety still left, since I haven't signed a lease yet...and we do have over 1700 miles to drive pulling the car behind the truck and stay overnight in motels. Tai will fly here and has a couple of friends who will help load the truck. 

Also I feel the relief across my shoulders and neck...things are going to work out. Right now the google mail app keeps telling me its "update failed." So I will copy and paste this again if need be...hope that works!

Signing off for today. Will post some words and images probably from the internet every day if I don't do my usual coffee and blog reading! Who am I kidding. Coffee and blogs get my blood going in the morning!

Sharing with Thankful Thursday

Day trip on high

 

Friend's granddaughter and a little waterfall by the Blue Ridge Parkway

Teresa captures a shot of the little waterfall

Used as my header, Tanbark Ridge Tunnel is just to the right of this cascade

Not a great selfie at all!

Looking out the window of the little store at Craggy Overlook...toward the northwest. Unfortunately the bushy foliage obscures this view from the walkway. You can sometimes see I-26 going toward Tennessee. The Craggy Gardens picnic area is still not open.

The Parkway Map with road closures still due to Hurricane Helene in Sept. 2024.

If you enlarge you might see 2 towers in the distance to the left, on Mt. Gibbes next to Mt. Mitchell, which I don't think is visible here.

Our lunch overlook, higher than  Graybeard Mountain. The Graybeard trail starts near home, in Montreat, and the mountain is easily seen from Black Mountain and Lake Tomahawk.

Next week I hope to go up to Mt. Mitchell for a picnic. Highest mountain east of the Mississippi, as I've mentioned before. It's about the same altitude as the place in Colorado I hope to move to.

A neat split rail fence with Graybeard Mountain beyond...not sure which peak however.

The yellow area to right on I-40 (east of Asheville) is Black Mountain. (I think this map calls it 73! which it never was, but was 70 before interstates!) Anyway, if you see the words National and Forest you can find Mt. Mitchell State Park halfway between them. I'm enlarging this from a topo map that was for sale at the information store at Craggy Gardens.

This gives a better idea of where the Parkway has overlooks. Many times I'll just go to Tanbark Ridge Overlook. That's I-40 going left to right along the bottom of this view.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

JIMI HENDRIX