Memories and experiencing joy

  

Today's quote:

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.  -Salvador Dali, painter (1904-1989) I thought briefly about this quote, then felt a deep ah-ha moment. I have definitely stored up a bunch of brilliantly technicolor memories, and only left a few of the dark ones, in sepia tones, to lurk in my brain. There are certainly times I've done someone wrong - and hopefully I've made whatever restitution I could by now. But there are still those memories!  And then there are the dark times more recently in my own experience...feeling like a very depressed individual, wanting to sleep many more than 8 hours a night/day...having no appetite, fighting a recurring fever than went away in a day. Yep, I know that happened to me off and on for months.  And I know the antidepressant meds didn't really solve the problem. But coming off them (over 2 weeks time) I actually felt better. It's like they had grabbed something inside my brain/emotional center...and took it out. I still wanted to sleep at least 10 hours a night...but didn't on the days I had something in the morning scheduled. Me attending a concert when I was about to be dianosed with pneumonia. And then I got full blown pneumonia...the fever coinciding with lungs on second Xray having some things that hadn't appeared back one the one in December. And 5 days of heavy duty antibiotics gave me clear breathing and no fever. I was back able to function normally in a couple of weeks time. I had an amazing lack of my usual daily coughing as well. I still was aware of not feeling any joy. I wasn't feeling particularly anything. Then suddenly the other day, I said to myself, what if there's just a joy button, or a specially sized opening in my being/brain which lets in the feeling of joy? Maybe I don't have to come up with it from inside myself, which seemed to be the message from other people. Maybe I can just sit here, my normal vegetative state, and wait for it to come hitting that spot in my brain. I like that. And I think I've felt a bit of joy since that concept. I sure can get sillier now. Relax better. And you've noticed all my photos of blossoms this spring. Now I feel the joy of their colors against the bright blue of skies. I find great joy in having fresh air coming in my windows, right off the many leaves of the maples outside. That's a nice hit of oxygen I think!  And being with productive people who are doing amazing things. It's so nice to know them, observe them, and maybe support them as best I am able. From authors to craftspeople...so much creativity! Then my dear orchids finally started dropping their blooms. They have lasted a really long time this year. The cycles of life! And of course I'm getting my cataracts removed, so now I have another joy...seeing the true colors of things! The second eye is healing nicely. Yes, I'm very grateful too, for this newfound sense of joy. I do intend to keep that little spot that welcomes it wide open to new things.

To do every day

So I don't have clear vision, with two nice eyes with wrong prescription glasses from before cataracts were removed...and when I thought I posted this May 7, I found it had a reverted post for April 7. So here it is anyway!  

Simple 5 standing exercises for lungs. YouTube video. 

Shaolin Qi Gong for lungs

This is my buddy. I love his leading these simple movements...and he goes all out! I tend to do my own version, stretch a bit, but not to over-do it.

Today's quote:

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life…and the world.

SARAH BAN BREATHNACH Tom's comment: ...I love the music!

Your next 3 minutes

  A fellow blog site shared this old but true video. He/she titled it The Best Speech about Humanity.

A bit over 3 minutes.

Enjoy.

Today's quote:

The trick, it seems, is to be able to hold both things very close – the gratitude and the misery – and then, with a semblance of faith, to let them fly.

ELIZABETH AQUINO

Moms Demand Action in OH

March 22, 2023 Ohio Advocacy Day at the Statehouse in Columbus OH

My daughter-in-law is active in this group, front row bending forward on left.

 "We're fed up.

And what are our leaders doing about it?

Well, today gun lobby-backed Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing they say was about preventing crime—but instead of meeting at the U.S. Capitol, they turned democracy into a roadshow and held the hearing in New York in a stunt to appease Donald Trump.

Every day more people are killed or wounded by guns. Our kids are being traumatized. Yet gun lobby-backed lawmakers are busy staging political stunts and turning their backs on us. We've had it. Everytown and Moms Demand Action are organizing in communities across the country to demand life-saving action.

We'll never back down from the hard work it will take to end gun violence. But taking on the gun lobby and fighting gun extremism takes a lot of resources. That's why we rely on grassroots donors to keep us going: Donate today to help us take on gun extremism and fight for a future free from gun violence in America >>

Source: Everytown and Mom's Demand Action news posted April 17, 2023 in my in box.

"As a movement of Americans fighting for common-sense gun policies, we depend on contributions from supporters like you to fund important work to reduce gun violence. Contributions to Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund are not tax-deductible as a charitable contribution or as a business expense under IRC Section 162(e). A gift may qualify you for annual membership in the Action Fund. If you are interested in other ways to give, including making a tax-deductible gift to the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, please click to learn more or call 202.630.8673."

Today's quote:

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free. -Clarence Darrow, lawyer and author (1857-1938)

The fears are real, as are the love and support

 NOTE: This whacky blogger posted tomorrow's blog today, so there won't be one tomorrow.

Today's quote:

The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style.

 -Fred Astaire, dancer, actor, singer, musician, and choreographer (1899-1987)

-----------------

And unfortunately we all know how tRump exemplified that truism. 

His style continues to be expressed by Republicans in Congress...doing the crazy things that don't represent the majority of American's wishes, trying to create an autocracy rather than following our current constitution which created a democratic republic - a democracy.

You know how I feel about gun control.

I also am doing what any 80 year old grandmother can do in a small town in North Carolina to see that the climate crisis may be still averted. And if not, sharing grief with those who know how it's going to be happening to all of us.

Has there ever been a time like this? Maybe as Rome fell. Perhaps in other conditions where food was scarce due to drought and fires and floods. In older times, a local crisis didn't impact everyone in a region. But this is a much bigger, earth-wide scale.

So some thugs will still have guns. And their fears will result in the deaths of many innocents. (This is not my wish, just my observation from current events.)

And some rich people will wall themselves up in their estates and live for a little while longer than the masses who can't escape the poverty and starvation and diseases from the climate crisis when it impacts everyone else. In a way I think the richer 1% have already started doing this.

Maybe the rich people will be confronted by the fear-filled gun toting gangs...or maybe the air will be so contaminated that nobody can breathe at all. Maybe there will be corpses of vehicles strewn along unused highways when there're no more fossil fuels. This is similar to the impact of an electromagnetic pulse, written about by a local author, William R. Forstchen in "One Second After."

See, there are those scary scenarios that go through my mind sometimes. Then I bring myself back. Today, I have fresh air and sunshine that offers me health. Exercises, good food, friends with supportive ideas and touches, rest and relaxation as needed, and music, and art, and blossoms of springtime. 

I will continue to do whatever I'm capable of to support a continuation of earth mother as she naturally is, with humans existing in harmony with nature.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled for eye surgery to remove the cataract in my other eye. I'm feeling pretty good about it, having a positive experience for the first one. I may have to stop reading blogs depending on how my new lenses focus. So far the new one is clear to read here, so while the second one heals, I expect the first will suffice. 

Newspaper Rock(s)

 

Different cultures carved their own recordings on Newspaper Rock Monument in Utah. The earliest known carvings were 2000 years ago.

It boggles my mind that early people without a written language, in so many different places, left pictures from their lives on rocks.

Do you think they also had carved them into trees, mud, and other mediums, but these are the only ones that survived so long? I do.

  Here's Judaculla Rock, right in my backyard, so to speak.  It's near Cullowee, NC, a little over an hour from my home in Black Mountain. This petroglyph was carved by unknown peoples about 1500 years ago. I'm standing by it, which wasn't allowed, but I just was showing the size, not touching it.

My friend Helen did touch it. 

The information given says the rock was used to form bowls as these three lumps show the beginning of carving away the basic shapes...about 3000 years ago.  The other marks are unknown but believed to have been carved 1500 years ago. No one has figured out what the symbols mean.

These nice interpretive plaques are arranged around the raised walkway overlooking the rock.  Seeing the Cherokee Syllabary, I remembered reading about Sequoia, who devised an alphabet so that their language could be written. Then I tried to remember visiting a site, New Echota, GA, where many Cherokee were housed before the "trail of tears," the genocidal removal of Native Americans to the west by white men.

Today's quote:

To listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.

MARK NEPO

Biogas digestor in Columbia

 Sharing another blog post from a friend who's living in Barichara, Columbia, South America.

Cathy Holt is an active member of the Earth Regenerators Network. She’s passionate about regenerating landscapes with water retention, agro-forestry, and biogas digestors.

I loved reading her latest post about making a new digestor for biogas, out in the wilds of the jungle, and yet being totally effective with inspired "Rube Golberg" type inventions.

A Biogas Digester for Rosita

I'm so glad that she has lived and taught in Asheville and Black Mountain NC in the past, so I can enjoy her blogs where she speaks as a person who sincerely listens to others and gives her ideas and energies freely.

31 photos of all the participants for the Earth Day Celebration

 Last Saturday we had our big CELEBRATION at Lake Tomahawk, hosted by the Climate Conversation Group of the Unitarian Universalist Church.

I've already posted some of the photos I took while we were setting up. HERE.

The SWAN Action Network display with some of the members, Carlos, Barbara. Hannah, and Robertson.

First some appreciation for background music, from Annelinde Metzner, Bill Altork and Sue Stone.

Linda plays many instruments! She is also the Music Director at the UU Church in Black Mountain.

Bill Altork was our strolling guitarist. He also writes his own songs for YouTube recordings.

Linda playing the recorder. She shared that when the wind was blowing (it started coming off the mountains (very cold) around noon.)

Sue Stone sang tunes and played her guitar. She is the pianist often at the UU Church.

I doubt that Bette is signaling a "stop" to Bill, more likely expressing something about the display.

The conversation starter...This is just a small sample of the 300 figures in the original installation. 

 A Conversation: Climate Disruption, Human Displacement,
 and Reconnection by Suzanne Ziglar

Kate shows Anna how a rain garden works...a display that included take-home information that was popular.

Some of the participants looking at each other's displays. The free seeds and plant starts were popular. 

As the woman in the foreground considers a packett of free seeds, in the background Kerrigan Monk from the Black Mountain News interviews one of the participants.

Susan Moore brought a lot of free seeds, here she's talking with Bette Bates.

Linda Tatsapaugh discusses her display about Plastic-Free Buncombe County with Larry Pearlman.

A petition for (our county) Buncombe County to be plastic free...with lots of information on the dangers of plastic in our own lives (we each probably consume a credit card's worth of micro-plastic-fibres every week.) This display included a place to sign the petition to limit single-use plastics in our county!

R. J. and Helen Bell discuss the plant-based foods display.

This display focused on the industries' pollution in raising animals, and the animal rights hurt by meat based diets, as environmental impacts.

Two artists discuss making small paper books, Suzanne Ziglar on the left, and Jean who demonstrated her techniques on right. I missed seeing if anyone else came over to make a paper book, but it was a great idea.

Some of the SWAN members who put together today's "action" - Barbara and Hannah seated, R.J. and Kevin standing.

Interested couple looking at the Swannanoa Watershed Action Network display

Here Carlos explains the "Save the Planet" game to Kate. It came originally from a double spread page in the New York Times last August. 

I was surprised when I asked Kerrigan if she wanted to play it and she said "Yes."

Barbara, Kerrigan, Hannah and Carlos played the game, a cooperation between players to reach a certain score in so many turns. We were just 5 points short of saving the planet...it only takes about 15 minutes, and is educational. I think school age children would enjoy it, but we didn't have many children come through our Celebration.

Hannah explains something about the watershed, just west of the Continental Divide and flowing along the drainage through the Swannanoa River to the French Broad River in Asheville. Sue Ellen is signing up to get more information from SWAN.

After a rainy night, blue skies were welcome. This was my view from the picnic shelter.

The inside view of the banner.

Bette strolled her grandson outside the shelter, perhaps inviting other young families to come explore our displays.

We all felt the event was a good use of time and energies, and were happy with the outcome for our first try at this. 

When I asked these triplet girls if I could take their pictures (later when they came to the SWAN exhibit) they said "no." So I'm glad we had this one. Photo by Susan Moore.

Dealing with that north wind coming off the heights (we're just 15 miles south of Mt. Mitchell here!) we all cleaned up pretty fast. 

And by 1:10 we had left the tables to the next people (and ducks and geese) who wanted to use them!

Deepest thanks to all the participants who brought their displays to make this event successful. We all went home with a sense of learning from each other, and having shared with the public our hopes in dealing with climate change. 

The Earth Day Celebration

 Yesterday a few individuals came together to share with each other and the public, their ideas of dealing with the climate crisis with personal actions, with hope, and with community efforts.

From 9:30 setting up on a somewhat chilly morning, when the rain was just putzing out to nothing, to a windy gusty 1:10 when we left, it was a great joining together of dedicated people.

Free seeds and a few plants. I brought home some kind of orchid, which was donated without a name.

Some great artistic posters were hung on one side.

The Swannanoa Watershed Action Network had prepared well, and just put together their display. Here are Hanna, R.J. and Carlos. There will be more photos of others on this crew later.

Robert was handy with a hammer

Suzanne Ziglar might be considered the mother of this event. Here she set up a portion of her climate crisis conversation art installation. 

 A Conversation: Climate Disruption, Human Displacement,

 and Reconnection by Suzanne Ziglar

The display of humans interacting with the climate crisis leads to idenfying our emotions, sharing them, and coming up with what ways we can do something in our own lives. This has included discussions of our recycling habits, our use of plastics, and even our personal care products to examine how many chemicals we use. It is also an important way to build a community!

Free seeds were available on the table with the blue table cloth. I didn't get a chance to talk with the Creation Care Alliance person, but was glad that she was there. Working on our grief issues in regards to the climate crisis is important.

Jean was our artist in residence, making art booklets out of scraps. She also made the banner.

Anna and Sue and Robert discussed some good ideas in agreement.  Sue brought free samples of a detergent strip which replaces the huge containers of powder or liquid to wash clothes.

Bette Bates gave Carlos Espinosa a sample of something to taste...I don't know what it was. She gathered lots of products that are either ethically made without the use of plastic, or represent alternatives to plastic.

This is the way the picnic pavilion looked from the lake.

Our banner and one from the creation care alliance.

We were so very grateful that the 5 hours of thunderstorms had passed by 9:30 when we were arriving. And though the temperature was colder, we were visited by many more people than if the rain had continued. We did have wind gusts that took down some of our displays, but everthing came out ok.

And I will continue with more photos tomorrow of some of the activities we did!

Today's quote:

Dorothea Lange said:

“You know, so often [photography] is just sticking around and being there, remaining there, not swooping in and swooping out in a cloud of dust; sitting down on the ground with people, letting the children look at your camera with their dirty, grimy little hands, and putting their fingers on the lens, and you let them, because you know that if you will behave in a generous manner, you’re very apt to receive it, you know? People are very, very trusting; and also, most of us really like to get the full attention of the person who’s photographing you. It’s rare, you don’t get it very often. Who pays attention to you, really, a hundred percent? Your doctor, your dentist, and your photographer.”