Sharing a wonderful short video (if you like stars that is...) Thanks to another blogger who shared this!!
CANDELS Ultra Deep Survey Field
I did love this decorative puffy coat which had so many cool features a la the 80s. But I let it go and gave it to a thrift shop last week. That was hard. Enough that I even took these photos of it! But I have a new sedate "what-a-81-year-old-woman-should-wear puffy coat". Plain. Dark olive. No iridescence. No faux Chinese characters. No gold threaded braid! I'm closer to the earth now. This coat is for someone who's still among the stars.
"Rollright Stones"
This is in celebration of my having taken down my Christmas lights. They are on the way to being stored in the big Christmas tub. But hey, there might be some stars shining here too!
First update from my life: Weather sunny and cool on Monday...I watched my weather forecast as the snowflakes disappeared from it's continued hopes last night. Nada. Maybe a few but the ground was too warm, so nothing but a bit of moisture.
The apartment inspection went well, and my friend texted to cancel our date later in the week because she has a sick granddaughter to care for. Those things happened at the exact same time. I just sat and let the manager look all over the kitchen (where I'd recently dragged a wet rag across the worst offenders in the refrigerator...it could well have still been wet!) I managed to finish my book and vacuum yesterday, and this morning finished doing the dishes. I scooted some laundry baskets away from under the air handler, since we're not suppose to have anything there. So I passed.
And I texted my friend who had no idea what I was talking about "they were here" etc...until I mentioned the inspection. So we celebrated by going to Ole's Guacamole for lunch, and I brought home half my food to add to dinner tonight.
HERE's the information I wanted to share with you!
Veganism
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has said that animal agriculture contributes as much damaging greenhouse gases as the direct emissions from every car, truck, train, and plane on the planet.
How can that be? Well, there are many steps in the process to bring animal products from farm to table, and they all produce greenhouse gases.
Time is running out. Global greenhouse gas emissions must fall by about half by 2030 to meet the internationally agreed target of 1.5C of heating, but emissions are still rising.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has singled out meat-eating for a key piece of blame. Research from 2020 found that methane levels were the highest on record, driven by livestock farming and fossil fuels. Methane is 28 times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat.
Will eating vegan make a difference? Researchers from the University of Oxford reckon it will. In 2019 they said that veganism is the single biggest way to reduce our impact on the planet.
Then they recommend watching the video "Cowspiracy." But it has a charge, so I'm not. I did sign up for "veganuary," (going vegan for January) where I've received some yummy recipes. Today's was:
Several influences on my mood today. Apartment is being inspected by the owners. I haven't felt up to doing much to tidy/clean, and am so low in energy with frequent coughing that it will be the way it is.
Seeing The Albatross movie again yesterday left me with some deep feelings of connection with all life.
Suzanne welcomed everyone and explained what the Climate Conversation group was.
It was also good to see several old friends from the Swannanoa Watershed Network group...as well as some people that nobody knew that just heard about the movie.
Yet a strange thing happened. I remembered some scenes that were no longer part of the movie. How could that be? Maybe I'd seen some background material after my first viewing over a year ago. But I could have sworn these scenes happened. And I didn't leave the room at all yesterday, so they were just gone.
And that is one reality I'm dealing with. The movie was being streamed from an internet source, so someone could have edited it.
I'm returning to the clay studio later this week. So I need to get my tools together. This is a reality I've been hoping for, but am just sitting here thinking, tomorrow. Well, girlfriend, it's Feb. 1 this week!
A Yoga Cat from several years ago...doing the Eagle Pose, given to my yoga teacher, Deb Vingle!
I finished (after slow several pages a night) in one afternoon reading Ruth Ozeki's "A Tale for the Time Being" where some weird time slips happen, with dreams included and quantum physics thrown into the magic.
If these time slips hadn't happened, between Ruth being a reader of a diary and the actual events written about in the diary, the book wouldn't have worked.
So now I'm paying attention to life (thanks to Albatross) and wanting to make Mandalas to reinforce my feelings of connection between everything, and knowing my dreams aren't as vivid now that I'm not having the fevers. And throw into the middle of that the mundane house inspectors, and my hopes to work in clay which are still in the realm of fantasy but need to be brought into reality soon!
I may be cutting back on most of the activities I take part in. But I'm the "projectionist" for a movie screening for the Climate Conversation group today.
I bring my laptop, and stream the movie from Vimeo into the PA setup, and then through their projector onto a large screen. The audio has to go through my headphones jack on the laptop.
We're expecting 10-20 people. Wow!
The movie is "The Albatross" by Chris Jordan. Not the one about coming of age. It's about the birds.
Today's quote:
The sheep will spend its entire life fearing the wolf, only to be eaten by the shepherd... African Proverb
First, I knew it wouldn't be easy to find...up a hill, with many round-about parking lots in tiers one above another. The only instruction I'd received was "don't go to the main entrance, go to the first building on the right."
Which was wrong of course. I was lucky that a woman was coming out of the locked door who said, nope this isn't it.
So I drove round and up and up and up until I passed the main entrance...in a long line of connected buildings. What did it say on that sign? I drove back (on a one-way road) and was finally able to see, "this entrance out of order."
Well I hadn't wanted it in the first place, but as I was about to turn around the right direction, I found a man walking from the parking lot who worked there. He didn't know where occupational therapy was, but thought it must be in the outpatient building. So just go all the way around the hill to the first building on the right.
Ah ha. But even with it being sighted, there was the problem of parking. The entrance had a nice driveway where folks could be dropped off, and there were 4 disabled parking spots, all taken. There was no way I would go further down the hill in that parking lot, as I figured I could just barely make it up a slight slope from the non-parking spot that I took, on the end of the row.
I ended up going inside to where you check-in, and was panting. I was out of breath for a few more minutes. But I was in the right place and actually on time!
There's my car, illegally parked. Did I mention it had been raining most of the time, lightly.
This gives you an idea of the hill.
Then I waited for a while, and realized I was the only one there by myself. Lots of more disabled people were waiting with their care-givers (wives/sisters, etc.) It made me feel a little embarrassed at having been out of breath. But also I felt all alone. If I'd had a care-giver, they could have dropped me off then gone to park way the heck in the boondocks.
As I waited for my 11:00 appointment (10:30 was to fill in forms) each other couple was greeted cheerfully by a therapist that they knew, and started chatting with. I was the only one left, which gave Warren no choice but to determine I was the OT patient he got to work with.
We discussed the cramping situation when I was pressing/working with my fingers. He went through all kinds of gadgets that are designed to help...I had to laugh at the Klingon type knives.
I demonstrated with a regular knife and fork, how the way I worked on that dry chicken breast at a restaurant had made both my hands cramp, and I had to ask someone else to cut it for me. I sawed away on that piece of red putty, as if it were meat. And I realized I do point my index fingers down both the fork and knife to do most of the pushing.
You can skip all of this, because I'm going to record for my own purposes, what I remember learning from him. This was one of the first things. I could actually grasp the fork and knife with my whole fist, and reposition things and have much more strength going into the "tools." That was a nice ah ha moment. I could feel my right shoulder was the source of the movement pushing on the knife...since my wrist wasn't involved, nor my fingers. I mentioned it felt like the Chi was flowing through my arm.
We moved on. I mentioned I wanted to strengthen my fingers so the cramps between my knuckles on each hand, including the thumbs, wouldn't happen. We slowly got to 2 new things I can do. One is to find a rubber band and push out with all my fingers and thumbs. The other is to squeeze my finger tips together with some putty which he gave me to take home. Thumb to index, thumb to middle, thumb to ring finger, thumb to pinkie.
And though I had no arthritis listed as a diagnosis, I indicated that one joint of my little finger has skewed sideways in just the last year. It won't bend back either, and is swollen.
He said he'd offer something which would make me feel blissful. I asked how did he measure that?
He showed me how to use the hot paraffin treatment for arthritis. I had my hands inside mitts for a few minutes after they had both been immersed in 120 degree wax. I was a bit surprised to see how red they were when I peeled off the wax. Goodness gracious...my hands had so much blood flowing to them...but I hadn't had any particular loss of pain, which I understand arthritis patients have. I said I felt a level of bliss about a 7. And that was in comparison to orgasm which of course is a 10.
I said an 81 year old woman can talk about orgasms without embarrassment. He had a beard, but I think he had a bit of a flush however.
Later I admitted I'd worked as an activity director for a senior center. He said that was how I was able to have so much fun.
We agreed I didn't need to come back. I'll continue the ball squeezing to keep my finger strength up. Doing the rubber-band is a great opposite for that. Will try holding knife and forks in different manner, as well as carry a serrated knife with me. Hey women have carried knives for centuries! He showed me different implements of knife/fork/spoons with cushioned enlarged handles which would make it easier to use them. I said I didn't feel ready to purchase them at this point. Our hour together was billed as an evaluation.
Working with clay is my aim, and he supported doing the pinching that I want to start with.
It was a lot easier leaving than arriving. I went home, had some lunch, and fell asleep.
Today's quote:
"Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor."
Have an appointment in Asheville at 10 for occupational therapy to give me some good ideas how to improve hand strength. I'm up early enough to get ready, and though it's pouring rain, I'll figure out how to get dressed for 60 degree rain. While 3 or 4 day's ago it was below freezing all day.
Dream that I awoke with was that I was about to do some kind of performance, wearing some cutesy outfit and having my white hair in ponytails that had black extensions. It looked really weird. I had to get some props and knew my son was in the audience...and he'd sent me some flowers from his garden, but each one I picked up was really lame. Then I saw another bouquet of flowers.
They had been sent in memory of a guy who recently died there (it was a place seniors lived, like an independent living kind of place, but some had nursing care). The guy who'd died had been dancing the week before (soft shoe, ballroom, I don't know which) and had invited this couple to join him. The couple were the ones who sent the bouquet of flowers for him.
(See, my dreams go all over the place. This couple really does attend my church and the senior lunch program, but I've never seen anyone dancing, and I certainly don't do any entertainment in real life!)
Then I found something to use to connect with my son. Maybe I was a magic act. Who knows. Next I was searching for some hair clips to tie up these awful black tresses hanging from my head.
And as I walked by the site manager's office he invited me to stop for a minute. I hoped he had something to help with my hair. He didn't. He said "we're running out of money."
I woke up.
The CPAP turns my mouth into a desert in the morning. I can slowly moisten it with a couple of sips of water. I usually cough a bit too. And then I go make coffee, which wakes the rest of me up.
Good morning to you, as I sip my first cup and read your blogs, the weather report (kind of knew it already) and then finally scroll through Facebook. It's the only social media besides blogs that I read. Newsletters let me know news in email.
Scaling upwards of seven feet, Manson’s sculptures comprise thousands of individual components that the artist and her team of assistants refer to as “smushes,” small bits of clay they flatten in their hands. The pieces are tedious to make, although the process can be meditative when there’s a rhythm that builds, particularly when constructing enormous numbers like the 200,000 required for her upcoming solo show at Josh Lilley in London.
Well, since last Thursday's lunch out, myself and one of my friends have come down with a cold or something. Mine didn't start till Sat. and as usual goes right to my chest, so I've been doing nebulizer often to clear things out...saline solution does draw out mucous for me.
Of course 2 COVID tests, day apart, all negative.
And so I've canceled going to the Senior Center this week, till I feel better. And that's ok, cause I didn't have anything really eventful happening this last full week of January. Our temperatures are rising a bit today.
I sometimes have splitting headaches, and some woke me in the night. Speaking of temperatures, I sometimes have a low grade one (100.1 F). So I took my standard Tylenol. I've certainly had some doozies of nightmares.
One morning I woke up so jealous of a relative, that I could feel my blood pressure sky-rocketing. Whew. Loving someone doesn't give me the right to own that person...as I've always known. But the feeling of having been purposely hurt by them, whew! That was sure a zinger of a feeling! I have been very surprised when people I love can turn mean. It certainly changes my opinion of them.
So along with diminishing expectations on others, while still loving them a lot, I'm checking if I would feel terrible hurt if they had more interest in another. Mostly no. Clear on that in real life. But also, I've sure lived that scenario before. Please never again. You know about Karma and Darma, don't you? Well, maybe I can't keep them straight.
Today's dream included some tiny fairies, who I asked to stick around while I woke up and got out of bed. I don't think that worked.
When the fevers are gone, my dreams will be the usual silly ones.
Today's quote:
When dealing with negative people, we can choose not to respond to their behavior and allow our positive behavior to be an example.
Sam Daley-Harris, an inspiring mentor for AoCC, has published a new book,Reclaiming Our Democracy: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy. Listen to his interview here.
A discriminatory NDAA amendment that would have banned people from specific countries of origin from purchasing land fails in the Senate.
The Biden administration’s Summer Electronic Benefits Program provides summer grocery money to the families of 21M kids who receive free or reduced lunches during the school year.
People seeking refuge can choose to apply for U.S. asylum from offices in Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, thus avoiding the physical dangers of the journey to the U.S.-Mexico border.
ND’s legislative districts will be redrawn after a court finds the current maps violate the Voting Rights Act to the detriment of Native American voters.
WI: A court prevents thousands of ballots from being unfairly rejected.
A court rejects parts of a lawsuit seeking to limit the availability of early in-person voting sites in the city of Racine.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the three major insulin manufacturers cap the price of insulin at $35 as of January 1, 2024.
Moms Demand Action volunteers coordinate nationwide meetings with state lawmakers to discuss implementing common sense gun control measures.
Lily Gladstone (Kainai, Amskapi Piikani, and Nimi’ipuu First Nations) wins the Golden Globe award for best actress, becoming the first Indigenous person to win in the category, and delivers part of her acceptance speech in the Blackfeet language.
In a step towards equality for LGBTQ+ Catholics, the Vatican changes policy to allow clergy to bless same-gender couples.
I keep telling the seniors I know that we represent a large block of voting power!
My idea of People Power is not to run machines by pedaling on bicycles. No, I'm thinking of activists and voting power.
Katharine Heyhoe said this:
My inspiration this month comes from the Knitting Nannas, an Australian activist group fighting to preserve our world for the next generations.
Their tactics are simple: they show up in bright yellow shirts, knitting in hand, and pull up a chair at protest sites that range from politicians' offices, coal seams, rallies, or “anywhere else we please to show a mild-mannered yet stubborn front,” they write. “Our demeanour is mild and concerned, both about the environment, the politicians’ reputation/legacy and the workers’ welfare. Our presence is to be positive, creative and above all, fun.” And they’re getting their knitting done, too – win-win!
If you think these Nannas aren’t tough, think again. After a new Australian law passed that criminalized protesting near train stations and ports, two Knitting Nannas named Helen Kvelde and Dominique Jacobs sued, and ultimately prevailed, with the New South Wales supreme court invalidating part of the law in December. Justice Michael Walton declared parts of the law unconstitutional, writing that it had a “chilling effect on political communication via protests and public assemblies.”
Here’s to the Nannas who are raising their voices to fight for a livable future for generations to come! “Whenever anyone says, ‘There is nothing we can do,’ I think of the Knitting Nannas,” writes Mandy Nolan. “I think of this powerful and politically potent group of older women who hold the frontline of so many impossible protests with a ball of yarn and a cheeky conversation, and not just an ironing board – an iron will! They stand in unity. They know there is work to be done. And they do it.”
And another blogger just reminded me:
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, in fact, continues the work only begun by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and is, itself, still a work in progress. You can read more, if you like, here: https://www.hrc.org/resources/voting-rights-advancement-act
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I'm (Barbara) reading Heather Cox Richardson's book "Democracy Awakening." She's a history professor who writes a daily newsletter connecting current events to the historical political movements. I am on chapter two about Civil Rights!
Today's quote:
Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous. —Rumi
While Sepians are remembering listening to portable radios...I'll share some other old photos that are hanging out in my SS folder!
Roberta Flack was born here in Black Mountain..."The first time ever I saw his Face" and "Singing me Softly with His Song"... much later than the early radio seen above.
The houses in the southern USA used to all have a front porch. Before air conditioning that is. Photograph by Samuel Lee.
With all the cold and snow the US has been having (and Canada, and Scotland, and and) this shot of Fifth Avenue is appropriate, by Alfred Steiglitz, 1905
And going back south in the US, these pine forests provided turpentine, 1903
They probably never had snow to worry about!
Daughter of white tobacco sharecropper at country store in Person County, North Carolina, circa 1939.
Ray Hicks and family in Beech Mountain, NC. Ray Hicks was a storyteller known for his “Jack Tales”.
Come over and share your sepia photos at Sepia Saturday, it's easy!
"UVALDE — The U.S. Justice Department has released its long-awaited report into the worst school shooting in Texas history, calling the delayed response by law enforcement a "failure" with no one taking full command to stop the gunman who was slaughtering 19 students and their two teachers..."
"Law enforcement response and Robb elementary school on May 24 and in the hours and days after was a failure that should not have happened," Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters and Uvalde community members at a news conference explaining the department's findings in the town's civic center. "We hope to honor the victims and survivors by working together to try to prevent anything like this from ever happening here or anywhere..."
"In its exhaustive analysis of the top-to-bottom failures by law enforcement that combined to make the shooting one of the worst in history, the report aims not only to help prevent further shootings, but also to guide, unflinchingly, the next American community to face a similar tragedy on how to best respond..."
"The Uvalde victims' families were first provided a copy of the report ahead of its official release Thursday morning, a DOJ official confirmed to the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network.
“The goal is that this report provides answers to those directly impacted, while also conveying recommendations and lessons learned to the nation," the report states."
Well they just review the evidence and make the report. The families who lost their loved ones probably don't feel any better.
Blaming the lack of speed in trying to secure the gunman, might make a family member say, well train them better, give them better weapons.
But none of the report that I've read, mentions that gun laws in Texas are just still out of the old west. The cowboy mentality supports open carry. I am not in a position to review their laws, but I sure do know the attitude. When children are killed by guns, these people say it's the fault entirely of the man, nothing to do with how he got the gun, what kind it was, whether he was ever evaluated for mental stability, etc.
I continue to hold a place in my heart for all the mass shooting victims...from whenever the hell they started in our sad country. I think a movie theatre in Colorado was the first I heard of.
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Today's quote (on another subject, please!)
The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same. -Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), novelist (1783-1842)
"This is the great bewilderment: that out of a cold austere cosmos arose the roiling wonder of life, from the tiniest archaeans that have “confronted sulfuric boiling black sea bottoms and stayed” to the cathedral of consciousness ringing with music and mathematics and poems about archaeans; that we are here trembling with all this love and all this suffering, all these "vicissitudes of aliveness, and all the while each one of the atoms in our bodies can be traced back to the core of some particular star that died long ago, some insentient cauldron of chemistry and chance."
You can tell this is a scientific viewpoint, but with philosophy and poetry intermingled.
I'll leave it to you, if you're interested to go to her article, through the link above.
This Super Cluster is known as "The Boss" spanning 1 billion light years across, containing at least 800 galaxies.
Swallowtails on the wind.
Today's quote:
Have patience with everything that is unsolved in your heart and try to cherish the questions themselves.
Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not by a ratio of nearly 5 to 1 (72% versus 15%).
58% understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. By contrast, 29% think it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment.
65% say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming, including 29% who are “very worried.”
28% hear about global warming in the media at least once a week.
We also asked Americans what questions they would ask an expert on global warming, if they had the opportunity, repeating a study we first conducted in 2011:
Even when I enlarge that, it's pretty pale. Perhaps you can enlarge it on your screen, or, go to the Yale Cmmunication link in the first paragraph, then you can see this chart better. I give up. The type face was black when I had it open, but it saves in this greyness. Sorry.
"The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.
Love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep on watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.
We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.
You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are! There’s nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can’t wake you up. Only you can wake you up. I can’t cure you, only you can cure you.
You’re all geniuses, and you’re all beautiful. You don’t need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and you’ll get it as soon as you like.
That’s what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshipped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be.
I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.
Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away. Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace… we just need to declare it.
Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don’t expect Carter or Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.
My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end."
~John Lennon
The Playing For Change version of Imagine:
All the new thoughts about making any future plans say you have to have a vision, an idea in mind, toward which to move. What's yours?
And so these words can take us to feeling better, safer, more secure and hopeful.
Do they stay with us very long?
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Here is a quote from Jeff Teidrich, who likes to use the S-word and F-word as if that makes him more appealing to some readers. But when he asked
"What Kind of Shithole Country lets a Corrupt Criminal Run For President?"
I quote just a bit about his views on how we got here...
"our founders assumed that their spiffy new system of government was going to be forever run by “honorable” people. the bewigged-and-powdered landed gentry who wrote the rules didn’t imagine that knaves and scoundrels would be allowed to rise to positions of power.
and so Tommy Paine and Benny Franklin and T-Jeff and all their homeys formed a government that leaned a lot on the honor system, with surprisingly few hard-and-fast laws regulating the conduct of elected officials.
they assumed every president was going to fit the mold of George Washington, choosing to set aside the trappings of royalty and voluntarily doing what’s best for the country.
they certainly never anticipated that an entire political party would fall under the spell of a 91-count criminal mob boss.
oh, you starry-eyed dreamers.
let me introduce you to Donald Trump, and his lawless band of Republican cutthroats."
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and then the next day Tiedrich said:
"this is your modern-day Republican party.
no ideas, no policies, no principles, nothing to make the lives of We the People better.
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