Happy Easter and happy Trans Recognition Day

... to those who celebrate. I just love it for jelly beans. The spice kind. Particularly the red ones. Mmm, cinnamon!

 

Here's my little arrangement, which some pagans would call an altar. I just like having reminders of nature in the little Christmas trees, the paper curled up that's full of my physical therapy routines, the four elements vase, (to the right) which has earth, air, fire and water represented on it's faces.

Here is day 3 of the blooms...lily number one is opening up. Just see all that pollen!

Day 4, lily number 2 is opening now also.

Growing up I only remember getting a new outfit for Easter each year, to be worn with hat and gloves to church. Before that, my Christian Science grandmother did hostess a Easter egg hunt in her yard for the 4 young Rogers cousins (though my sister was probably too young to take part.) My oldest cousin got the golden egg and I was really unhappy about it, for a few minutes. I don't know what she got for it actually, but I was learning about competitions at that time.

Easter Outfits, 1947 & 48, as well as maybe a Christmas outfit with coat and hat. Sis was around 2 years old, to my 5-6 years.

I brought up my Unitarian children with Easter egg hunts in the yard (weather permitting) after we'd dyed the eggs over newspapers. I also spent several years blowing out the innards of eggs and painting them with watercolors as little people, and setting them into collars that matched their styles. By the time my grandchildren came along, plastic eggs were stuffed with candy and money and hidden.

Now I celebrate our mother earth and all the beauty she offers us. I also bemoan the climate crisis that humans have inflicted upon her.

Today's quote:

We can learn a lot from watching ants and bees, living in community and working for the greater good

Added at the last minute: 

Another blogger let me know this is also Trans Recognition Day.

May we all live together in peace.

(Facebook threatened to take this post down as going against its standards!)

Trans Flag

President Biden mentioned that he honors this recognition of Trans People today. 

Women authors

 Since March is Women's History Month, I'll share a few women authors. No details, just photos of them.

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I'm sure you knew a lot of these authors. But here's the list, in case you want to check. I've posted these photos in the last year or so of these women, here on this blog.

1. Nelly Bly

2. Eleanor Roosevelt

3. Audre Lorde

4. Zora Neale Hurston

5. Pearl S. Buck

6. Rita Mae Brown

7. Carol Christ

8. Annelinde Metzner

9. Alice Walker

10. Agatha Christie

11. Beatrix Potter

12. Greta Thunberg

13. Maya Angelou

14. Rachel Carson

They may well have had to struggle with their writings, but  I wonder if they would have had that stare into space shown in the prompt photo below.

For Sepia Saturday this week...

Put food on the table, a roof over your head, and...

 "Subsidence remains a threat, but it isn’t by any means our only or even our most urgent one. 

"Increasingly, we face those “serious world-wide environmental changes” scientists warned about more than fifty years ago: sea level rise, floods, erosion, more and stronger hurricanes, more and stronger floods, winter storms that plunge millions into freezing darkness for days, and threaten blackout for months—pollution, fires, droughts, extinctions. 

Lacy M. Johnson, in "What Survives" essay in Emergence Magazine

Blackfeet camp at night 2. Montana. 

Early 1900s. Glass lantern slide by Walter McClintock

Some fun to consider

 

A short film has a preview:

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/03/tennis-oranges-film/

A Runaway Robot Makes a Difference for Two Lonely Rabbits in the New Stop-Motion Short ‘TENNIS, ORANGES’ “Somewhere in the world, there’s a quiet street where nothing ever happens,” begins the tagline for Sean Pecknold’s new short film.  Just a bit of spring levity! Today's quote: What has occurred over the course of the last few centuries is a growing (but by no means universal or certain) recognition that science gets the job done, while religion makes excuses. Sometimes they are very pretty excuses that capture the imagination of the public, but ultimately, when you want to win a war or heal a dying child or get rich from a discovery or explore Antarctica, you turn to science and reason, or you fail.  -PZ Myers, biology professor (b. 9 Mar 1957)

And for your enjoyment!

 Do I love forwarding fun things from newsletters? You bet!

Here is a cool video that's been colorized...from the first films ever by the Lumiere' brothers.

The YouTube channel Lost in Time has taken footage from the legendary Lumière brothers, originally shot in 1896, then upscaled and colorized it, giving us a chance to see a distant world through a modern lens. Nearing the end of the 19th century, the film pioneers (and their employees) visited different parts of the world and captured footage of life in Barcelona, Jerusalem, Venice, Moscow, Istanbul, Kyoto and other locations. For viewers, unaccustomed to seeing moving films, let alone far-flung parts of the world, it must have been a sight to behold. Below, you can see the different places featured in the footage, along with timestamps. To see what the original black & white footage looked like, visit this post in our archive.

SOURCE: Open Culture Newsletter

PS, I subscribed to Lost in Time on YouTube!

 

Then there's Grace.

 Thinking how I have "grace" in my life...

Grace is always present. You imagine it is somewhere high in the sky,

far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart.

Grace is the Self. . . .You are never out of its operation.

-~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

I somehow was never taught about grace in my Christian Sunday School classes. How come? And when I left the straight and narrow and tried exploring many other ways of looking at the world (ie other religions.) nobody seemed to tell me about it.

Then within the wonders of Unitarian Universalism, where many faiths are welcome, and sometimes different ones are given the pulpit on a Sunday...I finally learned that I had "Grace" in my life. It was just there, always, and sometime surprisingly available.

From another blogger, "the beauty we love" I found these quotes on Wednesday. Boy I needed to get in touch with grace the day I read that!

Grace is a manifestation of the cosmic free will in operation. 

It can alter the course of events in a mysterious manner

 through its own unknown laws, which are superior to

 all natural laws, and can modify the latter by interaction.

It is the most powerful force in the universe.

It descends and acts only when it is invoked 

by total self- surrender. 

Rationalists laugh at it, and atheists scorn it, but it exists.

It is a visitation of force unexpected and unpredictable.

 It is a voice spoken out of cosmic silence - 

It is ‘Cosmic Will which can perform 

authentic miracles under its own laws’.

~ D.C. Desai

 from Divine Grace Through Total Self-Surrender

I've edited this quote so that it is palatable to my own pagan beliefs, where all life is part of a universal spirituality. 

I edited out where D.C. Desai used the term "God" which I prefer to avoid, coming from it's patriarchal religious limited background. Remember this is a blog where I share my opinions. You're welcome to comment.

Grace was needed as I struggled with breathing difficulties that day. I tried lying down to rest, only to have more coughs. Earlier I had had to stop the sit-R-cise class when it started the aerobic part. I'm just feeling like things are sort of out of my control. Been there, got the tee-shirt!

And then a dear friend said her debilitating back pain had returned, after having just a week or so without it since the beginning of Feb. She was at church last Sunday for a musical program. This back pain doesn't respond to over the counter meds, but her doctor hasn't offered anything besides muscle relaxants so far.  

Then there's my life here, at this little laptop. Yes you can see I do go elsewhere and do other things...but the other day I had a major accident on the laptop. 

When reaching for my meds to take with a full mug of ginger ale, I poured the whole mugfull across the keyboard!  

Pick up mug! 

Pick up laptop, and let ginger ale pour onto floor! 

Unplug so I don't electrocute myself! 

Look in panic around living room for anything to start to wipe as much ginger ale off the keyboard as possible!

You can imagine my continued swiping with napkins, a lap blanket, anything. When put upright on its side, ginger ale came out the bottom keys.

I left it in that position, and then switched to damp cloth and towel. Then did the exterior, and the screen. And didn't turn it off.

The next day it had drained the battery while asleep so I plugged it back in, turned it on, and slowly it came to life. Much gratitude felt then!  Some grace had gotten me to that point.

I proceeded to copy every file onto a thumb drive before anything else.

Oh did I mention that that the "big ginger ale fiasco" took place a few hours before I drove at night and picked up my friend from the airport at about 11:20 pm. Did I mention I avoid driving at night?  

I finally got a little sleep before the early morning physical therapy apointment...maybe 6 hours.

I was able to nap later that next day, right through the noon hour. And strangely enough, I didn't succumb to coughing problems. Just mental, and perhaps coordination! Those are conditions I've not had to deal with before, being very careful about not falling.

Second example of grace (receiving good things that I don't necessarily deserve, haven't worked for, haven't even asked for...my definition) was the extra keyboard that had been sitting unused just below the laptop on the slide-out drawer, where the mouse pad was.  When I realized all the ginger ale keys would no longer have any bounce, and would require a harder push (well, duh) I tried plugging in the spare keyboard. It was given to me to help with a Mac computer, so I wondered what would happen with the microsoft laptop. First try, "we do not recognize this device." Second try, same. Kept on trying, and finally it's working. (So that part was my diligent effort!

I (like so many bloggers) may suddenly go dark. I don't have any other method to blog. Well, I do have the laptop before the one before this...very very slow. But I can read your blogs. Not sure how photos would go through. But I'm probably going to need to take this laptop in for some kind of cleaning, wouldn't you say?

Gratitude comes with grace. The worst didn't happen that evening with ginger ale. The driving was successful though somewhat harrowing with my trying to be safe by using the high beam headlights, but sometimes going too fast when I needed to slow down. It's hard for me to see roads' lines at night, even without cataracts anymore.

We survived. I'm here another day. Much gratitude!

Rain or shine!

 Some fun in the city...Asheville. On a rainy day no less!

But we'd planned it for that day, rain or shine, and so we went!

Rainy view of Asheville tall buildings and roofs from the parking garage at Pack Library level, looking east-south (why does that sound wrong? south east, I guess.)

Looking more north east from same position. Raining. 

A very gentle well trained (67 pound) Great Pyrenees was welcoming pats.

Our first stop was Malaprops Bookstore, and independent local bookstore. 

I bought a book I've been wanting to read, and my friends may have also.

More of our trip to the city will follow!

Sharing with Eileen's Saturday Critters.

Today's quote:

“The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.” 

Martin Luther King at Selma AL on Mar 25, 1965

World Water Day today

 On March 22, people from all around the world will gather near rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, to sing for the healing of the waters of the Earth and the healing of our inner waters. March 22 has for many years been recognized as “World Water Day” all around the globe.

Sharing with water-h2o-thursday if I can find the link again! Thanks Linda...have a link now!

Some of my water photos I like best.

Flat Creek, Montreat NC

The three pines on the dam of Lake Tomahawk, while lake was dammed in Jan 2024. 

Black Mountain NC

Lake Tomahawk in summertime.

Lake Tomahawk in wintertime, with snowy slopes of the mountains which the Blue Ridge Parkway traverses.

Swannanoa River beside the Watson Community Gardens, Black Mountain NC. Here's my blog (including a video) about that visit The Swannanoa River Again.

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And a disturbing article, if the link still works:

Conservation Groups Sue Utah for Starving the Great Salt Lake of Water

From Treehugger's newsletter Sept 6, 2023  by Melissa Breyer 

All life...

 "We have been carrying on two parallel conversations, one about respecting human diversity, the other about preserving natural diversity. Unless we merge those conversations, both will be futile. Our efforts to honor human differences cannot succeed apart from our effort to honor the buzzing, blooming, bewildering variety of life of earth. All life rises from the same source, and so does all fellow feeling, whether the fellow moves on two legs or four, on scaly bellies or feathered wings. If we care only for human needs, we betray the land; if we care only for the earth and its wild offspring, we betray our own kind. The profusion of creatures and cultures is the most remarkable fact about our planet, and the study and stewardship of that profusion seems to me our fundamental task."

Scott Russell Sanders

About the author:

Scott Russell Sanders was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His father came from a family of cotton farmers in Mississippi, his mother from an immigrant doctor’s family in Chicago. He spent his early childhood in Tennessee and his school years in Ohio. 

 In the past decade he has published A Conservationist Manifesto, his vision of a shift from a culture of consumption to a culture of caretaking; Earth Works, a selection of his best essays from the past thirty years; the novel Divine Animal; Dancing in Dreamtime, a collection of eco-science fiction stories; and Stone Country: Then & Now, a new and enlarged edition of his documentary narrative co-authored with photographer Jeffrey Wolin. His children's books include Aurora Means Dawn, Warm as Wool, Meeting Trees, and The Floating House.

He is currently at work on a collection of short stories, a book about the meaning of wealth, and a collection of essays about the role of imagination in an age of climate disruption. His writing examines the human place in nature, the pursuit of social justice, the relation between culture and geography, and the search for a spiritual path.  

Published as his biography, June 2023

by Anna Marie Silva

Burnett Reservoir, source of water for Asheville, NC. Photo by Swannanoa Museum

Bald Eagle

Boys racing on the beach, Cumberland Island, (1993-5?)

When overwhelmed, the Americans of Conscience might help

 The good things from Americans of Conscience.

This list followed the special issue published 3.15.24...focusing upon "Support with Humanitarian Aid for people Facing Violence." 

They list many different organizations from which to choose to give support in 15 different areas, as well as appreciation notes for three actions by the Biden Harris administration and Doctors Without Borders.

It is only focused upon the Middle East, I might add. So it is leaving out aid for Ukraine, and Sudan, and Haiti, and other areas where civilians are suffering from armed conflict not of their choosing.

A randomized list of Good Things:

• The United Nations delivers enough food for 25,000 people into northern Gaza.
• Jordan, Egypt, France, and the United Arab Emirates airdrop meals and vital supplies into Gaza.
• U.S. aircraft airdrop meals into Gaza in an emergency humanitarian aid operation.
• Negotiations toward a ceasefire continue.
• President Biden issues an order preventing the deportation of people from Palestine currently living in the U.S. due to “humanitarian conditions…deteriorating” in Gaza.
• The Biden-Harris administration outlines actions to be taken across federal departments to address the rise of antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents at schools and on college campuses.
• Dozens of U.S. city councils nationwide call for an Israel-Gaza ceasefire.
• The U.S. will build a temporary port on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, creating a route for humanitarian aid to reach Gazans.
• Forbes publishes a guide for employers on how to support Muslim employees observing Ramadan.
• Doctors Without Borders provides medical care in Gaza in the midst of ongoing violence and among destroyed healthcare infrastructure.
• The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Council of American Jewish Museums hold the summit “Museums Respond: Strategies for Countering Antisemitism and Hate” with the goal of informing museum programming across the country.
• The Committee to Protect Journalists coordinates a global show of support for journalists in Gaza, where at least 94 journalists have been killed since October 7th.
• Five advocacy groups supporting Israelis held hostage by Hamas receive the 2024 Genesis Prize, with the $1M award funding medical and psychological treatment for former hostages and their families.
• In an effort to atone for unfairly harsh punishments based on race, the Army overturns the century-old convictions of 110 Black soldiers charged with mutiny.
• The Energy Dept. releases $3.46B in grants for 58 projects across the country to strengthen electrical grid reliability.  
• HUD helps update the homes of 1,500 low-income families to be energy efficient using funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
• IN: Students can continue to use the school bathrooms that best align with their gender identity as a related case will not be taken up by SCOTUS.
• MI repeals their “right to work” law, a policy that hindered collective bargaining by workers.
• The town of Neodesha, KS is thriving due to the availability of tuition-free college for high school graduates.
• North Dakota State University will offer free tuition for certain ND and MN students during the 2024-2025 school year.
• A coalition of solar companies and conservationists determine a set of principles to move forward with green energy projects while preserving landscapes and benefiting local communities.
• The digital library app Libby features the Queer Liberation Library, a free compilation of literature, information, and resources for the LGBTQ+ community.
• Farmworkers at Di Mare tomato farm win labor protections under a new law they worked hard to get passed.
• Shipping companies worldwide collaborate in favor of climate-friendly high-tech sails.

Thanks Americans of Conscience

Gratitude - for where my food, my sustinance, comes from

 How does our food get from farm to table, or even out of the fields?

Look at one artist's visions that celebrated the food handlers. HERE. Colassal is an art-featuring newsletter which I receive free, though there are subscription versions available.

[Nariso] Martinez’s solo exhibition From These Hands/De Estas Manos at Buffalo AKG Art Museum brings together pieces completed within the past few years, focusing on produce boxes as both collage components and as framing devices for striking portraits. He often portrays his subjects wearing baseball caps and scarves over their faces, which protect them from the elements.

When he was 20 years old, Narsiso Martinez immigrated to the U.S. from Oaxaca, Mexico, with a powerful resolve to learn English and pursue a university education. “I wanted to break the cycle,” he says. “In my family of six siblings, I wanted to be the difference and have a college degree before having my own family.”

At 29, Martinez finished high school, and in 2012, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts. And while he continued his education in pursuit of an MFA, he began to work seasonally in the apple orchards of eastern Washington state. Drawing from the visual language of produce brands and relationships with people he met on the farms, he developed vivid mixed-media works emphasizing the individuals who perform the labor necessary to fill grocery aisles, restaurants, and refrigerators around the country.

Today's quote:

Darker days are just as much a part of life as are the days graced with sunshine.

Just 4 years ago...

I've been thinking about how it was just 4 years ago.

If you're a kid, it probably seems a lifetime ago.

But for me, I feel that yesterday suddenly our world was turned upside down, millions of people were dying, and nobody had a cure. All the restaurants suddenly closed. All the retail outlets closed. Grocery store shelves were bare. Nobody who was in the entertainment industry had a job any more...at least live entertainment. You just didn't go where other people would also be inside with you.

We suddenly wanted to eat outside on patios (when we first went back to restaurants.) Doors all had signs on them, masks were required.

It was the COVID-19 pandemic.

And so far, it's escaped TV shows. But believe me, at some time, there will be a show with the setting (medical perhaps) and the background of the early days of the pandemic.

I just found a memory on Facebook, which they somehow cull through to give me just a few of the ones I posted...but this one was about how to deal with the virus when you caught it.

Good advice from a nurse on Twitter if you should get the virus:

I know we’re all tired of hearing/talking about it, but one thing I HAVEN’T really seen going around is advice for what happens if you DO get coronavirus (many of us will), only advice for how to try to AVOID it.

So as your friendly neighborhood RN, a wee thread:

Things you should *actually* buy ahead of time (Erm, not sure what the obsession with toilet paper is?): Kleenex, Acetaminophen (Tylenol) in 325 mg tablets, Ibuprofen (Advil) in 200 mg tablets, Mucinex, Robitussin or DayQuil/NyQuil, whatever your cough medicine of choice is.

If you don’t have a humidifier, that would also be a good thing to get. (You can also just turn the shower on hot and sit in the bathroom breathing in the steam). Also a good time to make a big batch of your favorite soup to freeze and have on hand.

If you have a history of asthma and you have a prescription inhaler, make sure the one you have isn’t expired and refill it/get a new one if it is.

You basically just want to prepare as though you know you’re going to get a nasty respiratory bug like bronchitis or pneumonia. You just have the foresight to know it’s coming.

For symptom management, use the meds I mentioned. For a fever over 101, alternate Tylenol and Advil so you’re taking a dose of one or the other every 3 hours. Use both cough suppressants and expectorants (most cough meds have both). Drink a ton, hydrate hydrate. Rest lots.

You should not be leaving your house except to go to the doctor, and if you do, wear a mask (regular is fine, you don’t need an N95). You DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE ER unless you are having trouble breathing or your fever is very high and unmanaged with meds.

90% of healthy adult cases thus far have been managed at home with basic rest/hydration/over-the-counter meds. We don’t want to clog the ERs unless you’re actually in distress. The hospital beds will be used for people who actively need oxygen/breathing treatments/IV fluids.

If you have a pre-existing lung condition (COPD, emphysema, lung cancer) or are on immunosuppressants, now is a great time to talk to your PCP or specialist about what they would like you to do if you get sick. They might have plans to get you admitted and bypass the ER entirely.

One major relief to you parents is that kids do VERY well with coronavirus— they usually bounce back in a few days, no one under 18 has died, and almost no kids have required hospitalization (unless they have a lung disease like CF). Just use pediatric dosing of the same meds.

(If you want to share, copy and paste.)

And (knock on wood) I've not yet had the virus. Incidentally, this nurse was wrong, as many kids did get very sick with COVID.

I got to have a heart attack. Not until May 15, 2020. So the protocols were in place for COVID when I went through ER. But since I have a chronic cough with my COPD, it was confusing for them. For hours I was in isolation, because the hospital had run out of COVID testing supplies, and they would have to send the test out to a lab which might take a day for results. Then my Dr. said to get my test done immediately and it was negative. (I had no fevers, and just pain in my neck and shoulders as heart attack signs.) But of course my blood work kept showing something that they know indicates a heart attack. I depend upon labs...because we all know a heart attack in a woman presents differently than a man. No numb left arm, no sweaty clamy face, etc.

Anyway, 4 days later I went home with a stent on my heart and lots of new meds to take, most for the rest of my life.

But I was right there with these front line care teams. I got to see them at work, seriously overworked, since there were so many patients coming into hospitals. Did they have enough beds? I got shuffled around a few times...so they were working on that.

And I remember just 4 years ago, Millions of People Died from COVID in the pandemic.

Millions of first responders worked above and beyond, as well as care teams in medicine.

I won't forget.

And here are some good links from PBS' NOVA giving some not-so-current information about the pandemic.

Covid and Climate Change for breathing- by Drew Lanham, ornothologist and conservationist in 2021

Lingering Symptoms from COVID-19 are “Unprecedented” published 2021

I think I'm going to go looking elsewhere for more recent findings. I'm quite sure the medical professionals have been studying this virus for the whole 4 years it's been around.

Today's quote:

It’s precisely the people who are considered the least “likely” leaders who end up inspiring others the most. Everyday people and everyday acts of courage eventually change everything.

AI-JEN POO