The best laid plans...

 You've all probably "been here, done that!" I call it being de-committed. There's probably a verb for that, but I couldn't think of it.

Dr. appointment was scheduled by my Care Coordinator for my regular Dr. The system is that I talk by phone with CC. When something comes up that may need a personal visit, I get an appointment. Well, Mon. morning at 8:10 was all that was available.

However, things didn't come together as planned.

I got up, stood in my bedroom looking at clothes laid out, sipping hot coffee, trying to decide why I wasn't moving. My feet were firmly planted in place as I could look out the window, turn to put the coffee on top of the dresser, and just stand there. It was an odd moment.

Then the phone buzzed, and it was the Dr. office. I answered to find out the Dr. couldn't make my appointment at 8:10. Could I change to Wed. at same time? I said sure. I changed my phone calendar appropriately after hanging up.

Continued with a sigh of relief, having a free morning once again.

But...and always there are things still hanging on one to consider, aren't there! I had volunteered for a job much bigger than I thought myself capable of performing. 

Ah ha. I did have a bit of wisdom with this age. I looked around me, and saw how much I am behind in doing things I really want to have done. So I wrote an email, after thinking about it another half hour, trying to decide if anyone else would have good advice on my decision. No. I was it. I was in charge of Barbara. The email I sent said I couldn't volunteer to do that task, and I hoped I could find something that fit better for my abilities at 81. I know that doesn't mean I'm incapacitated...but it's a slippery slope here, and I keep having more medical problems, and sporadic good health in between. Are there more days fighting physical problems than being able to do what I wanted to do? Sometimes I wonder...but as of today, at this minute, it's kind of equally balanced.

I then took another big step and backed out of the wonderful environmental group where I have little to contribute, but my laptop to run zoom on. Nope. I need to just not do this. A commitment was again de-committed!

Three big changes all on Monday before breakfast.

So I sat watching the sun bathing the ridge and the branches outside my window...and the strange bird fluffing itself up then just sitting (napping?) for several minutes outside the window. Sorry, this is all a phone camera could do, and I think it was a robin. 15 minutes later it was still there. Why I wondered? By the time I got the laptop open to write the emails, it had gone.

Lunch today is still planned at the Lakeview Senior Center, and then studio time working on clay. I have several images in my imagination to build as dinosaurs, er dragons!.

But I have noticed another new thing about this elder. I'm having trouble typing regular words...the spelling just isn't coming out right unless I change it several times. Oh no. Am I having TIA's? That's kind of what I expect will next happen to me.

OK, not to be a debby downer...because after all, I have gratitude for a wonderful day (getting into high 60s) and a good lunch prepared by others, clay studio, driving a safe car, listening to the Grateful Dead (thanks Tom the Backroads Traveler).  Here's a wonderful track if you like them...( 2:35 long!)

December 31, 1989 - Oakland Coliseum - Oakland, CA

Today's quote:

I find it difficult to feel responsible for the suffering of others. That's why I find war so hard to bear. It's the same with animals: I feel the less harm I do, the lighter my heart. I love a light heart. And when I know I'm causing suffering, I feel the heaviness of it. It's a physical pain. So it's self-interest that I don't want to cause harm. -Alice Walker, author (b. 9 Feb 1944)

What will work in our future

 Sustainable is the minimal standard we should have.

Watch Lalita Booth talk, a straight-forward clear thinking way to look at changing our future for the better. I admit that she covers a lot of subjects, and moves quickly through her talk.

"Lalita Booth, MPP, MBA speaks at the Four Futures for Mountain Farmland Symposium on the inclusive wealth formula as a tool for thinking through land use in the North Carolina mountains."

(Talk description from YouTube)

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And I was super surprised to meet her at the SWAN water meeting last Friday. (SWAN, Swannanoa Watershed Action Network). Her input into the discussion was as amazing as this talk, and she took notes and offered to design a chart to cover some of the new ideas that were proposed for investments from carbon credits into sustainable land, farms, watershed drainage, and whatever other investments we could think of.

I hope to see her again. I feel like a kindergartener next to her incredible ways of thinking. Plus she farms nearby using all of these techniques. Plus her father, Ian Booth, was there, who gave me a link to climate.org where a climate change networker can find lots of information. How about a list of worldwide conferences on climate change? I signed up for the newsletter, so you might be getting some of their info here.

Today's quote:

“Activism is my rent for living on the planet.”
― Alice Walker

The Dunning Kruger Effect

 You have probably heard of this, where someone is so stupid, they think they're very smart. 

For more information on the actual testing which gave the effects scientifically.

If you want to skip this, I'd just mention that most of us think we're above average drivers. That's a bit impossible, since say 75% think they are above average...which is scientifically impossible, since 50% is average! Here joke tellers are measured.

Today's quote:

"Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence." Alice Walker, author.

Alice Walker, Women's History Month - 3

 THE TALENTED & BEAUTIFUL, MS. ALICE WALKER!

Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker is a novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist.

In 1982, she became the 1st African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awarded for her novel The Color Purple.

Calling All Grandmothers - a poem by Alice Walker

We have to live

differently.

or we

will die

in the same

old ways.

Therefore

I call on all Grand Mothers

everywhere

on the planet

to rise

and take your place

in the leadership

of the world.

Come out

of the kitchen

out of the

fields

out of the beauty parlors

out of the television

Step forward

and assume

the role

for which

you were

created:

to lead humanity

to health, happiness

and sanity.

I call on

all the

Grand Mothers

of Earth

and every person

who possesses

the Grand Mother

Spirit

of respect for

life

and

protection of

the young

to rise

and lead.

The life of

our species

depends

on it.

& I call on all men

of Earth

to gracefully

and

gratefully

stand aside

& let them

(let us)

do so.

Over the span of her career, Ms. Walker has published 17 novels and short story collections, 12 non-fiction works, and collections of essays and poetry. She has faced criticism for alleged antisemitism and for her endorsement of the conspiracist David Icke.

Her spirituality has influenced some of her most well-known novels, including The Color Purple. She has written of her interest in Transcendental Meditation.

Acclaimed author Alice Walker who is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Color Purple,” as well as the critically-acclaimed film of the same title. The youngest daughter of sharecroppers in Georgia, Walker benefited from her parents’ determination to ensure a good education for their children. Walker graduated as valedictorian of her class and attended Spelman College in Atlanta before transferring to Sarah Lawrence College to graduate in 1965.

 Born in Eatonton, Georgia (1944). She was the youngest of eight children, the daughter of poor sharecroppers. Walker graduated first in her high school class and won a scholarship to Spelman College (1961). She transferred to Sarah Lawrence after two years, and a short story she wrote there was sent to Langston Hughes, who became an early champion of her writing. 

SOURCE: Writer's Almanac

Her third novel was "The Color Purple."

Walker became involved in the Civil Rights Movement as a young woman thanks to the interactions she had had with both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Howard Zinn while at Spelman College. She was part of the 1963 March on Washington and worked to register black voters in the South. In the 1970s, she joined the editorial staff of Ms. Magazine, where she recommitted herself to writing. Her 1975 Ms. Magazine article "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston," also revived interest in Zora Neale Hurston’s works which had fallen into obscurity for several decades.

Alice Walker's list of publications is long, but the majority of her writing focuses on the both modern and historical issues related to race and culture, in particular the struggles of African-American women. Considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, Walker became the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1983.

All of the above are quotes from vvarious public media. A friend of mine said "she's my mentor" and I agree. What a wonderful grounded person she is!

Calling all Grand Mothers and then some!

Calling All Grand Mothers

We have to live differently

or we will die in the same old ways.

Therefore I call on all Grand Mothers,

everywhere on the planet,

to rise and take your place

in the leadership of the world.

Come out of the kitchen

out of the fields

out of the beauty parlors

out of the television.

Step forward and assume

the role for which you were created:

To lead humanity to health, happiness and sanity.

I call on all the Grand Mothers of Earth

and every person who possesses

the Grand Mother spirit of respect for life

and protection of the young

to rise and lead.

The life of our species depends on it.

And I call on all men of Earth

to gracefully and gratefully stand aside

and let them (let us) do so.

Big thanks to...

~ Alice Walker, from “Hard Times Require Furious Dancing”

www.alicewalkersgarden.com

Art by Jenny Badger Sultan

www.jennybadgersultan.com

Alice Walker

________________________________________________

Republican Senators Who Receive Funding From the NRA

• Mitt Romney (Utah) $13,647,676
• Richard Burr (North Carolina) $6,987,380
• Roy Blunt (Missouri) $4,555,722
• Thom Tillis (North Carolina) $4,421,333
• Marco Rubio (Florida) $3,303,355
• Joni Ernst (Iowa) $3,124,773
• Rob Portman (Ohio) $3,063,327
• Todd C. Young (Indiana) $2,897,582
• Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) $2,867,074
• Tom Cotton (Arkansas) $1,968,714
• Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania) $1,475,448
• Josh Hawley (Missouri) $1,391,548
• Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) $1,306,130
• Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) $1,269,486
• Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) $1,267,139
• Mike Braun (Indiana) $1,249,967
• John Thune (South Dakota) $638,942
• Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) $341,738
• Richard Shelby (Alabama) $258,514
• Chuck Grassley (Iowa) $226,007
• John Neely Kennedy (Louisiana) $215,788
• Ted Cruz (Texas) $176,274
• Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) $146,262
• Steve Daines (Montana) $123,711
• Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi) $109,547
• Roger Wicker (Mississippi) $106,680
• Rand Paul (Kentucky) $104,456
• Mike Rounds (South Dakota) $95,049
• John Boozman (Arkansas) $82,352
• John Cornyn (Texas) $78,945
• Ben Sasse (Nebraska) $68,623
• Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma) $66,758
• Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) $55,961
• Mike Crapo (Idaho) $55,039
• Jerry Moran (Kansas) $34,718
• John Barrasso (Wyoming) $26,989
• John Hoeven (North Dakota) $22,050
• Susan Collins (Maine) $19,638
• James Lankford (Oklahoma) $18,955
• Jim Risch (Idaho) $18,850
• Tim Scott (South Carolina) $18,513
• Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) $13,255

Source: Newsweek, 5.30.22.

______________________________________________________

Hymn for the Hurting

By Amanda Gorman

Everything hurts,

Our hearts shadowed and strange,

Minds made muddied and mute.

We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.

And yet none of it is new;

We knew it as home,

As horror,

As heritage.

Even our children

Cannot be children,

Cannot be.

Everything hurts.

It’s a hard time to be alive,

And even harder to stay that way.

We’re burdened to live out these days,

While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.

This alarm is how we know

We must be altered —

That we must differ or die,

That we must triumph or try.

Thus while hate cannot be terminated,

It can be transformed

Into a love that lets us live.

May we not just grieve, but give:

May we not just ache, but act;

May our signed right to bear arms

Never blind our sight from shared harm;

May we choose our children over chaos.

May another innocent never be lost.

Maybe everything hurts,

Our hearts shadowed & strange.

But only when everything hurts

May everything change.

Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman has an auditory processing disorder and is hypersensitive to sound. She also had a speech impediment during childhood. Gorman participated in speech therapy during her childhood and Elida Kocharian of The Harvard Crimson wrote in 2018, "Gorman doesn't view her speech impediment as a crutch—rather, she sees it as a gift and a strength."Gorman told The Harvard Gazette in 2018, "I always saw it as a strength because since I was experiencing these obstacles in terms of my auditory and vocal skills, I became really good at reading and writing. I realized that at a young age when I was reciting the Marianne Deborah Williamson quote that 'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure' 

Source: Wikipedia