Let's find joy

 

Smiling Angel located on the left-hand side of the main portal of the Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral in Reims, France and was carved between 1236 and 1245.

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

THICH NHAT HANH

In every joy which kindness triggers, flashes a flicker of that wild joy of limitless belonging.

BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST

You can GROAN now!

Sharing with Saturday's Critters

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“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy.”

— Terry Tempest Williams

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I'm now listening to this book. It takes place in nearby Henderson County NC. It's read by a black woman, and is about a family through several generations (I think it's fiction.)

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Joy is gratefulness unbound.

JOE PRIMO

Signs to consider

 If you're of a religious bent looking for help making decisions, you might look for a "sign" to guide you...in many ways. Nature symbols are sometime used, like crows flying in one direction or another. Or perhaps a song you might hear on the radio. It's up to your own belief system.

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Then there are street signs. They are supposedly the law. But sometimes they slip out of their meanings.

And of course a sign lets you know where you are. In wartime England (at least) many street signs were removed in case Germans invaded.

A simple sign can let people know you want to sell something. Funny, I don't think people put up signs who want to buy something.

This organization gives away food to people who come to collect at different sites throughout the area.

My son on the right holds a sign during a demonstration in OH, in the cold.

You may have to be from NC to understand the humor of this sign.

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See how I swung/swang/swinged from serious to humorous and back again. Let's do that today. Too much serious going on.

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Sharing with Tom's Signs2 meme.

Bistro Bites, hot brownie with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.

Kind of missed that one...

I bid four - er five - hearts!

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Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change. 

-Harriet Lerner, psychologist (b. 30 Nov 1944)

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I give you a smile

 Today's critters offer a bit of humor to our humdrum lives... (I'm doing my best to ignore current events, sigh!)

I was thrilled to read another blogger had also seen a piliated woodpecker lately! They do take my breath away!

Last week I saw two (or maybe 3) piliated woodpeckers. And I saw one again in the distance yesterday!

He must have enjoyed something very tasty there, for he stayed about 5 minutes pecking away!

Visitors to Stonehenge on the Winter Solstice 2025 were amused by the antics of this black cat!

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Sharing with Saturday's Critters

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Today's goddess:

ca 5250-5000 BC it was found during excavations of the early neolithic site at Tasnad in north-west Romania. 

Thanks The Mother Goddess on FB  

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Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon.

IKKYU

And how about a laugh?

 Signs2 sharing this week:

Some of these are old. Maybe you'll skip those.

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Today's goddess:

Marble figurine  from the Azmash barrow (found 1963). Middle Neolithic, 5000 BC

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My wish, indeed my continuing passion, would be not to point the finger in judgment but to part a curtain, that invisible shadow that falls between people, the veil of indifference to each other’s presence, each other’s wonder, each other’s human plight.

EUDORA WELTY

St. Stephen's Day

While today the Brits apparently celebrate a very obscure holiday they call Boxing Day, much of the  rest of the world is just cleaning up from Christmas still. Or thinking of how to give away some of the loot they received from Great Auntie So-and-so...which either doesn't fit, is ugly, or makes one sneeze. Question, what do Canadians do?

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Often sung with Christmas Carols...

Good King Wenceslas

By John Mason Neale

Listen on YouTube Music (Loreena McKennit- below)

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
Deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shown the moon that night,
Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gathering winter fuel.

Hither, page, and stand by me.
If thou knowst it telling:
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?
Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes fountain.

Sire, the night is darker now,
And the wind blows stronger.
Fails my heart, I know not how.
I can go no longer.
Lark my footsteps my good page,
Tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze the blood less coldly.

In his master's step he trod,
Where the snow lay dented.
Heat was in the very sod
Which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, rejoice,
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.

 December 26 commemorates the life of St. Stephen, a Christian deacon in Jerusalem who is believed to have been the first Christian martyr (he was stoned to death in 36 ce)

SOURCE: Wikipedia

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CBS Sunday Morning on Nov. 31, 2025 published this information (the Sunday after American Thanksgiving)

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I support the World Central Kitchen with my pennies. I have so much more than many people in the world affected by climate disasters or wars. These volunteers are feeding those who are hungry. I saw them at work immediately in Black Mountain and Swannanoa with people lining up after Hurricane Helene came through and decimated so many homes in the western North Carolina mountains. The food was trucked in of course...donated through the organization started by Chef Jose' Andres in 2010. 

WorldCentralKitchen

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And I am cautious about taking more food than I can eat when it is offered through our own food bank. Right now I am sorry that I've let some of it spoil (since it's mostly "day-old" when we get it) when I was hoping to have it for my meals this week. So when the truck came for the last time this year, I didn't go pick up anything. I've got a lot in my refrigerator and pantry! For this I'm very grateful.

Sharing with Thankful Thursday 

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Today's goddess:

Marble female figure

Source Jenny Mendes Ceramics

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They are so off...tamales are rolled, not tacos, or perhaps at a stretch enchiladas. Now those Mayan virgins might have been doing some rolling. Did I say that? I'm an Elderly Grand-Elf, remember?

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Open Yesterday's Pages tells of the woman who started Women's Studies in American colleges.

Some laughs - signs

 

Seen in Scotland...

Quote for today:

As long as we’re rejecting ourselves and causing harm to our bodies and minds, there’s no point in talking about loving and accepting others.

THICH NHAT HANH

Open Yesterday's Pages - Happy birthday President Joe Biden!