Flowers are welcoming at the office

 

The office at my apartment complex

New Zeeland Impatients are doing very well ...

The original house (2 stories) has been turned into the office and "Club house." There are also 2 apartments above the office.

One of many butterfly bushes on our grounds...but there are just a few bees here today

The wrap around porch has hanging planters of flowers in the summertime.

And a couple of begonia planters by the door to the office.

And I'm sad to have just heard that Roger Galtry, our maintenance man since I've lived here, has quit to work somewhere with higher salary. I'll miss him.

One less pill!

 Being finished with antibiotics finally! That was the third (I think) time I've gone through fevers and awful coughing this year...and the medical people don't think most of them were pneumonia exactly. I've had 7 COVID tests that all were negative since this stuff started.

So I'm kicking up my heels today!

This is a morning shot of my front porch...you can see the Hostas in bloom at the base. And I had 3 Gardenias on my little bush in a pot. I need to harvest some of that abundant Basil (to the left of the petunias)

Feeling ready to greet the world again...but I do remember what led up to these episodes. I was beginning to exercise each time. I did maybe one or two days, then bang, sick again. So not this time! I'll do walking. And taking my inevitable photos of the scenes I want to share with you. But I'm staying away from those treadmills for, I don't know, at least a month. Then we'll see if that's ever going to be part of my life.

I'm sort of doing the plant based eating, but have moments when I  happily have what seems to be delicious to me...after all, I think being rigid about anything is not healthy. I do want to increase my eating at home to avoid some of the prepared foods that aren't always the best ingredients. But I'm taking it easy on myself!

Hope you have a wonder-filled day!

PS, today's map of smoke from fires in Canada and the west...HERE.  We have polluted air warnings here in NC...so my walks will wait, and I'll watch exercise videos (and maybe do a bit of stretching).

Where I buy some groceries

 I've shared in the past that I go to an Aldi's down the road in Asheville.

This week I've also gone to a discount grocery which often has bargains of past-dated items. Some are perfectly ok, and there are also scratched and dented things on the shelves. And some aren't really any lower in price than other stores. So it takes being more aware of what you put in your cart.

On the other hand, it's small and very personal.

Hopey & Co. Grocery (apparently they want to be called Hoppy's, though I always pronounce it the way it's spelled!)

They were called Amazing Savings until some other store that already had that name took them to court and they had to come up with this one. There's also one in Asheville, but I've never been to it.

I sometimes want something, and they no longer carry it. And sometimes (like this week) they have some unexpected tidbits that I add to my freezer. They are offering more and more plant based foods in their freezer section. This week there were many pizzas, with fake meats on them. I didn't get any of those, but picked up some Falafels, blueberry waffles and some ice cream-like stuff (maybe not non-dairy) that sounded a bit decadent with words like chocolate and cheesecake in it.

Another lunch out

 Friends who have gathered following their work Saturday morning, allowed me to join them for lunch. They had had a good market of selling pottery for 3 hours, including setting up and taking down the displays.  It was fun to renew some old friendships with them.

Black Bear Restaurant in Cheshire Village of Black Mountain NC....

There was also outdoor seating in the shade, but we gladly enjoyed the air conditioning.

They have great hamburgers, but very little for the vegetarian...so I had a salad. Of course you can always eat a salad!

A bouquet of pills and a stream

 

Every morning...the larger ones are mostly vitamins!

A view as Flat Creek passes by the restaurant

Flat Creek, Black Mountain NC

The bridge railings have some rubber mats still drying on them, but pretty little petunias!

This has been this week. I loved going out for early lunch with at friend at Ole's. Had a lovely taco salad! I'm feeling much better and am almost through all the antibiotics! Taking things a day at a time, of course, but just catching up on housework after being sick is my main task. Have mainly been a home-body, so not much of new photos to share.

The wonderful world of Ukuleles

 

I would love to know why these guys all have earmuffs on. And maybe I should know the young guitarist sitting on the floor in the middle, but I'm not sure.

But my very favorite Ukulele player recorded this, and I'll share it with you. IZ or Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.

The original photo is suggested by Sepia Saturday. Come see what others have thought to share from their own files...

A goddess who shared with everyone has stepped into the next room

Carol P. Christ 12/20/45 - 7/14/21

"A beloved daughter of the Goddess who contributed so much to Her rising in these times. She will be dearly missed by her friends and family and the many, many people she influenced with her writing, speaking and tours of Crete. Rest well in the arms of the Mother, you have transitioned to a beloved Ancestor.

*******************

Carol Patrice Christ (December 20 1945 - July 14 2021) is a feminist historian, thealogian, author, and foremother of the Goddess movement. She obtained her PhD from Yale University and has served as a professor in universities such as Columbia University and Harvard Divinity School. Her best-known publication is "Why Women Need The Goddess".[2] It was initially a keynote presentation at the "Great Goddess Re-emerging" conference" at the University of Santa Cruz in 1978. This essay helped to launch the Goddess movement in the USA and other countries. It discusses the importance of religious symbols in general, and the effects of male symbolism of God on women in particular. Christ calls herself a "thealogian" and as such has made an important contribution to the discipline of theology, significantly helping to create a space for it to be far more inclusive of women than has historically been the case.The term "thealogy" is derived from Ancient Greek θεά (theá, “goddess”) + -logy [3].

Christ has written five influential books on women's spirituality and feminist theology and was a co-editor of two classic anthologies: "Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality" (1989); and "Womanspirit Rising" (1979/1989). The latter included her essay Why Women Need the Goddess.[4] Both anthologies included feminist religious writing from writers from a very diverse range of religious backgrounds. She holds a PhD from Yale University. Carol P. Christ has taught at major universities in the United States, including Columbia University, Harvard Divinity School, Pomona College, San Jose State, and the California Institute of Integral Studies. As director of the Ariadne Institute, she conducts pilgrimages to sacred sites in Greece containing artifacts of matriarchal religion.[5] She has for many years been a resident of the Greek island of Lesbos, the home of the poet Sappho ..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Patrice_Christ

*******************************************************

Alexis Masters on Facebook

July 14 (atgdnSpoYesonustcoforrmerdayuid i) 3:4erfdh6 cmPlM  · 

"My beautiful friend, Carol P. Christ passed away at 12:11 am on July 14, 2021. This photo (below) is Carol as I knew her best, radiant in love, statuesque and happy. This is how I will always strive to remember her. We first met in 1981 and became fast friends. That friendship lasted, as the best ones do. I was blessed to be with her as she transitioned from this life to whatever lies beyond. Carol had her own ideas about all that, but in my way of thinking, she has gone on to something and someplace far better than she knew in this life. All Hail to her beloved Goddess, boundless love to the countless women whose lives she enriched and will continue to enrich, and my prayers that the legacy she left us all shall live on. May her magnificent mind continue to enliven our quest for knowledge and wisdom. Much love to all who knew and loved her. She will be missed but her voice will sing true through her many writings forever for women all around the world.

*******************************************

I've read and listened to her words ever since I first started studying Goddess histories...or should I say Goddess her-stories! What an intelligent and warm sharing woman she has been for all these years...writing columns frequently, as well as many books and chapters in books. I feel a hole, a space, that her passing has left, where our material universe is changed by her death, a gap that she had filled without my thinking about it, but now I know that was where she was in my own life.

Barb Rogers

((((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))))

From Facebook on July 16, 2021

Carol Patrice Christ, 1945-2021

“In Goddess religion death is not feared, but is understood to be a part of life, followed by birth and renewal.” -- Carol P. Christ

Carol Patrice Christ died peacefully on July 14 from cancer. Carol was and will remain one of the foremothers and most brilliant voices of the Women’s Spirituality movement. At the conference on “The Great Goddess Re-Emerging” at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the spring of 1978, Carol delivered the keynote address, “Why Women Need the Goddess: Phenomenological, Psychological, and Political Reflections.” Christ proposed four compelling reasons why women might turn to the Goddess: the affirmation and legitimation of female power as beneficent; affirmation of the female body and its life cycles; affirmation of women’s will; and affirmation of women’s bonds with one another and their positive female heritage (Christ 1979).

Carol graduated from Yale University with a PhD in Religious Studies and went on to teach as a feminist scholar of women and religion, women’s spirituality, and Goddess studies, at institutions including Columbia University, Harvard Divinity School, Pomona College, San Jose State University, and the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she was an adjunct professor since the inception of the Women’s Spirituality, Philosophy and Religion graduate studies program in 1993. Christ published eight profoundly thoughtful and inspiring books, several in collaboration with her friend and colleague Judith Plaskow, whom she met at Yale:

-Diving Deep and Surfacing: Women Writers on Spiritual Quest (1986)

-Woman Spirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, anthology co-edited with Judith Plaskow (1992)

-Odyssey with the Goddess: A Spiritual Quest in Crete (1995)

-Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality. Anthology co-edited with Judith Plaskow (1989)

-Laughter of Aphrodite: Reflections on a Journey to the Goddess (1987)

-Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality (1998)

-She Who Changes: Re-imaging the Divine in the World (2004)

-Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology. Co-authored with Judith Plaskow (2016)

Christ’s first book, about women writers on spiritual quest, is a book of spiritual feminist literary criticism that focused on feminist authors Kate Chopin, Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, Adriene Rich, and Ntozake Shange. She discovers four key aspects to women’s spiritual quest: the experience of nothingness; awakening (to the powers that are greater than oneself, often found in nature); insight (into the meaning of one’s life); and a new naming (in one’s own terms). She emphasizes the importance of telling women’s stories in order to move beyond the stories told about women by the male-centered patriarchy. Her concluding chapter speaks of a “Culture of Wholeness,” that encompasses women’s quest for wholeness, and she adds that, for this wholeness to be realized, the personal spiritual quest needs to be combined with the quest for social justice.

After first travelling to Greece in 1981 with the Aegean Women’s Studies Institute led by her friend Ellen Boneparth, Carol fell in love with the country. She chose to live in Greece, first in Molivos on the beautiful island of Lesbos, and then moving recently to Heraklion, Crete. She had a passion for saving the environment and was active in the Green movement in Greece. she also had a love for swimming in the Aegean and sharing Greek food and wine with friends in Greece and from overseas.

Carol’s fascination with Crete, ancient and modern, led her to found the Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and Ritual, through which she offered an educational tour, “Pilgrimage to the Goddess” twice annually. These tours introduced many to a direct experience of the ancient Earth Mother Goddess in Crete (goddessariadne.org).

In her most recent article, for the Encyclopedia of Women in World Religion: Faith and Culture, Christ wrote about the Goddess religion and culture of her beloved island of Crete, and the roles women played in that “egalitarian matriarchal” civilization. Her eloquent words speak not only to the Goddess religion of ancient Crete, but also to the spirituality and ethical values she also cherished, which are much needed in our own culture today.

As discerners and guardians of the mysteries, women created rituals to celebrate the Source of Life and to pass the secrets of agriculture, pottery, and weaving down through the generations. The major rituals of the agricultural cycle involved blessing the seeds before planting, offering the first fruits of the harvest to the Goddess, and sharing the bounty of the harvest in communal feasts. These rituals establish that life is a gift of the Goddess and institute gift-giving as a cultural practice. As women controlled the secrets of agriculture, it makes sense that land was held by maternal clans, that kinship and inheritance passed through the maternal line, and that governance and decision-making for the group were in the hands of the elders of the maternal clan. In this context, the intelligence, love, and generosity of mothers and clan mothers would have been understood to reflect the intelligence, love, and generosity of the Goddess.*

*Carol P. Christ, “Crete, Religion and Culture” Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions: Faith and Culture across History [2 volumes] edited by Susan de-Gaia | Nov 16, 2018 ABC-Clio Santa Barbara 2019.

Obituary written by Mara Lynn Keller, PhD and Ellen Boneparth, stating, Please feel free to forward to your circles or post to newsletters or to the press.

** Additional information from Laura Shannon:

We are planning to offer an online memorial/celebration of Carol's life on her birthday, December 20, 2021. Details to follow.

Everyone is warmly invited to share memories of Carol, pictures too if you have them. Please email them to Xochitl Alvizo at feminismandreligionblog@gmail.com (the email must include 'blog'). Xochitl will add them to a running tribute post which she has set up on FAR and will update regularly. (Thank you, Xochitl.)

The Goddess Tours to Crete, which Carol led for over twenty years, will resume in Fall 2022, and will be led at Carol's request by Laura Shannon with support from Tina Nevans and Mika Scott, following the template which Carol created. Donations to the Ariadne Scholarship Fund in Carol's memory will be gratefully accepted by the Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and Ritual, the 501c3 non-profit educational and charitable organization which Carol founded. Donations are tax deductible in the US. Ariadne Institute, P.O. Box 5053, Eugene, Oregon 97405. www.goddessariadne.org

Filmmaker Cheri Gaulke has just posted this beautiful video of an interview she and Anne Gauldin conducted with Carol during her Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete in September 2019, the last tour Carol led. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhbV5ow0SUM

This weekend, Carol had been planning to present her new paper, 'A Working Hypothesis for the Study of Religion in a Minoan Village: Theories of Harriet Boyd Hawes, Marija Gimbutas, and Others' at the Symposium of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology and the Institute of Archaeomythology in honour of the centennial of Marija Gimbutas. Participants will be able to hear a recording of Carol reading this paper, with access to the recording (and all other conference proceedings and materials) for a year. Information and registration at https://symposium.womenandmyth.org

May our beloved Carol, fearless pioneer in feminist thealogy and Goddess studies, rest in peace. She will live on in her writings and in the memories of thousands whose lives she touched and changed through her words and teaching.

Not a lonely little petunia...

 

The gardenia has buds, and one has opened (a second so far this year) I am just plain floored...it is quite an old plant, and half has died back, and I haul it inside each winter...

the gardenia that could...keep on blooming.

Trrying to add this to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day 

Being impatient

 

These two planters were planted with impatients at the same time.

This one seems to be having troubles, but is on the way back with lots of new leaves at least. I think the heat has hit the plants.

And a good example of the viewpoint of the observer, is this video from Open Culture "A Billion Years in 40 seconds" about Plate Tectonics. I couldn't follow any point very well, but watched it 3 times. Here's  the article about it.

My first interest occurred in 1960 when I ordered a Scientific American special publication about it...which was just beginning to be considered again in science, (plate tectonics theory) which had originally been developed 50 years earlier but not accepted by scientists. I also took a Geology course as a freshman in college, where it was at least discussed. Since then it has become much more accepted and much research supports it.

Selfies

 

Not always put-together! I was keeping track of the little red bumps on my skin...which seem to come and go. They are responsive to treatment, so that was at least an interesting thing to go through.

It's sometimes worth taking a photo of the violets (which are pretty dormant now) and my haircut. 

Who knew that someday I would be finished with making pottery? 

So it goes...or that's the way the cookie crumbles!

One of my volunteer shots from The Red House.

One of my favorite places, my church in Black Mountain NC

I still went places with friends wearing our masks, even while driving in the car.

Just some cats passing by

 

Thanks to FaceBook people that I don't even know, who got these cats to pose for the camera!

Swimming

 

Abram's Falls, Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park.

The two silly boys were just enjoying dunking in the chilly water. My other trail friend also went in (fully clothed). I have no idea why I didn't...because it was really hot in 1991 when we hiked. One of those boys is my youngest son Tai...soon to have his 42nd birthday.

A wee bit of musical talent please

 This week's Sepia Saturday puzzled me.

I'd never heard of Grace Holst of Norway. So I tried Duck Duck search. They hadn't heard of her either...so I went to a bigger search engine, Google. And besides finding that she wasn't related to Gustav Holst, I found there was a larger photo just like the one above..

Apparently she was a soprano who sang operas in America.

This marker suggests she was still alive as of 2009 when her husband George died.

Gustav Holst was a composer, with his most famous piece being The Planets.

Surprisingly enough, I listened to it on Tuesday as I treated myself to NPR's classical station. 

The size differences

 

Just enjoying the huge truck next to my tiny little Toyoto. I was at the Doctors for a while, but whoever Mr. Truck was had already parked when I got there, and I beat him out. I look at the size of his tires and blow out a breath. Ha ha.

I'm still fighting the "X disease" with more meds, and must say I'm feeling a bit better. A couple of days spent in bed has seemed to help.

A huge craft fair on line

 Next weekend I won't have to deal with crowds to see the Southern Highlands Craft Fair...it's virtual!

I love it. That makes it internationally available.

If you don't think the virus has effected craftsmen and artists, think again!

Then come see if there's something you like and support them!

So our relations change...

 This week my middle son, Russ, told me he wanted to access his Ancestry link...that he'd done the DNA test and wanted to learn more about who he's related to.

I did it...as well as gave him invitations to see my other 3 trees which include his father, my mother, and my father's mother. I have more trees that are about the ancestors of the daughters-in-law.

And I've also done preliminary searches for some of my friends who want to learn more about their families.

It's about time I learn other programs that are out there. But I am mainly glad that my years of research to compile these trees can be passed along to the next generation!

Russ and Michelle on their vacation last week to panhandle FL

And another relation, my daughter-in-law who lives in St. Petersburg Beach, FL...posted this cute photo of her being prepared for the tropical storm that's slowly crawling up Florida tonight (Tues.) I hope all is well for her and the rest of my Florida family!

A word I've never used...

I like reading news events...and non-events sometimes. As well as tracking some interesting history.

I've also wanted to expand my vocabulary.

Here's a new one for me...

sough

PRONUNCIATION:

(suhf, sau) 

MEANING:

verb intr.:	To make a moaning, sighing, whistling, murmuring, or rustling sound.
noun:	1. Such a sound.
	2. A rumor.

 

Where'd she go?

 She was here just a minute ago... but seems to have disappeared now.

Maybe she's got some stuff to figure out.

Yep that's got to be it.

On top of that she's sick again. Not a good thing in any life.

Connecting the self-evident truths to political action

 

Some sepia sharing

 Sharing with Spepia Saturday this week. Come on by and see what others might have come up with related to the theme...or not.

Ah Sepia Saturday...women standing on the steps of Oxford College of Ohio...Miami University

Glad it was in Ohio anyway. There don't seem to be any commonality in their dress. There are some that might have been beauties, and some that would had to have offer a pleasing personality to attract a mate.

Ah ha...

The Ohio General Assembly passed the Sesse Bill in 1902, which mandated coeducation for all Ohio public schools. Miami lacked the rooms to fit all of the students expected the next year, and Miami made an arrangement with Oxford College, a women's college in the town, to rent room

Hepburn Hall, built in 1905, was the first women's dorm at the college. By 1907, the enrollment at the University passed 700 students and women made up about a third of the student body.

Thanks Wikipedia!

So we don't know much about the women in the SS picture.

Do I have new photos that are old to share with y'all?

Sure, she says, scanning through saved photos. But none that show lines of women standing on steps.

I really don't know a thing about this shot...

Pretty sure this is a shot of the inn (still standing if moved a few feet) on the old US 70 road, which connected Black Mountain to Asheville.

And if you continue past the town of Black Mountain, there you go through tortuous turns down the mountain to Old Fort and easier travel going east.

Much of the road bed has now been turned into I-40...but both in Black Mountain and Old Fort, there are stretches of Old US 70 left...as well as the current US 70 from Black Mountain to Asheville. I honestly don't know if it continues west.

no clock day

 

I slept as late as I wanted, and took my pills whenever I wanted. I do wish my ears would stop ringing constantly though!

Otherwise I think I'm on the mend.

Gradually.

Not going to push this old gal.

In the meantime, I'll be reading your blogs with a smile on my face :)- or maybe like emoticons these days. I haven't found them in blogland though.

I hope you have a great day!

B

The will to survive

 Before:

I didn't allow any of the tomato sprouts to grow.

After:

I may only have one blossom from this poor old Gardenia! But there is one!

Have a very happy new month!

The Olde Depot in Black Mountain

 

A pretty blooming tree for this springtime photo.

On current status...I think I cracked a rib coughing. Drat...still have to clear my lungs..trying to not use half my body since each cough hurts like hell. So shouting in pain doesn't clear my lungs at all. I've taken the only pain reliever I have, Tylenol. I have been using it to fight the fevers. The doc has me on antibiotics, which affect my stomach also.

Isn't life a bitch sometimes!

This too shall pass...

Happy July 1!