Are you going to vote?

About this time I get so tired of seeing the commercials for all the politicians running for office. And about half of them aren't even for offices in my state, because the only local TV station shares info for South Carolina as well as North Carolina.  The other 2 "local" stations broadcast from South Carolina completely, so I only watch national news on them.

I have a mute button to turn off all commercials.

And yet, I have to figure out who to vote for.

Our early voting has started.

And thanks to the Republican gerry-mandering in North Carolina, which has now been declared null and void or illegal, by some courts (supreme?) we have reverted to an earlier set of precincts, so some of our North Carolina and US offices are now in my district again.  For the forum the other night, one candidate said he had just found out he was running in Asheville and he hadn't been, up till that decision.

So I will watch the candidates introduce themselves on the video that my friend took at the forum, and their brief speeches.

And as my friend Linda said (quoting someone else) "Vote for a light post to run against the fool in the white house...it would be an improvement."

But this is a year I certainly won't stay home, thinking my choice doesn't matter.  It really does this time. And half of my choice will be based on who can win. OK, those are just my opinions. Who are you going to vote for?

Here's a humorous YouTube video about "The Day Democracy Died," sung by the Founding Fathers.

Crowded long tables

We've all attended some banquets, feasts, or large group dining!

 
Holly Jolly sales room, 2017 December. This shot is looking over the top of my display towards Pat.
These photos from a few years back show a crowd that gathered one evening to look at long tables spread with - yep, pottery!

And some of our potters do more sculptural things, like Dori English's display in 2017.

 Here's Fred with his whimsical wares.

Freida made sculptures like purses out of clay that year.

And Sally had different kinds of trinkets.

Suzie and Carie had more functional pieces...to get ready for a banquet, right?

I have Crowd-a-phobia.  It' otherwise known as Enochlophobia...

... known by different names such as Ochlophobia and Demophobia. As the name indicates, this phobia consists of an irrational fear of large crowds and gatherings of people. Enochlophobia is closely related to Agoraphobia (which is the fear of and desire to avoid situations wherein one believes s/he may be subjected to incapacitation, humiliation etc).

Actually I avoid going out most nights because of having cataracts, which make driving a bit difficult...glare of oncoming headlights particularly bothers me. And I hate how cataracts influence my life, such that I avoid driving at night often.

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photo shows many men, each with their own bottle of something liquid and probably alcoholic, eating in a crowd.  Come on over HERE and see what other bloggers have come up with following this theme.

Holding place for peace

What way can I help move our world to peace right now, this minute, wherever I am, and whatever I am doing?

Enlarge that saying/poem, and think about it, please.

If we don't pay attention and learn from history, we may repeat it!

Animated map of Nuclear Bomb history worldwide

And on the same day over at Open Culture, Dramatic Color Footage Shows a Bombed out Berlin a month after Germany's WWII defeat.

I acknowledge that its my header at this time, but I frequently change that, so this is included again!

I am posting things that speak to me of reasons 40 years ago when I named my son "Peace" (Tai, from the I Ching.)

"Love is the answer." That's really tough to hold in your emotions when you see what hate can and does do...whether in history or these days. Many people have studied the dynamics of hatred, of the spiral of destruction, and become peace makers. This is what they've concluded...love.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

So the exercise of Tonglen (from Yoga) gives me the opportunity to work on that impossible-sounding approach to the most hateful situations and people. I must start, of course, with approaching the aspects of life closest to myself and explore my own hateful feelings and see how to transform them to love. After all, we can't change other people's feelings, only our own...look at that good old 12 Step Program prayer..."to change the things I can."

But assuming that I've practiced this for a long time, I can then move my thoughts to larger areas where hatred and fear is predominate. And eventually I will wish nothing but good outcomes, peacefulness and love for all the world, and all the sad and mistaken politicians full of their own hateful narrow minded attitudes. Yep, I hope eventually to see them with love and forgiveness. (Believe me, this will take a while, maybe not even this lifetime!) 

In the meantime, I envision them in cocoons of silken threads that envelope their actions and hold them in a room of mirrors where their energy just goes right back into them. Is that too much to wish for? Well, it's a step on the path.

Here's a song by Barbra Striesand confronting Trumps lies.

The sunny snowy creek again

A big stone may hold heat or cold...here it has a last smattering of snow before the sun gets much higher.

 There's actually a ford that this road leads to, a rocky crossing that's shallow where the utility trucks cross Flat Creek. I'm not sure what the little building holds..perhaps electrical equipment.

 The new railing is still fresh enough to look like green lumber. That will change with the weather of course.

IBS - seldom the topic of conversation

Irritable Bowel Syndrome - IBS.
Apparently my doc never gave me that diagnosis. But he's sent me to a gastroenterologist. (And I spelled that right on my first try!)

But all the tests didn't show anything. Which might be good, but it just meant paying for a specialist who prefers to do surgery on people (to help them of course) or at least to take pictures of their intestines.

And as I complained to a nurse on the way out, (saying I still was having symptoms) she gave me a handout about the Low FODMAP diet...this was over 8 years ago. Anyway it was pretty confusing, but I happened to look in our local used book store and found this book, which included menus as well as details of how it works.

So I tried doing the restrictive diet for the several weeks as recommended...then would add just one of the possible types of food that I was "allergic to." The allergy in this case would then cause my symptoms.

If they didn't return, I could add that food gradually back to my diet, and if they did return...no way.

So by the end of this time, I could only eat small amounts of milk products, small amounts of things like broccoli, and no legumes. Skip all beans, including soy products! But I could still have some nuts.

I should mention that I'm not recommending this as a treatment for anyone else.  Work with your physician for whatever is troubling you!

I tried living with a restricted diet following my Low-FODMAP personal tests for about 6 months, including visiting relatives and telling them I wasn't eating certain things, and that they could go ahead and fix foods they eat and I'd just pick things out that I couldn't. Of course because they loved me, they cooked only what I could eat.

I discovered part of my problem was frequently having antibiotics (for other life-threatening conditions) which kill all the friendly bacteria in my gut. That's when I discovered pro-biotics. (Ask your pharmacist, they know a LOT about side effects of drugs we take.) I found they (pro-biotics) were helpful, not only when taking the antibiotics, but afterward also.  But I didn't take them all the time...as I figured after a while the billions had probably made a home in my intestines. I know other folks that take them all the time.

And then I started a daily dose of Benefiber...which is a bit of fiber that can be stirred into almost any liquid, and it disappears in my coffee each morning.

 I am no longer avoiding legumes, or sodas, or even milk products. But I just have yogurt or creamer. And only one legume for every couple of days. I have a soda as a treat. I'm even trying to be vegetarian! And I still have flareups. My doc put me on dicylomine which diminishes the cramping that I still get...but not as constantly.

But as I am using my mental capacity as well as my dietary needs, I've followed the ideas from John O'Donahue by my own extension of naming my various illnesses and treating them as companions, if not friends.

So my IBS is now "Aunty Dia-Maria and her millions of microbes."

A place of beauty

We'd had a dusting of snow the day before, followed by a morning of fog and chill.
But before going to church I decided to see how the creek was doing, if there might be any snow left along it.
And as I drove over there, the sun came out! Yay!

 New rails on the bridge may not be as picturesque as the old ones, but they are certainly more reliable!

The sweet Rhododendron leaves are always green, but covered with frosting of snow. They'll survive just fine however.

Reposting from another blog - John O'Donohue on Illness

We never value or even see some things in our lives until we
are just about to lose them.  This is particularly true of health.
When we are in good health, we are so busy in the world
that we never even notice how well we are.  Illness comes
and challenges everything about us.  It unmasks all pretense.
When you are really ill, you cannot mask it.

Illness also tests the inner fiber and luminosity of the soul.
It is very difficult to take illness well.  Yet it seems that if
we treat illness as something external that has singled us
out, and we battle and resist it, the illness will refuse to leave.
On the other hand, we must not identify ourselves with our
illness. .....very ill people are often more alive to life's
possibilities than the medical verdict would ever allow or
imagine.

When we learn to see our illness as a companion or friend,
it really does change the way the illness is present.  The
illness changes from a horrible intruder to a companion
who has something to teach us.

...Sometimes, when you see a thing as the enemy, you
only reinforce its presence and power over you...

Held openly, as a friend, this bit of unknown aliveness
may take you on an amazing journey to places you may
never have anticipated.  Such attention enriches and
deepens genuineness and presence.

Illness also focuses us onto our "inner landscape", into
resting deeply in the inner silence of the "Soul."  It is a
remedial silence that allows us to endure, to move through,
but not necessarily getting rid of the illness.  We can't have
an agenda - only deep acceptance of the companion - and
learn to navigate it.

John O'Donohue
From Eternal Echoes

I'm considering this. How do I even do it?

I think first I will name several of my conditions. Thus they no longer belong to medical terms, but to me. And before publishing, I must mention that I did name them, and fell asleep thinking of us all inhabiting this body together...and woke up remembering yet another condition/friend. Hope that's all in here. (For now, says another voice, another "self.")

Cardboard props for photos

Looking out from a cardboard cutout to have your photo taken...the theme of Sepia Saturday this week.

I've got a few of the fun photos we took of willing residents in an assisted living facility back in 2002.  I painted the cutouts, took the photos, got prints made and then gave then them to the residents, and also posted the whole collection (it was probably a roll of film at that point.)

 For a Hawaiian festival, there was a hula dancer, and a musician with ukulele.

 One of the corporate administrators wanted his photo as a dance hall girl for the Western themed party we had.

Another administrator liked being a cowboy.

There were staff members (at least a couple of nurses) as well as residents in the Fashion Show. I don't know if anyone bought the pretty clothes.  But we sure had fun!

I even  got dressed up in an outfit which might be worn by anyone...and walked the walk with a resident who showed using a walker didn't keep her from looking glamorous.

This was not my last job as an Activity Drector, but my first one!

And here's the prompt from Sepia Saturday, showing that this technique has been around at least a hundred years. Mine are only 18 years old.

And speaking of themes, though I didn't watch this live, I think it's worth sharing the whole halftime show from the Super Bowl...which didn't seem all that awful to my eyes. Lots of talented dancing, singing, and well choreographed. Here it is.

Don't mess with Mother Nature

Gaia is the name I use for the goddess of mother nature.
She's in charge of trees, rivers, plants, weather and earthquakes.

So when us piddly people plan an event, and Gaia has other ideas, guess who wins! Here's my journaling of our trip to Shelby NC.

All day Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, it rained in North Carolina. Western NC has lots of mountains, and creeks and rivers that flood from the runoff. This storm also included a line of thunderstorms and tornados. I kept an eye on the radar screen as we drove right behind the worst of the storms which were going slowly east. We were driving southeast, but we stayed on the western side behind that line. We also stayed on Interstates most of the way, and had no trouble at all.  My use of a certain impromptu wand might or might not have had any effect on traffic and conditions. Believe me, plastic straws were the underlying theme of the day.

My display

We unloaded our pottery at the Cleveland County Arts Council in Shelby NC. It was a bit wet, but quickly accomplished by Tim and Allan. There were just 2 employees there. It seems sometime while we were on the way they decided to cancel the opening reception.  It meant it would be held in a week, but the show would still be up for the whole month.  Apparently too many people (probably of importance) couldn't get through their own swollen-creek roads to town.  Only one other artist hadn't put his works out yet...and I'm sure when the rain stops he will make it to town.

But I did take time to go look at all the other potters' works. I'm sharing them over on Alchemy of Clay!

We were really ok without having an opening reception (aka party with lots of potters and some customers.)  Cathy and I had been pushing ourselves all week to get ready, pricing, packing, inventorying, glazing and firing in Cathy's case, repacking, etc.

Our dear friend, Tim, had not had a much prep work to do, and probably was ok with another adventure with these crazy potter women.  His job was loading and unloading his van, and fixing the lighting switch which had failed when we last were going to drive with him to a show. He had also put in the third seat so we could all drive in comfort, and he had the van inspected and renewed his registration. Plus, he got to do all the driving in the rain! That was a pretty major undertaking, and I was especially grateful that he drove us home after dark in the rain...something that would have left my white knuckle marks on the steering wheel.

Since there wasn't a party, we asked the locals for restaurant recommendations after we'd arranged our displays.  We ended up at a Greek/Italian place...very nice layout. My cousin, Violet, had recommended the Spanakopita, which I ordered. Cathy and Tim had Greek salads with chicken. And as we were handed plastic straws to use with our water or diet cokes, I had to remark that these would someday be rare antique items of value. That probably explains why I have such a collection of them. I had brought my own hard plastic straw in my sipper which turned magically into a wand for good safe driving...but I left it in the van.  And I drank a much appreciated beer anyway (do not try to drink beer with a straw!)

Toscano's Cafe still had this unique Christmas tree up.

The bottom layers of my 'pita were kind of burned and hard, and so I couldn't even cut them.  But the top was delicious.  And when I got home with my Balaclava-to-go, I found the same problem with the bottom layers being hard and over cooked.  Shucks, I wasn't very happy about that. I love good Greek pastries!

Yes, I captured Tim looking around the corner...he'd been a real trooper with all this rain, so we treated him to dinner.

More is to be posted tomorrow. Over on Alchemy of Clay. I think I took a shot of everyone's pottery at the show.

Look what I made!

Well, I had a hand in it, though I can't take full credit.

I kept last year's orchid alive, re-potted it, and fertilized it at least once.
So it is starting to bloom again. I am thrilled as a new parent can be! And with my window-sitting lavender, which has a couple of blooms as well, I'm ready for indoor spring.

Sticks and quilts

A friend gave me a huge branch of her forsythia bush. So I bought it home and stuck it in the biggest vase in the house, with a warm sunny (if it ever comes back) window.  More to come!

The Affordable Care Act...remember politics just a few years ago?

"2013-2018 Health Justice Enrollment Advocates" quilt. It's hanging on the wall in the hall of Pisgah Legal Services, where I went to have my taxes done free.

It caught my eye, and I enjoyed reading the comments. Then I saw a Black Mountain acquaintance, Lynda Feldman.  And with her love of fabric art, I'm sure she was happy to be part of this beauty. Good for her!

Blue skies and a bright flower!

Richard Plackle of Black Mountain.

The blue of the sky was astonishing Sunday, and it got warm too.

Another bright thing, at the Red House where I was "sitting on the desk" in case any visitors dropped by on this sunny day. A couple did.

A prayer for resistance...

This is a Prayer for Imbolc. This is a prayer for resistance.

This is a re-post of a blog which was published a couple of days ago. It's worth reading, thinking about. If you're unhappy about our current problems (of any kind) think of how resistance is actually an action, not being passive.

You don't have to wait till November.

Thanks HecateDemeter! Here's the text, but without the formatting.

This is a prayer for Imbolc.
This is a prayer for when roads flood.
This is a prayer for the lingering dark.
This is a prayer for resistance.
We spark the fires to beg the light to return, but we never really know if it will work.  The road may flood; this could be the year it all falls apart.  The February rains may be too much.  We fire up the forge to bend hard metal to our will, but we never really know if it will work.  The road may flood; this could be the year that it all falls apart.  The February rains may be too much.  We write the poem to express what’s inside, but we never really know if it will work.  The road may flood; this could be the year it all falls apart.  The February rains may be too much.
Imbolc is a chance we take, a chance we take in the dark.
This is a prayer for when things fall apart.  This is a prayer for when roads flood. This is a prayer for Imbolc.  This is a prayer for the lingering dark and this is a prayer for resistance.
Brigid, the Goddess of poetry, invented keening for those times when no words were enough.  Shall we now keen?  Brigid, the Goddess of smith craft, invented forges for those times when small flames were not enough.  What shall we now forge?  Brigid, the Goddess of healing, invented beer for those times when water couldn’t cure the deep thirst.  What shall we now toast?  Brigid stands in the February rain, a warm flame in her hand, watching the roads flood.  She will neither look away from the flood nor extinguish the flame.
Imbolc is a chance we take, a chance we take in the dark.
This is a prayer for when things fall apart.  This is a prayer for when roads flood. This is a prayer for Imbolc.  This is a prayer for the lingering dark and this is a prayer for resistance.
The shepherd goes out despite the rain.  The shepherd is the resistance.  Without the shepherd, the ewe will miscarry, die in the mud, bleed to death, deliver the lambkin still.  The shepherd sees the rain, throws on her cloak, and cuts  through the meadow.  But she never really knows for sure if it will work.  The road may flood; this could be the year that it all falls apart.  The February rains may be too much.  But she still wades towards the ewe.  Brigid sees and holds her flame.
Imbolc is a chance we take, a chance we take in the dark.
This is a prayer for when things fall apart.  This is a prayer for when roads flood. This is a prayer for Imbolc.  This is a prayer for the lingering dark and this is a prayer for resistance.
It’s Imbolc!  It’s pouring rain in the lingering dark.  The roads have washed away.   The ewes are miscarrying, the forge fires going out.  The poets are throwing down their pens, the yeast has failed the hops.  Who are you in these times?  What’s Imbolc to you or you to Her?  Resistance thrives in the lingering dark and flash floods bring forth new paths.  Put on your cloak and wade through the mud.  The Goddess Brigid is holding her flame.  The Goddess watches and weighs.
Imbolc is a chance we take, a chance we take in the dark.
This is a prayer for when things fall apart.  This is a prayer for when roads flood. This is a prayer for Imbolc.  This is a prayer for the lingering dark and this is a prayer for resistance.

Happy Imbolc

A gathering of women shared some of the old ways from when goddesses were talked about freely.

 Brigid crosses were made of many different things.

Brigid, the Celtic bright gold/red goddess of poetry, smith-craft, midwifery, animal husbandry, and healing!

Our carved candles arrayed around a simple altar, full of fun images like Brigid crosses, a Celtic Wheel, an album of an Irish pilgrimage, and musical instruments. We shared poetry, creativity, dance, singing songs to goddesses, eating wonderful snacks and getting to know each other better. Inanna's Daughters meet at the local UU Church on cross-quarter days of the old calendar. Today was Imbolc, or Candlemas.

A very personal experience

 Nice view, some plants by the window, some construction across the parking lot

 My selfie includes a counter and some piping. Recognize the turquoise paper bib?

 There's lots of personal stuff, and medical too...well, dental to be exact.

 The tray doesn't have much on it, but look at all those drills!

I love Dr. Burkheimer...she's so cheerful, talking all kinds of chit chat while she works, and it's over in a jiffy! I took most of the above pics while waiting for the novocaine (or whatever combination of drugs they use now) to take effect.

Yes, there I was, open wide and had the new filling on a front tooth all finished. Yay! I wasn't so happy when the novocaine wore off, later that day. Ugh. Then I had some pain. But nothing like having had the procedure done without it!