Saw this and wanted to share.
The corgis are gorgeous. The cats are amusing. I just want the pet amusement! Some of the behavior is too funny!
Riding Around
And remembered seeing this once before, but could not place it.
Can you guess what it is?
Lovely, but what is it?
Red clover, used by farmers to fix or replenish nitrogen in the soil! And it is pretty, too! Then I remembered, we saw this on our trip around the country last year. Here is more information about the uses for red clover https://gardenandhappy.com/red-clover-plant-one-of-the-most-beneficial-nitrogen-depositors-ever/
Keep your eyes peeled for those Treasures in Plain Sght!
Surprise!
I was headed downstairs the other day. I saw something on the carpet at the base of the stairs. I figured it was a piece of glitter or a shiny piece off my jeans pocket. When I got to the landing I bent to pick it up. Was very startled to wind up picking up a lightning bug. It was no longer moving, but still glowing. Must have come in on the bottom of a shoe, I mused, and then floods of memories.
I have fond memories from childhood of hunting and catching lightning bugs. First we would pound holes into the lid of a jar. (Lids were metal then before plastics took over manufacturing and metal became rare.) We would capture the bugs in our hand and then put them in a mayonnaise jar. Yep, a glass jar we were allowed to run around with! The more you caught the harder it was to get it in the jar without releasing the others or squashing it in an effort to close the lid quickly. If I was particularly lucky, I was allowed to keep the jar in my bedroom over night. Nothing quite like the magic of falling asleep to blinking fireflies!
This year in mid-spring when I saw one in the daytime on the window screen I couldn’t wait to tell Bob. He said he had seen one, too. The first brood was in early May, but they never last long. Now in Mid-June we are in the type that live about 2 months.
Amusing that we see these in the middle of the night. (No, I have not ‘stayed out late’ and tried to catch any in years.) Bob and I both wear Fitbit step counters. They also monitor our sleep. He says that sometimes when I roll over in the night mine lights up. Or if he gets up and returns to bed his lights up. Says it is like having giant fireflies in the bedroom.
As a real child, growing up allowed to explore the natural world as far as our yard and one or two others, some kid (probably one of the boys from down the street that we played “War” with), taught me that if you step on a lightning bug on the sidewalk and smear it, it will glow. Turns out we were triggering the chemical reaction that the bugs produced in life to create their bio-luminescence. If you want more information click on this link: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/fireflies/
So thank you little beetle for bringing me such joy for my entire lifetime. I was amazed when nephews and nieces visited from California and they had never seen fireflies.
Complaining
While riding a bus I once asked a man how he was doing. He responded, ” Can’t complain. Complaining don’t do no good anyways.” I recently heard another person state, “I can’t complain. But I do!”
You might have read my blog entitled “1983 and 2020.” I was complaining about my frustrations during this pandemic. I recently read an article in Time magazine, dated June 15, 2020, entitled “The Guilt of Complaining About Anything Right Now” by Susanna Schrobsdorff. I want to link you to her article, https://time.com/author/susanna-schrobsdorff/ Definitely worth the read.
She notes, “Helplessness, the feeling of being stuck and anxiety about the future are textbook harbingers of mental distress. And there are no rules about who gets to acknowledge that distress. We have to find enough compassion for ourselves that we can admit it if we’re not really O.K. and recognize that, even if we have our basic needs met, this can still be awful. It’s not indulgent to mention it; it’s smart to ask for help. This is as important as avoiding the virus because we’ll need mind and body and soul to help each other through this marathon.”
Yes, it is a marathon. We got my new car. It smells that lovely chemical mixture that says new. It came with 33 miles on the odometer. I took a long drive with a friend on Thursday. Averaged 38.2 mph. Have been deciding what goes into it and what does not need to be in it. Bought a basket to organize the back seat. Bought a windshield sun screen that will be easier to find than the all black one I already own.
Awoke today after a fitful nap. Grouchy and knew this was pandemic blues marching around in my head. Yes, we need to be kind to ourselves. We each need to know when to ask for help and how to get that help. And we need each other to get through this. I was NEVER good at running. Dreaded that 20 yard dash in school (years ago when gym class was ugh). Not what you would call a physically coordinated being. A marathon never ever crossed my mind. But as a metaphor for long distance endurance being needed, I get that!
So, never an athlete, but I did admire these guys! Maybe we can adopt this attitude and help each other along.
Susanna is right: “we’ll need mind and body and soul to help each other through this marathon.”
Heraclitus
Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is quoted as saying change is the only constant in life. A native of Ephesus, he was born in 535 BC and died 475 BC. His saying has also been translated that the only constant is change.
And then there is: Change is inevitable. Come to expect it.
Recently I heard Joseph Goldman teach “Awareness of change and impermanence leads us to greater ease in our lives.”
I have a very long way to go before I accomplish what Goldman was teaching. Aware, yes. Accepting, much much harder to get there. How are you doing with all the changes in our lives these days? Have you been able to find the latest Covid-19 data in the midst of other news? Outbreaks of the virus barely being reported or commented upon. SO many people here in Ohio running around in public with no masks and no intention of wearing a mask.
There are many things that this country needs to change. I agree with that. Getting humans to embrace change gracefully is another matter all together.
Can we become pliable in the hands of God and embrace changes as they come to us? We often said that my mother-in-law would have been happier if she could have embraced changes instead of fighting against them as they arose. Wondering now if Bob and I will be enabled to embrace what we must as this pandemic rolls on and the years catch up with us.
As my dear Episcopalian brothers and sisters taught me, “I will, with God’s help.” And I knowingly emphasize, “ONLY with God’s help.”
For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.
Hebrews 13:8 MSG
Flag Day
In 1975 we were about to celebrate Flag Day with my mother. I was nine months pregnant. I tried to tell her not to travel to Lexington as the Doctor said I was not going to deliver anytime soon. She drove down from Cincinnati anyway. When she arrived, she wanted to go shopping and had me drive her car. I remember just barely fitting behind the wheel of her used Plymouth. (No adjustable steering wheels back then!)
As we traveled around the Lexington “Circle Freeway” to our destination she sang me a hymn she had recently heard. The title was “How Great Thou Art.”
Mom had brought food in a Styrofoam cooler. After we put the items in the refrigerator, we rinsed the cooler and placed it on our tiny apartment porch to dry. She arrived Friday night and we stayed up late watching Johnny Carson. He hosted Seals and Croft and they sang “We May Never Pass This Way Again.” I went to bed exhausted. Bob and Mom finished the show. Bob helped her pull out the sofa bed and made certain she had everything she needed.
Saturday there was a Flag Day parade in town. We had decided to attend. Here is a link reminding us of what Flag Day stands for https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/flag-day
Saturday dawned bright, but there was a breeze kicking up outside. Mom was not awake yet, but I decided to tiptoe through the living room to the porch and bring her cooler in before it blew away. As I passed the bed, I knew.
Stunned, I realized she was not breathing. I captured the cooler and walked through again. Certainty about crushed me. I woke Bob and made him go check her. By that time he had been working in a hospital for quite a while and had sometimes gone into a room in early morning to draw blood only to realize the patient had passed.
The rest of the day is a blur. The biggest shock of my life so far. It was years before I could hear “How Great Thou Art” without bursting into tears.
She never met my children. We will never celebrate things on earth again together. Though we had our problems, I do believe I will know her again in heaven, where she is singing How Great Thou Art among the many other hymns that she taught me.
Cincinnati Nature Center
We took a walk at the Nature Center June 12. Absolutely gorgeous weather! Cool, not too humid and sunny.
At one pond pond this red wing black bird was singing for all it was worth. Bob took this video for me. What a delight!
Romans 8 Portion
Many years ago I made a retreat at the Convent of the Transfiguration. Bishop Gore was the speaker. He had taken a sabbatical and used the time to study Romans 8. He shared with us his translation of a portion. Read it below.
“His love is our security. And that love is so strong that nothing on earth can come between us and it. The sea of troubles that a Christian has to face, hardship and persecution of every kind, are powerless against it. For I am convinced that no form or phase of being, whether abstract or personal, not life nor its negation, nor any hierarchy of spirits, no dimension of time, no supernatural powers, no dimensions of space, no world of being invisible to us now, will ever come between Jesus and us now – will ever come between us and the love which God has brought to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Now and then, I just need to be reminded of this eternal truth. Be encouraged. Cling to this.
Prayer for Native Americans
Perhaps you have heard that the Tribes are having a terrible time with the Corona Virus. When we traveled the southwest with our friends, the Cookseys, I purchased this CD.
I offer this song asking that you would pray for the healing and recovery of the Native Americans being hit so terribly hard with the pandemic illness.
Grandgirl #1
Our first grandchild, Lizzie, graduates today. The child was born September 2001, on our wedding anniversary and a few weeks after the terrorist bombings of New York City, attempt at Washington and crash into the Pentagon. School was closed and began on-line classes in March this year. Her Senior prom was cancelled due to Covid-19. She had already purchased her dress.
Now it is time for graduation and it too will be peculiar. The school decided to have each graduate walk across the stage to get their diploma. BUT there will only be one family in the auditorium at a time. The staff will be there from 8:30 to 9:30PM, or some such. Long day for them. Lizzie’s time is scheduled for 10:30 AM. At first they were limiting attendance to four people per student. That meant Bob and I would have to decide which one of us was attending. Then they changed it to seven people per student. Whew! now we both get to attend.
This child has always been shy and does NOT like to have her photo taken. Recently, she did like her new shirt and let me get this photo.
This sweet girl won three academic awards her senior year. The program was on YouTube with teachers and administrators making the announcements, before no in house audience. Two years in a row she won an award in American Sign Language. She will enroll in the local branch of University of Cincinnati this autumn. The world is in store for a great young lady!!
As a volleyball player she is ALWAYS in motion!
Please pray for her future! I often sang this to her when she was very young. If I am not mistaken the “I love you” at the end is done in American Sign Language!
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 