Thursday, April 26, 2012

Guess What I've Been Doing?

Church Creek, I presume?
After at least three years of neglect, the walk to the creek was rotting and completely overgrown with marsh trees and grass. It wasn't as much work as I feared - two sessions about two hours each. The trees were mostly saplings growing off sucker roots and in the swampy mud, were fairly easy to just rock loose. The rest was just trimming the marsh grass back. Next we'll need to rebuild the walk. We are going to line it with some landscape timbers, pour out some sand and then put gravel on top. At high tide it floods, so hoping the timbers will hold the gravel in place. Hoping to be able to fix up the bank enough to launch kayaks.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

The Power of Words

I don't have a facebook account, but I do read the people that Jason follows. He has such a wonderful group of artists and thinkers that I enjoy peeking in on their conversations.

One of his friends (on facebook and in real life) posted a cartoon the other day. It was a spoof on all the "wars" going on in America.

The War on Christmas.

The War on Job Creators.

The War on Religion.

The War on Freedom.

And off to the side, I saw this comment and it made my heart almost stop.

I don't know this person, but I am going to reprint his words here because I feel they need to shared:

"Dustin Whited As I sit here watching a group of family and friends plant American flags alongside the highway, in preparation for the funeral of a fallen soldier, I'm inclined to remind people what real WAR is, and to take care when throwing the word around. There's a dead kid coming home in a casket from a real war tomorrow. The shame is that sentence is applicable on most any given day."

I am humbled and shamed and will refrain from using the word "war" to describe political differences.

Sunday, April 08, 2012

Got Peeps?


Loki sez: Happy Easter!

Threads

Jason is reading an awesome book, Karen Armstrong's 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life.

He has been reading me bits and pieces of it.

Here is a sort of meditation the book suggests. You can do this with any material thing, but lets look at this shirt I am wearing today.

It's a nice bright red t-shirt I probably picked up for $5 at Walmart.

Let me take a moment to think of the person who rang up my purchase.

And the person who stocked it on the shelf.

And the person who drove the shirt to the store, who was probably away from his family while on the road.

And a moment to think of his family anxiously waiting his safe return.

And the person at the warehouse who received the shirt from another truck driver whose family worried for him.

And the person who made the shirt, who stitched these seams that are still in good
shape after all these years.

And the person who dyed the fabric.

And the person who wove the fabric.

And the person who picked the cotton.

And the person who planted the cotton.

There is a long line of people connected to me through this simple red t-shirt.

Look around you at all your possessions. Imagine how many people, all over this planet who touched those things, who had a hand in bringing, creating these things for you.

Today, I think of them.

Monday, April 02, 2012

I Have a Problem

Actually, I have several problems, but this is the one giving me trouble today:

My sneaker obsession.

Other women go crazy over slingbacks or kitten heels or FMP's, but not me. It's sneakers.

Recently I purchased these:


Today, I ordered these.

This is getting worse than my Kindle book downloading problem.

Thor sez: Your biggest problem is that those "healthy" crunchies are still in my bowl, human.