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Brenda Ueland’s quote in yesterday’s post reminds me of Hugh Prather’s book, How to Live in the World and Still Be Happy. He talks about concrete things we can do to be happier, but I don’t remember the details. The part that stuck for me was “Is it selfish to be happy given all the problems and suffering in the world?” That was a problem I wrestled with in high school, so Prather’s answer resonated with me. He said for him personally, that was the only way he knew to be kind.

That sentiment still resonates with me. It reminds me of the Dalai Lama’s,

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

That works for me.

June 26, 2024

In yesterday’s post we talked about creating/playing with art, but it doesn’t have to be that. It can be any activity that feeds our soul. It can be decorating our living space, taking and sharing photographs, writing blog posts, knitting, crocheting, cooking, gardening, etc. Even a hobby like stamp collecting counts:

All stamp collectors agree (even if not everyone admits it) that what motivates them to collect stamps is the pure simple joy they feel when collecting. The process of searching, locating and buying common stamps, new stamps, old stamps, rare stamps, or any other types of stamps which are needed in order to complete a specific type of stamp collection gives the stamp collector a sense of pride, success and accomplishment. For some people, just the simple and pure fun of the hunt (similar to treasure hunting), and the moment of actually finding and successfully acquiring a particular stamp is a good enough reason to collect stamps.
—Why People Collect Stamps

What works for you? (Blogging is one of the ones at the top of my list.)

June 26, 2024

I just came from Sandra’s and Ann’s posts and they remind me of Brenda Ueland’s,

Why should we all use our creative power….? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.

Hurray for creativity and play! And for sharing.

PS I’m glad you’re starting to feel better, Catherine, and can do some art making again. And for sharing it.

June 25, 2024

This brings back wonderful memories. Years ago I used to go over to the Animal Shelter every day to interact with with the pups and help get them adopted. It still warms my heart to think of it.

June 24, 2024

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I was intrigued by the little tree from Etsy, so when it came I ordered another one directly from the sender. It looked a bit more bedraggled than the first one, but I planted it in a big peat pot.

Then when it started to put out new leaves Andy planted in the greenhouse for a while. So far it looks happy there.

Eventually he wants to plant it down in our orchard. As usual, fingers crossed.

June 23, 2024

Andy’s glasses came:

They seem to be what we were looking for.

On the subject of climate change, one of the blogs I follow wrote this yesterday:

I moved to Newfoundland for a few reasons. A primary one was climate change. Newfoundland was deemed one of the safest places in the world in which to live.

Apparently that’s because Newfoundland is close to water that’s cooler than the land. Even so she talks about the changes she’s seeing. Not for the better even there.

June 22, 2024

The U.S. is experiencing a number of extreme and varied weather events at once, from the prolonged heat wave scorching the Northeast to the deadly wildfires blazing in New Mexico to the tropical storm drenching Texas’ Gulf Coast.
….
As the eastern part of the country was sweating through record high temperatures, a snowy system sent temperatures plunging in the northern Rockies.

Parts of Montana and Idaho were under a winter storm warning earlier this week, and nearly one million residents of the West were either under a winter weather or frost advisory on Monday morning.
—-Heat and snowfall, rain and wildfires. It’s a week of extreme weather in the U.S.

We’ve been lucky so far. We were under a flash flood watch last night but just had a pleasant rain.

Fingers crossed for us all!

June 21, 2024

I spent a lot of time yesterday reading about ANSI standards for safety sunglasses for Andy. In 2015, after he bumped his head on a fallen tree while hiking, we started buying him pith helmets to replace his floppy sun hat.

It didn’t always work. About seven years ago he took it off because it was cloudy and he bumped his head on a fallen tree while watching his feet as he walked. See Bless Email and the Garmin for more details. Danger lurks in all directions up there.

Anyway, after this latest incident I facetiously suggested we buy him a catcher’s mask, but we decided to look into the safety sunglasses instead. I’ve ordered one pair that gives a 7-day free trial so at least we’re getting started. I will let you know how that goes.

June 20, 2024

Even though Andy managed to cross the bridge fine both ways, he had a fall after the second crossing. The trail was rough and as he was walking he was looking ahead to see where to go next. He tripped and fell face forward on a downhill slope. He got banged up a bit, especially on the face, but he’s already healing fine. One of the wounds was just under his right eye (the good one, he says) and it’s scary to think what might have happened if the eye itself had been damaged.

Lesson learned? No, he says relearned. He says he already knew if he’s going to look at anything but where to put his feet on a walk, he needs to stop. No multitasking!

We’re just so glad that no permanent damage was done.

June 19, 2024

Beate, Tim and Andy took a nice walk in the Valle yesterday morning.

Andy did a lot better than I would have crossing that stream.

There are a lot more pictures in this Flickr album.

June 18, 2024