CH-CH-CHANGES....

Then

Now

"Hope rises with our collective realization that humans imagine these systems that are killing people and the planet, and that we can imagine our way out of this mess." (Brooke Larsen)

The beauty of the vine seen on my morning walk two weeks ago has changed drastically. This got me thinking. Change is always with us. And, yes, this simple and indisputable fact and give us hope.

Reading the children's book There Must be More Than That by Shinsuke Yoshitake only served to further my thinking on this. The scenarios in this fun book are reassuring while being at times ridiculous. As is stated on the flyleaf,"...it's often just a matter of choosing hope over hopelessness, and seeking an affirming alternative to challenging situations."

While that is exceedingly difficult in these trying times, perhaps we can consider the possibility of good. Change is always with us...always a possibility exists. Grab hold.
 

THE ABC OF IT ALL

Back in March (oh, such a world away now!) and inspired by friend Michael Thorstensen's newest ABC book, the following was created after a mostly sleepless night ruminating.

A is for alphabet, action, Amazon, and attitude
B is for Bed rest, bailout, and bully
C is for coughing, contagion, caring, and cooperation
D is for deliveries, distance, and denial
E is for Economy, e pluribus unum, and extrovert's challenge
F is for facts, Fauci, friendship, and finding ways
G is for generosity, gatherings limited, and global
H is for helping, hopeful, and hand washing
I is for isolation, imagination, and inconceivable
J is for judicious, jogging, and jokes
K is for kissing no more, kitchen time, and knock out drops
L is for listening, loving, and laughing
M is for moments, masks, and moratorium
N is for no touching, nurses, and nesting
O is for ordeal, order online, and oxygen
P is for patience, positivity,and politics
Q is for quarantine, questions, and quiescent
R is for rest, rationing, and reading
S is for social distancing, sleeping, and seed planting
T is for testing, time, and toilet paper
U is for understanding, Uncle Sam, and unemployed
V is for virus, visits curtailed, and vaccines
W is for washing hands, watching, and waiting
X is for X this thing out
Y is for young get it too
Z is for zipped right through the alphabet

Much has changed since March and, clearly, much has not. I'm sure many of you could add to this as I probably could to. We soldier on, as they say. Stay well. Keep a sense of humor. Hope it ends sooner rather than later.

Here's to no more sleepless nights.

(And a thanks to Catharine and her writing class for reminding me of this whole alphabet thing. 😀)

WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

With all that is going on in our country and around the world on this July 4, 2020 I found myself turning back to this piece created many years ago. It bears words that from long, long ago that spoke to me then and continue to do so today in the midst of the upheaval.

Again, I ponder the words. What do I find worthy of honoring? What would I choose to cultivate? And what, really, on this Independence Day does freedom ultimately mean to me?

So I thought to share these thoughts and the questions that arose from them with whatever follower chooses to read this sporadic blog and hope that you, too, will be moved by these words from another time and another place that just seem to continue to echo down through the years.