December 23, 2019 thought for the day: If you plant, you harvest. Filipino Proverb

It’s been a wonderful day. I got to see my granddaughter and my two great grandchildren. One of my son’s and daughter-in-law came by too. Due to several happenings Christmas will be a little sparse this year so this was a highlight of the season for me.

Before that I was at the church to print the Christmas Eve bulletin. Tony and Bob were busy setting up things for tomorrow too so we had some time for some conversation.

December 22 the theme was “I did this today!”. I find it easier now to “wrap” my packages in decorative bags rather than folding and taping sheets of paper. So the photo of what I did today was place the gifts in the decorative bags ready for the Christmas giving.

Now it’s time to start on next Sunday’s bulletin and some more work on the newsletter but first I am going to take the rest of the day a little on the easy side. The weather has taken a bit of a turn from the cold weather to some really pleasant temps.

The word is daily.  The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life, William Morris. Human happiness comes not from infrequent pieces of good fortune, but from the small improvements to daily life, Benjamin Franklin. History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquities, Marcus Tullius Cicero. To know that which lies before us in daily life is the prime wisdom, John Milton. In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart. In dealing with others, be gentle and kind. In speech, be true. In ruling, be just. In daily life, be competent. In action, be aware of the time and the season, Laozi.  Oh, how daily life is, Jules Laforgue.  What is the true test of character unless it be its progressive development in the bustle and turmoil, in the action and reaction of daily life, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In their daily life, all are braver than they know, Henry David Thoreau. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

There are many traditions that have come along in my long life time. Of course one of the oldest is to watch the children open their gifts and help them play with the new prizes. I will not be seeing my great grandson on this Christmas so I had him open his gift from me today. So did his aunt and uncle. They played with the match book cars they added to his collection on this December 23rd early Christmas gift exchange. A perfect time for me to capture a moment in time with this theme “tradition”.

The Columbus zoo is something to be proud of. We have grown and grown and have done some wonderful preservation projects. Today’s article is about one of the newest additions, more polar bear cubs. The zoo has been breeding polar bear cubs for a long time, at this point we have had half the country’s polar bears. The zoo keepers watch new born cubs and their mother for all hours using cameras to computer and cell phones. The cubs are no bigger than a stick of butter.  The mother of this latest cub is Aurora, our 13 year old bear. It’s father its Lee, a 20-year old who came to live here last year. It is said that every birth of these polar bears is significant. Apparently, due to many factors it is difficult for them to reproduce in captivity and the wild. Predicting that the mother may be pregnant is hard. After a cub is born there are many things that have to be watched extremely carefully. They may weight one pound and the survival rate is about 50%. On top of all the problems sometimes the mothers refuse to take care of them. In those cases the zoo keepers hand feed and tend to them. To help in the successful births genetic history is used for the breeding purposes.  Because of climate changes resulting in their continued existence there was the formation of the federal Endangered Species Act. There are other factors that affect the control of breeding polar bears. Some are the effects that having used contraceptives earlier has caused added problems in the breeding processes. Also, because of federal acts for protecting animals the polar bears can’t easily be moved from zoo to zoo to find suitable mates. Somehow cubs can be sent to other zoos to grow up and then be bred.

Since I have my potato peeler and mandolin back again I am going to make homemade hash browns to go with the coney’s and brats.

Joy