December 18, 2020 thought for the day: Solve one problem, and you keep a hundred others away. Chinese Proverb

I had a chance to “sleep in” again. It feels so good to begin to wake up and be able to roll over to catch another few moments of quite and peace under the warm blankets. 

Yesterday on my way home from printing at church, I went by Westgate park to get the photo of the day for today, “rainbow”. There is a mural on the wall of the ratchet ball court that is an array of color. I thought it would fit the theme perfectly. 

Lowell and Rebecca took me to lunch yesterday at Red Lobster for my birthday. I know restaurants are a place where we have to be careful due to  COVID 19. It seems Red Lobster is doing all it can to keep safety in mind, plexiglass dividers, tables roped off, throw away menus, staff with masks. Yesterday there might have been twelve tables in the whole space taken up while we were in there, very minimal. After that we stopped at Mick and Kim’s. I got to play with William for a while. I also got a text message from my grand daughter-in-law and my two great grand children, Lexie and Drew. I haven’t heard from them often so when I do it’s a treat. I think it’s been a little more often in the past few weeks, that’s a God send. 

I really don’t have anything with time limits on an agenda today. I got a couple more calendars bound and ready. Yesterday I picked up one of the lighter cartridges of ink so I was able to run another calendar this morning. By the way, I have fourteen to run. That’s why it takes so long. 

Since yesterday was full with the printing at church and then my lunch and visit I didn’t get the laundry done as I usually do on Thursday. That means today is catch up day. 

There is still a good bit of snow on the ground in the grassy areas and on tree branches and fence posts and things left outside but the streets are clear. 

Besides doing the laundry I worked on getting the message/hymn sheets ready to hand out. Rebecca and Lowell gave me two tropical house plants in the form of bonsai starters. One of them was having trouble standing on it’s own so I repotted it. It is standing straighter now without leaning. Rebecca remembered how I admire bonsai and the heavy twisted trunks on some styles. These two have perfect shapes for my taste. 

Since I was kind of stuck here at home working on the laundry and the calendars, I decided to try to find the photo of the day near by, “one colour”. I attempted finding a bulb on the Christmas tree that would serve the purpose but I wasn’t happy with that out come. So I noticed a neighbor’s door and awning that have always caught my attention and decided to use it. I separated it from the rest of the image so that I could further set it off by turning the rest of the shot to black and white. Now the red stands out even more than as I glance out the window and see it.  

The word today is pure.  The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails, William Shakespeare. The light which shines in the eye is really the light of the heart. The light which fills the heart is the light of God, which is pure and separate from the light of intellect and sense, Rumi.  Rare is the union of beauty and purity, Juvenal. The scholar only knows how dear these silent, yet eloquent, companions of pure thoughts and innocent hours become in the season of adversity. When all that is worldly turns to dross around us, these only retain their steady value, Washington Irving. Nature is fair in proportion as the youth is pure. The heavens and the earth are one flower; the earth is the calyx, the heavens the corolla, Henry David Thoreau. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest in knowledge, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Let our lives be pure as snow fields, where our steps leave a mark but no stain, Sophie Swetchine. Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus....I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, Thomas Jefferson.  To love is human. To feel pain is human. Yet to still love despite the pain is pure angel, Rumi. When pure sincerity forms within, it is outwardly realized in other people's hearts, Laozi. All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If people speak or act with evil thoughts, pain follows them. If people speak or act with pure thoughts, happiness follows them, like a shadow that never leaves them, Gautama Buddha. 

Jack Hanna has done wonders for the Columbus Zoo. I love his ways as an ambassador for the zoo and his trips with some of the animals to various television show. This article is about his retirement celebration which because of our time in history will be virtual only. The usual “Home for the Holidays” event that happens this time of year won’t be happening in that way this year. Jack who is originally from Tennessee was quoted as saying "We are so grateful that central Ohio welcomed us with open arms all those years ago...being able to help transform the Columbus Zoo has been the opportunity of a lifetime. I am so lucky to have been able to follow my dream of working with animals and hope that we have inspired many others to do the same along the way." The original plans for his retirement celebration had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. Now the staff have made other plans to celebrate with a “hose of community events to honor him’. To start the festivities the roadway along the zoo and Zoombezi Bay has been dedicated as “Jack Hanna Way”. The staff has asked guests to share memories of him on the zoo’s facebook page. There already is a “Jungle Jack’s Top 10 Moments” on YouTube. There will be some areas of Zoombezi Bay renamed along with retheming. Some things will be moved to The Wilds. The zoo is opening a new education building supported by a grant from the Jack and Suzi Hanna fund. In this article the zoo President stated, "Throughout the 25 years that I’ve worked with Jack, I’ve appreciated his authenticity and his endless energy and devotion to making the world a better place". A newer area of the zoo called “Adventure Cove” and its Animal Encounters Village is supported by the Jack and Suzi Hanna fund. As many of us know, Jack is famous for bringing “ambassador animals” with him for public appearances.  In 2019 a life-sized bronze statues of Jack and Suzi we installed near the entrance of the Heart of Africa region.

It’s come around again, Pizza night. 

Joy