Sunday, December 27, 2020

 December 26, 2020 thought for the day: The flowers in your garden don't smell as sweet as those in the wild, but they last much longer. Chinese Proverb

The day after Christmas....a day of remembering the reason for the season and the love that was in the air, the feeling of a hug of comfort and the gifts of blessings. 

I’m planning to just bask in the glow for today, not planning much just enjoying and mellowing.

The photo theme for yesterday was “a fave colour”. I have probably mentioned before that my favorite color may change from day to day. It depends on my mood and the kind of day that is happening. But yesterday the color was green. So the image shot below the branches of an evergreen tree was the photo of choice. 

I may leisurely work on the newsletter template, getting the calendar set up and small sections updated. The time I have to get it completed is a little abbreviated. Due to the holidays and my family schedule I extended the deadline a week. That would put New Years day as the day to wrap it up and get it mailed but the lady who helps me suggested we do it on Thursday to keep New Years day open. So that only gives me three days to find appropriate filler if I don’t get anything from others. So that will be the agenda for the beginning of next week along with the bulletin and message/hymn page. 

We still have snow on the ground and cold air outside. The snow is pretty in spots and messy in others where people made piles along edges as they cleared areas that are easier to traverse. At least we had a “clean” and “blanket” of white for Christmas morning. 

Lowell gave Bob an idea for a new use for his leaf blower....now he uses it on new and light fallen snow, makes the shoveling to come later a lot easier. 

Lowell and Rebecca brought dinner yesterday and spent an hour or so with us which made this “new normal (?)” Christmas happily livable.  I missed the rest of the family and hope next year and whatever number of years left for the rest of us a happy time to gather together. 

The word today is realization.  Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves, Henry David Thoreau. Man's ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he is born. And what is it that reason demands of him? Something very easy-that he live in accordance with his own nature, Seneca the Younger.  Self-confidence is not hope; it is the self-judgment of your own internal forces in their relation to the world without, which results from the failure of many hopes and the non-realization of many fears, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.   The realization of God's presence is the one sovereign remedy against temptation, Francois Fenelon. Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself, Rumi. The secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to exist for us; to realize all that we know; in the high refinement of modern life, in arts, in sciences, in books, in men, to exact good faith, reality, and a purpose; and first, last, midst, and without end, to honor every truth by use, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The secret of contentment is the realization that life is a gift, not a right. Next to faith this is the highest art - to be content with the calling in which God has placed you, Martin Luther. As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age, Henry David Thoreau.  The drum of the realization of the promise is beating, we are sweeping the road to the sky. Your joy is here today, what remains for tomorrow? Rumi.  

The photo challenge for today is “cool”. I checked to see what some other members of my club were
using for this theme because cool can be temperature motivated or the “cool man, cool” kind of thing. I chose Bob using his leaf blower as a snow blower on my car windows as a “cool” image, I think that’s a cool (avant-garde) idea.  

Here I go again, more about animals. This one is about rhinos at the Wilds, our wild and open version of the Columbus zoo. There are two new white rhinos. According to the article this is the ‘longest lineage of the species outside its native ranges in Africa’. A male calf was born Friday. One female calf was born a little earlier on December 9. I learned from the article that white rhinos aren’t actually white. The name came from a mistranslation of the Afrikaans word that describes the animal’s mouth. The word is “wyd” meaning wide. The white rhino species is threatened. This I didn’t know until I read the article, Rhinos are the most frequently poached species for their horns. The CEO, Tom Stalf, said that "Each birth is vital in protecting the future of the species." The Wilds also cares for Asian one-horned rhinos and has had eight calves born  here. The zoo doesn’t have any rhinos. The last one, 31 year old Rosie, a black rhino, was euthanized due to health problems related to aging. I learned from the article that “the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, ....... including the Columbus Zoo and The Wilds, recommends breeding pairs for at-risk species like rhinos.” The data for tracking genetic history of animals allows recommending the best mates and helps to keep animals healthy by maintaining genetic diversity. The Wilds is closed for the season however there is a program called Winter at the Wilds offering tours by reservation through April. 

We are having roast beef hash from the left over roast beef dinner Rebecca and Lowell brought and shared with us for Christmas. 

Joy


No comments:

Post a Comment