January 3, 2021 thought for today: Use your wit as a shield, not as a dagger. American Proverb

Another Sunday has rolled around. The early bible study and the sermon were uplifting and the sharing of physical and spiritual time with friends was a spark to the psyche too. 

After a short drive looking for a photo image and a fast food breakfast, I settled in at home for a relaxed Sunday afternoon on the computer and other happy pop up surprises that may present themselves. 

Yesterday’s photo theme was “paper”. That is a theme wide open with subject matter. I had a stack of paper on my desk that I was working on so it turned out to be one of the “models” I used. Another was a stack of newspapers that I keep on hand for all kind of needs (not including lining a bird cage as I use to do many years ago). 

Sue needed some meds picked up. She sent me a text so that I could pick them up on my way home from church but I was already home when I got it. So after I got a couple of quick projects I went back to the pharmacy to pick up the pills. Beyond a few other side interests today that should be today’s journey. 

The word today is related. If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves, it is pointless to search elsewhere, Francois de La Rochefoucauld.  So soon did we, wayfarers, begin to learn that man's life is rounded with the same few facts, the same simple relations everywhere, and it is vain to travel to find it new, Henry David Thoreau.  Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else, Gautama Buddha.  Relation is the essence of everything that exists, Meister Eckhart. There is a difference between justice and consideration in one's relations to one's fellow men. It is the function of justice not to do wrong to one's fellow men of considerateness, not to wound their feelings, Marcus Tullius Cicero.  All infractions of love and equity in our social relations are speedily punished-by fear...be honest with a man and you have no fear. Try to deceive and the relationship deteriorates, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  ....cruelty to animals is contrary to man's duty to himself, because it deadens in him the feeling of sympathy for their sufferings, and thus a natural tendency that is very useful to morality in relation to other human beings is weakened, Immanuel Kant. I believe that pity is a law like justice, and that kindness is a duty like uprightness. That which is weak has a right to the kindness and pity of that which is strong. In the relations of man with the animals...there is a great ethic, scarcely perceived as yet, which will at length break through into the light, and which will be the corollary and the complement to humans ethics. Are there not here unsounded depths for the thinker?.....Victor Hugo. 

Today’s photo challenge is “ a car”. On my way home from church I made the short drive looking for examples. I was surprised to find that I came up with quite a few “samples”. There were cars parked half way up curbs, there were cars sitting alone in busy shopping parking lots and many car that were “just because”. I found this one sitting on a flat bed truck. The background was not as interesting as I would have liked so I separated the truck and car from the rest of the image then used a motion filter on the background part of the photo.     

This article is another one about animals but this time more of an informational and open for thought kind of article rather than sentimental or otherwise. It is about a count of birds in an area of Ohio. There is a place in Muskingum County called Chandlersville that does a “Christmas Bird Count”. It started in 1900. According to the article it is an event “run under the auspices of the National Audubon Society”. There is a count of birds, species and number, seen within 15 miles in a 24 hour time period. It takes place from mid-December to early January. This event allows for a keeping a record of winter bird life in the area. Some of this happens on the property of the Wilds. Since it occurs on the land in the area of the Wilds other animals can be observed as well. This year the bird count included fifty species. As the bird count was going on it allowed for a study of the mammals at the Wilds too. Some of the animals that were seen and watched were a herd of Sichuan takin (bear like goats), a group of Pere David’s Deer (saved by zoos after “exirpated in its native China in 1900), a pair of Bactrian camels, an African painted dog, along with several other species. All of this put together makes the annual bird watch interesting every year.   

Sunday has almost become a Taco Bell night for dinner. 

Joy