January 15, 2021 thought for today: Thorns themselves will not harm you -- you hurt yourself on the thorns. African Proverb

It’s been a busy day, one with one inescapable household chores out of the way for another week. That’s the good kind of day. First on the agenda, after email checks, etc,  was a trip to the grocery store. The work that task brings about doesn’t end with just the going through the aisles, then through check out, then loading the car. For me the hard part is once we get home, unloading the car and then the biggy, putting things away.  With that all behind me, I took on the next item on the list.....watering the indoor “garden”.  Then I finished the message/hymn lyric sheet for the Saturday free meal at church.

The photo theme for January 14 was “holding something small”. I went through a box of “small” things I have packed away. There were all kinds of “small” things, marbles, earrings, beads, and other trinkets. I found this marble that one of the kids had left behind from years ago. 

It was spitting snow earlier after some light rain, now the sun is coming out from behind the clouds and the temperatures are really not so bad for the month of January in Ohio.

The Thursday printing task was uneventful yesterday. It went quickly and even left some time to start moving the taped services from the main computer drive to the new external hard drive. 

One of two photo challenges for today is “I love this smell”. I don’t wear perfume so I don’t have any in the house. One thing that always captures my attention I the aroma department is some spices and extracts with vanilla being the most outstanding. 

The word today is respect.  He that respects not is not respected, George Herbert. The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself, Michel de Montaigne. It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself, Thomas Paine. The greatest difficulty is that men do not think enough of themselves, do not consider what it is that they are sacrificing when they follow in a herd, or when they cater for their establishment, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Esteem must be founded on some sort of preference. Bestow it on everybody and it ceases to have any meaning at all, Moliere. When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments; tenderness for what he is, and respect for what he may become, Louis Pasteur.  Respect is better procured by exacting than soliciting it, Sir Fulke Greville. It is well for a man to respect his own vocation whatever it is and to think himself bound to uphold it and to claim for it the respect it deserves, Charles Dickens. The only things in which we can be said to have any property are our actions. Our thoughts may be bad, yet produce no poison; they may be good, yet produce no fruit. Our riches may be taken away by misfortune, our reputation by malice, our spirits by calamity, our health by disease, our friends by death. But our actions must follow us beyond the grave; with respect to them alone, we cannot say that we shall carry nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world, Charles Caleb Colton.  He removes the greatest ornament of friendship who takes away from it respect, Marcus Tullius Cicero. 

The second photo today is “black and white”. I used an image of a bouquet of carnations and daisies that I had taken in the grocery store and uploaded a few days ago. I used “darkroom” (Photoshop) filters on that photo to turn it to black and white for this “assignment”. I like black and white photos with all the depths of both blacks and whites and their gray off spring of hues. 

It’s nice to see newness especially in this time of pandemic. I thought I heard somewhere where    Easton was having financial difficulties but I must have been wrong or it has been turned around. This article is mentioning some new stores that have been and will be opening at Easton Town Center. It sounds like an impressive number of new businesses in the shopping center. Th number fifteen was listed with Macy’s being one of them. During the pandemic Easton offered drive-in movies, a drive through Easter egg hunt, “hula-hoop yoga” and some fund raisers to continue to give people a place to spend time while keeping them safe. The managers of the town center want to keep such activities going as long as it may be needed. They hope to offer horse drawn carriage rides, putting up “igloos”for some restaurants and other outdoor events such as a possible ice skating. Other stores that have recently opened are Slurping Turtle (a ramen and sushi restaurant), Dragon Donuts, Crimson coffee shop, and True Food Kitchen, Bans sporting apparel, UGG shoes and clothing, Luxe Levels apparel and Lilylimes children store.  Some more new one’s coming are LemonShark Poke and Makai Grill, Sono Wood Fired pizza, and Brassica. Easton has weathered some difficult times and has come through. There have been some stores moving out so they will be filling those spaces. It is planned for a 136 room hotel, Aloft, to open at Easton in the spring as there is “expansion” beyond retail and restaurants. 

I am making taco salad for dinner tonight. 

Joy