March 8, 2021 a thought for the day, The tongue slow and the eyes quick. Mexican Proverb

After a week plus on wrapping up the most current newsletter, then the weekly bulletin, message hand out and then the top of the list, annual report, the person that is me today is like a balloon that has lost all it’s air, flat and wrinkled. The only thing on the agenda for this week is the bulletin and massage. I finished the back side of the bulletin the first thing this morning. I am waiting for the minister to send me the information I need to do the inside part but that may not get to me until tomorrow or maybe even Wednesday. I mention planned timing for getting it done but I have learned that it must coincide with a different persons schedule. 

I have some kitchen work to do today. The dish washer is nearly loaded so I have to finish that task but at the moment it is afternoon and I am hungry so I am going to make a grilled cheese sandwich and huge glass of iced tea.....

The photo challenge for March 7 was “g is for....”. Well, I looked around and decided on a gate. There are all kinds in my neighborhood. I wanted one that had some shape and form other than a simple board or chain link.  

I’m back....getting to work on key wording some photos and other photo work. That should be it for today. I will keep checking email to see if the information I need it there. 

The word today is show.  I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again, Stephen Grellet. Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me, Alexander Pope. Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are, Thomas Carlyle. To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it, Tacitus.  Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures, Thomas de Quincey.  Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great, Ralph Waldo Emerson. They do not love that do not show their love, William Shakespeare.  One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession, Sophocles.  Difficulties are things that show a person what they are, Epictetus.  Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all, Abraham Lincoln. Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth, Aesop. Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out, and strike it, merely to show that you have one, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.  

The theme for today is “h is for....”. As I was deciding what to round up for this image I remembered an
old, very, very old pair of hand cuffs we had. So I went downstairs in search of them. I found the old hand clothes iron and old style waffle iron from about the same period as in history as the hand cuffs but, alas, no hand cuffs of that vintage. But I did find a pair from a much more recent time period. 

It would be amazing to know what the children are thinking and feeling in this time of pandemic. This article may be offering a hint of that. The title to the article for today is: “Pandemic is changing the way children play”. In the article two children decided in March of 2020 to “escape the hard reality” by building a make believe world. Its name is WoofWoof Doggy Bone. In this “world” they create characters and plot rules. It consists of LEGOs and miniature dogs. There is a basement (“underworld”) and of course the “bedland” that is upstairs.  In this particular world there is a “Spiderman Planet” which is the capital of WoofWoof.  One of the “architects” (children and owners) of WoofWoof world says there are  “about a million, a gazillion” ‘characters’” and some of them are invisible.  The article related that this year in the lives of children stuffed animals are in quarantine, along with pretend COVID vaccines and other places like WoofWoof world. WoofWoof world is immune from the virus. Another 4-year-old child created her own COVID test kit of construction paper that fastens with duct tape and decorated them with marker ink in the shape of specimen tubes, swabs and cotton pads.  For children who go to day care centers real test kits are a real part of their lives. A psychologist of early childhood children said that these may be a signs that kids are processing “what they need to” to stay healthy.  It can be “critical to children’s physical, emotional, and social well-being”. I found this statement to be interesting... “Toys that comfort are on the rise-The pandemic has fueled demand for what the Toy Association – a trade organization – has dubbed “Zen-Sational” toys”. They assist in “self care and mindfulness” as coping mechanisms. Another thing that is on the rise is imaginary friends. One child mentioned in the article has a sketch book with drawings of robots and other characters that she talks to when the adults are busy. This is a sort of substitute for human friends they are now separated from. 

I think I am having Parmesan crusted chicken for dinner tonight. 

Joy