May 1, 2021 a thought for today, Tears come more often from the eyes than from the heart. Russian Proverb

I love week ends. I always have....in the beginning of this love affair with the week ends the emotion formed because I didn’t have to go to school (how stupid of me (and have I ever changed my mind about that)). Now it’s because the end of an old week where all the events have gone to a place called memory and then opens to the beginning of a batch of whole new days like empty pages to fill. 

My Saturday agenda began with the ususal routine ... taking care of the pets, opening the window coverings to the morning sun, a cup of tea, and my early morning virtual visits.

My photo “assignment” for yesterday was “spider web”. This isn’t the season for spider webs outside here in Ohio right now. But found a few in the garage and in a dark un-bothered corner of the basement. 

Later in the morning I made a trip to the church with the message/hymn lyrics/bible study to drop off, then by the pharmacy to pick up Sue’s meds, next a stop at McDonalds for brunch. All along the way I was watching for my photo of the day theme and the newly developed interest in throw aways in the form of photos to show how they can be seen differently, as a form of art or, at the least, a lesson in how manners are or are not practiced. 

Another of the minor Saturday chores for today was to clean up of my crochet corner. I have several projects in various stages of progress and have accommodated stacks of several colors and weights of yarn. They needed organized and straightened. Just an FYI, two different projects of games/toys for my great grandchildren, a yarn blanket in a quilted style arrangement for a single sized bed (an on going project), and some snow ball ornaments made with a lacy weight yarn (a little hard on these old eyes but a joy to behold). The crocheting projects along with some memory/brain exercise games lead to the end of my day and onward toward an hour of leisurely reading every day. 

Today’s photo challenge was “something yellow”. I took several different areas of dandelions and some
yellow yield signs. I also noticed the yellow mustard on my bun at brunch time. I thought that was a kind of interesting photo in textures, colors and shapes.  

Just a note on another area of my impressions, I think of many of these quotes that I share with you daily as parables, you know.....words to cause thoughts to occur. The word for today is trees. God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars. Martin Luther. You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters. Saint Bernard. The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. Moliere. It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. Robert Louis Stevenson. And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. William Shakespeare.  Through a tree we were made debtors to God; so through a tree we have our debt canceled, Irenaeus of Lyons. A murmuring, fateful, giant voice, out of the earth and sky, Voice of a mighty dying tree in the Redwood forest dense.... The wood-spirits came from their haunts of a thousand years, to join the refrain; But in my soul I plainly heard. Murmuring out of its myriad leaves, Down from its lofty top, rising two hundred feet high, Out of its stalwart trunk and limbs - out of its foot-thick bark, That chant of the seasons and time - chant, not of the past only, but of the future, Walt Whitman.  Trees, though they are cut and loped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again. Pericles.  What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away. Henry Ward Beecher. 

Yesterday was the last day of the month. I usually make a composite of the daily photo for the month so here is April 2021's.

The article today is about the people who enjoy the Special Olympics. So I will take this opportunity to share a view. Handicapped people, no matter what the “handicap”, have a value many people ignore, even some see with disgust. This article shows one way they enjoy their lives. Many years ago a movie star named Dale Evans called her new born daughter an “angel unaware”, a perfect description for her child born with down syndrome, who lived only a shot time, long enough to leave a lesson. In the book her mother wrote, she, Robin, the angle, “.....speaks to God about the mission of love she just completed on earth.” I believe autism is also seen in the manner of people’s vision of the humans with down syndrom and many other seen and not so visible handicaps. I wish we could all see the magic they were given at their birth, a magic we can only observe, and many of us, not experience personally. Know what? I thank God for them. The Special Olympics Ohio “hit a pause” because of the virus in 2020. At that point the Franklin County Special Olympics offered a virtual training program to continue to promote information about physical and mental health. A new season started on April 5 letting some of the waiting participants back on the tennis courts. So at the beginning of this new season they are offering a social club where the athletes can “mingle with friends and coaches at John F. Kennedy Park in Reynoldsburg”. They hope to have this meeting weekly through June 14. During this meeting they can go for a walk, play Uno, kick a soccer ball or play corn hole. It lets the athletes get back together in a safe way.  They are able to play the game now but it’s hard for them not to be able to give each other a high-five or a pat on the back right now. The activities are going back to normal slowly with restrictions still in place. They are under what is called “Phase 2" where thirty-five people (maximum) can return to practices.  They need to wear masks when they are not playing, practicing or competing. One of the officials said that this group “falls in the high-rick category” so things have to be handled with extra cautions. 

 Haven’t decided for sure yet but I think I am making chili for dinner. 

Joy

Today’s “discard” photo may not be really a discard as much as probably a “lost”. I wonder how long it took for them to realize one of the slippers is gone. At least there is also a touch of color in the image, yellow, along with the texture of the pebbles and the sparse show of bits of grass and weeds against the earth tone background.