August 1, 2021 a thought for today, Every exit is an entry to somewhere. African Proverb

I keep hoping the congregation will start coming back to services. Some have come back slowly after the pandemic but there are still several that I haven’t seen in over a year. The bible study before church service was pretty well attended some came in late but made up by joining in a great discussion about the study topic. 

Yesterday’s photo challenge was “dreamy”. This photo is from my archives. I came across it as I was searching for a photo that I had generated into a digital design and decided that it is perfect for this subject. 

This months photos are going to have a negative/positive outlook. Every day this month will be shooting something we are grateful for each day. I have and see many things I am grateful for each day and that is what is going to make it difficult (negative) on the one hand. It will be hard to choose just one to use for the subject each day. On the other hand (positive), there won’t be any shortage of subject matter. Since it is this wide open, I may choose a photo more for its aesthetic qualities in mind. I started looking and deciding and shooting on the way to church, at church and on the way home.

This being Sunday there is a thin agenda for the rest of the day. 

Yesterday, being the last day of the month, meant it was time to finish the composite of all the photos of the day that I have uploaded for this month.

The word for today is communication. Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute, Josh Billings. The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be, Edgar Allan Poe.  Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows, John Milton. Many can argue - not many converse, Amos Bronson Alcott. The pen is the tongue of the mind. Horace. An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind, Walter Bagehot.  What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  No pleasure is fully delightful without communications, and no delight absolute except imparted, Michel de Montaigne. Knowledge is to be acquired only by a corresponding experience. How can we know what we are told merely? Each man can interpret another's experience only by his own, Henry David.Thoreau. I can hear those glances that you think are silent, Jean Racine. All communication must lead to change, Aristotle. Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few, Pythagoras.  Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.  Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill, Gautama Buddha. Give me the gift of a listening heart, Solomon. 

As I mentioned earlier in this message, this month’s photo a day theme is a bit different and interesting. The theme for the month is “a month of gratitude” . Each day is supposed to be something we can capture that day to show one of the things we are grateful for. Today, as I was listening to the prelude at church and glanced around, I spotted the light fixture, the light coming from it and the architecture in and around it. It is something that awes me every time. 

I have passed the farm in this article many time. It will look a lot different if it becomes a “solar source”. The Galbreaths hope to make 900 acres of their 2,400 acre farm a “solar project” that would provide power to 50,000 homes. This was a “generational decision” since “the life of a solar farm could be 30 to 40 years”. At one time the farm was 4,800 acres. Some land was donated or sold over the years. Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park bought some. A thousand acres are leased to a farmer for corns and beans. Four hundred acres are leased to a sod farmer.  And there is an air strip on the farm. There is Darby House used as an event center and twenty rental houses on the property. The land planed for the solar project will run from Broad Street along Darby Creek Drive. The Galbreath family is interested in the environment and nature. The plan is to have pollinating flowers and grasses planted between the rows of solar panels and around them, inviting bees, butterflies and other wild life. According to the article the project would employ eight hundred people during the construction. Other positive aspects of the project are improvement of storm water runoff and top soil erosion with the plants. There is some concern from the Battelle Metro Park that there may be potential damage to the park. Another group representing some people who have property near the project fear reduced property values. The company working on this project states that studies show property values are not harmed fry solar farms. The company is also working with the metro park to address and assist with their worries. The article mentioned that one lady to the Galbreath’s that their grandfather would be disappointed in this project. Galbreath replied, “Quite to the contrary; he would be very proud of us being a good steward of the land and passing it on and not just developing it into a city with smokestacks.” It is also reported that there will be no long-term impact on the land.  

It’s going to be KFC for dinner tonight. 

Joy

                                       life....inflexible......pliable