January 12, 2024 a thought for today, Doubt whom you will, but never doubt yourself. Albanian Proverb

 

The first upload for yesterday was “fruit in a bowl”. I had ordered fruit on my last order for bananas, apples and grapes mostly for this image. I didn’t set up the shot until yesterday so the grapes were beginning to show their age. I needed to find a recipe fo them right away.  

The second upload for yesterday was “book(s). I found the box of books as I was working at the church so I used it for the upload. I believe it is part of a collection that is offered to our visitors for a very minimal price. This add to our total from our fall sale which goes to other items for the community. 

The third upload for yesterday was “food”. This was another image I found will I was at church. It is part of our offerings in our food pantry program. 

Life today. All of my time sensitive work for this week at church is done. So today is a more relaxed day than some of the others this week. I hope to have the time to make a recipe that I found for grapes. The back story for that is....I had a photo of the day that required fruit in a bowl. So I ordered some fruit with my grocery order last week. The girl who filled my order gave me two orders of grapes (or, more likely, I accidently ordered two). My sister and I won’t eat that many grapes in a week so we, together, were trying to think of a way to use them. In some research on that question I found a recipe for “Schiacciata Sweet Flatbread with grapes and rosemary”. The recipe calls for making the dough from scratch, once upon a time in my life I did that sort of thing but that ship sailed a long time ago. We are modifying the recipe with Pillsbury sheet dough. That was one of the orders I froze the other one. 

My first photo for today is “roses”. I took this one while I was in the floral area of the grocery store when I picked up a few things I needed. 

Sweet Pea’s phenobarbital was running low so I called yesterday to place a reorder with plans to pick it up today. I didn’t realize it would be so cold today. I would rather not have to go out but she needs the meds. I started the car fifteen minutes before I was ready to leave so it would be warmer. Sweet Pea didn’t mind the temps (she has a double coat...top coat has medium-length hair, which is straight or wavy, and the undercoat is thick and dense.) And of course we stopped for brunch while we were out, Wendy’s this time. I love it when people see her in the car and note how beautiful she is. 

One of my photos today is called “gratitude”. I spent some time to search through my archives to find a photo I took of my three “babies” nearly sixty years ago. I found one! It is aged and so old that I wanted to add a filter to zhuzh it up a bit. They are at the top of my list for “gratitude”...God gifted me with them beyond my dreams....perfect human beings. A life time of satisfaction and graditude for me.

The word for today is thirst.  The bible is a remarkable fountain: the more one draws and drinks of it, the more it stimulates thirst, Martin Luther.  When your throat is parched with thirst, do you desire a cup of gold? Horace.  The insatiable thirst for everything that lies beyond, and that life reveals, is the most living proof of our immortality, Charles Baudelaire.  There is within every soul a thirst for happiness and meaning, Thomas Aquinas.  Our misery is that we thirst so little for these sublime things, and so much for the mocking trifles of time and space, Charles Spurgeon.   A brook may quench thirst as well as a great river, German Proverb.  We can't help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water, Rumi. It is wretched business to be digging a well just as thirst is mastering you, Plautus. The thirst for the Infinite proves infinity, Victor Hugo.  How prompt we are to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our bodies; how slow to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our souls! Henry David Thoreau. Two there are, who are never satisfied; The lover of the world and the lover of Knowledge, Jalaluddin Rumi.  The sole purpose is to provide infinite springs, at which the soul may allay the eternal thirst TO KNOW which is forever unquenchable within it, since to quench it, would be to extinguish the soul's self, Edgar Allan Poe.

The last upload for today is “shopping”. I do most of my shopping on line these days but I was in the store yesterday and took this photo for today’s upload.

The article. I am close to this story since I work with people who suffer this sad circumstance. So when I read the title I thought the story would possibly benefit me as well as share with others. The title is “Can Columbus End Homelessness?” It begins by relating that “housing alone doesn’t solve homelessness”. It is related to mental health and wages which greatly affects any one on the edge of being homeless is employed. What the Open Shelter can offer was mentioned in this piece.  It is open as the first 24-hour emergency walk-in shelter in Ohio”. It offeres meals, showers, clothing, free phones and more”.   But there is a deeper problem, getting people off the streets permanently. Obtaining valid indentification and Social Security number and birth records are stumbling blocks for homeless folks. There is an annual task that the Community Shelter Board makes called a “Point-in-Time Count”. It is count of the homeless population on a single day. Last years count “revealed a 22 percent increase” from the last count. It was the largest ever made. The article went on to say that funding won’t be the only thing to consider. Education along with the funding has to be provided the minority. The need for housing will cost a lot of money and where to get that funding is the question. The writer of the article bluntly said in his opinion that “There’s plenty of money......It’s just the distribution is not there...... it’s something bigger than money — it’s will”. The article ended by mentioning that “the rich are getting richer because they’re paying less tax”. 

Here it is pizza night again. 

Joy                                                                 needs attention