August 21, 2024 a thought for today, Silence is the answer to many things. Dutch Proverb

One of the challenge uploads for yesterday was “found on the beach”. This was taken some time ago. It is my granddaughter exploring the sand on a California beach. The feeling in her toes and hand and what else might be found there. 

The next upload was “photographer’s choice”. After I shot this and examined it in Photoshop I found that I have other images like it. The thing is they were each taken on a different day. The work is an on going situation.

Another upload for yesterday was “mouth-watering”. This batch of cookies is from a popular sweet shop in our area. They are, in fact, delicious. 

Yesterday was one of the days for a fourth upload. This challenge was titled
“pattern”. There is never two cloud patterns alike.  

Live today. What a day. My trying to get done ahead of due dates didn’t work out quite so well for the time. There are several last minute things to be plugged into partially completed documents. 

This is one of the days I have to make Sweet Peas chicken meat ball treats. She is completely out. I will hear about it, with eye contact, if there are none available tonight.

The first challenge today is “picnic” this was a birthday party picnic. It is always fun to have parties for children in a park or play area. It gives them fun things to do besides cake and ice cream. 

Today is also another day of food pantry. Yesterday we had a goodly number of families to visit. Today we will most likely have about the same. 

I took a break to go to food pantry (after I picked up Sue at the mechanics). We had a lot of visitors today. I think about 35 families. Yesterday was busy but not quite as busy. 

The next upload for today is “crisp”. I like more “cakey” type cookies. But these crisp chocolate chip cookies taste just as good. 

The word today is little.  The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over. Aesop.  To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. Emily Dickinson.  If the king loves music, there is little wrong in the land. Mencius.  Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment. Horace.  May we have communion with God in the secret of our hearts, and find Him to be to us as a little sanctuary. Charles Spurgeon. Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give I give myself. Walt Whitman.  Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty. George Eliot.  Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods. Confucius.  I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow. Abraham Lincoln.  I have a Creator who knew all things, even before they were made - even me, his poor little child. Saint Patrick.  An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself. Charles Dickens.  Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character. Hosea Ballou. Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold. Euripides.  He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much. Lao Tzu.  Stand a little less between me and the sun. Diogenes. 

The last challenge upload for today is another of the “photographer’s choice”. It is also another shot taken of one of the flower in a garden at the park. They are beginning to fade now. However, there are some autumn blooms beginning to show. 

Article: I don’t always know what I am getting into when I glance at titles of the articles. This one sounded like something I don’t know about or remember from school. So I am sharing as I am learning. The title: How Jefferson and Madison’s partnership – a friendship told in letters – shaped America’s separation of church and state”. According to the article 73 percent of adults agree that religion should be kept separate from government policies. On the other hand there are those who are against it and according to the article that number appears to be growing. I was surprised to see that one government member in 2023 said that  “The separation of church and state is a misnomer … it comes from a phrase that was in a letter that [Thomas] Jefferson wrote”. What he meant was that “they did not want the government to encroach upon the church — not that they didn’t want principles of faith to have influence on our public life”. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison shaped American views on the this topic. Jefferson wrote the “Virginia Bill for Religious Freedom in 1777, the most comprehensive declaration of religious freedom at the time”. It meant “religious opinions were outside the authority of civil officials”. Several years later Madison wrote “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments”. This was to propose a protest “to support Christian teachers with tax money, affirmed the values of church-state separation and religious equality”. At some point “the religious right grew into a political force”. In the article it was mentioned that both Jefferson and Madison believed in a supreme begin but “thought science and reason were the best paths to understanding religion”. They were in “social standing and affiliation with the Anglican Church” and worked “to advance religious freedom”. Further in the article “both were convinced that government should avoid supporting religion, even if no particular religion was given preference” and “insisted that people should have broad religious freedoms”. Jefferson and Madison both believed that it was “entwined” with freedom of “inquiry and conscience”. They both also believed that separation of church and state is key to ensuring those freedoms”. By the way, they each held a “close intellectual and emotional affection” for each other

Maybe hot dogs for dinner. 

Joy

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