May 2, 2025 a thought for today, Stand in the light when you want to speak out. Native American Crow Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “my choice” , one of my series of minimalist. This is a view at a street corner that I pass on my way going to the store or heading to east on West Broad Street. The water tower in the park is the background to the minimal subject of a brick chimney. 

The next upload was “tripod”. I don’t use this as often as I should. I use the
camera on my Samsung 24+ or my small Sony 100vi and don’t have to set up a tripod when I shoot most of the time.

The last upload for yesterday was “my fave mug”. I have several cups that I could have used for this one. I felt that this one is more like a “mug”. It is the cup/mug my husband used in his time with the military. 

Live today. Yesterday was a productive and happy day. I got to church a little earlier than usual. Dennis came along at about the same time. And Donna right on our heels. I got a chance to chat with Donna for a bit and then with Patti. I got the printing and placing done in good time. The food delivery was almost complete when I left. I dropped off the mail and picked up a sausage on a biscuit. 

ami came to help me clean up one of the cupboards to make more room. It was good to be working with my daughter. It’s good to know she’s here when I need her. I am old enough to need more and more help with what may seem like small things and she’s ready when I call.  She really did most of the work. It’s now in better order than it has been in years. 

The first upload for today is “M is for....”. Melon. This is a bowl of my favorite melons, honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon. 

I had put my letter/blog and photos off for the extra things I had on my list so it was a push to get them and the laundry done before dinner time. 

As Sue and I were lounging on the front porch a bright orange car pulled up in front and someone got out of the car to come up our driveway. It was Marybeth one of my cousins that I haven’t seen in a long time. We had a nice time sharing memories.

Today is an “off” day as far as due-date-materials. So I am taking up a project from a pile here on my desk one at a time. I am getting more small projects done. I didn’t realize there was so many “this and thats” small things that I had put aside and accumulated. They are mostly done and done now. I am feeling that I am accomplishing a lot. 

The city is and has been doing some work in our community of neighborhood for a while now. It seems today is the day they are beginning work on our street. Those of the neighbors who park on the street have to move their cars for a few days. The trucks doing the work are exceptionally loud and thorough.  

The next upload for today is “soft”. Sweet peas hair is very soft and silky especially when the top coat is groomed. 

The word is would.  I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is. Blaise Pascal.  Study the past, if you would divine the future. Confucius.  I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating. Sophocles.  What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? Vincent Van Gogh.  If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever. Thomas Aquinas.  Let him that would move the world first move himself. Socrates. First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. Epictetus.  Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality. Abraham Lincoln.  Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss. Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence. Isaac Newton.  We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less. Diogenes. No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune. Plutarch.  Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country? Sitting Bull.  He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees. Benjamin Franklin.  A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. John Calvin. 

The last up load is another of “ my choice” and another of my series of minimalist. It is the is the side of my trusty toaster.  

Article: This is the time of year for celebrations and this is a big one and has a long history. The title is “Memorial Day 2025: Holiday is more than a barbecue....”.  Memorial Day is the “unofficial” start of summer. It has become a time of graduations parties and picnics and hopefully warm weather. As the article puts it “it is the holiday, however, is one of the most solemn that the United States observes” as it is a day set aside the honor those who have died serving this country. The article goes on with a bit of history about this holiday. It has become a federal holiday since 1971. It’s “history stretches back to the Civil War when it was known as Decoration Day”. I can remember is when it was called Decoration Day and I remember the visits to the cemetery particularly at that time of year. The article relates that May 30 was chosen as the date to celebrate this event in our lives with flowers that would be in bloom about that time and other decorations on graves of “comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.”  It went on the tell us about how the root of Memorial Day began. It started three years after the Civil Wal that ended on May 5, 1858 when it was given the name Decoration Day.  For many years it was celebrated as Decoration Day in “numerous communities” independently until “the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day”.  It was there that the holiday was celebrated on May 5, 1866.  In 1971 “Congress established Memorial Day as a federal holiday on the last Monday in May”. The article went on to say it is best to show a thank you to veterans for their service on Veterans Day in November. It has become tradition to celebrate Memorial Day in several ways, some with parades some with fireworks and many with visits to cemeteries and memorials.  There is a part of the old traditio to wear a red poppy in remembrance of our fallen and honored. 

It’s DoorDash or GrubHub.....probably pizza tonight. 

Joy

a few years ago I generated this image of the daffodils and their leaves to this abstract of curves and lines using a filter and a set of its adjusted algorithms.