August 10, 2025 a thought for today, No studies are necessary to become a fool. Mexican Proverb

An upload for yesterday was “strong (subject)”. It seems these hibiscus flowers are ‘strong’ both in size and color. 

The next upload is “food”. This is an image of part of my curbside pickup. 

The last upload for yesterday was “cosy corner”. This is my corner for reading before bed time. 

Life today. I had a virtual visit from my grand kids and great grand kids last night. I needed that. Another pick me up was the delivery of my three miniature rose plants, they are truly miniature and they do have thorns. They are for my “senior” window gardens since I can’t work on plants in the yard anymore. 

I have been using the metaphor diaper to diaper lately. As a being new to this world and life is clothed in diapers it seems not so irregular for seniors on the journey to a new and different life come back to the diaper style clothing. I have begun to see that these kinds of happenings may relate to other circumstances such as losing teeth, lessening eye sight not to mention instability in the  exercise of walking. The problem is the lost teeth aren’t replaced with new ones as in the beginning of this adventure called life. It doesn’t look so good when I open my mouth but it feels much better than the last several weeks. I have sadly but naturally reached that stage. After eighty five years of hanging in there it is time to accept the changes and all go that go with it with grace or let go let God. After all it is His will on earth. 

Church attendance has been exceptionally low in the last couple of weeks. But the folks who were there made it cozy, friendly and comfortable. The message was a good one as it always is from Mike. It has a feel of being familiar with the people who lived in the time of the bible. That feels good and makes Christian growth feel it is going in the right direction. This was our donut fellowship Sunday so our gathering was warn and together. 

I made a couple of stops on the way home. The rest of the day will be restore and refresh. Sue wasn’t home when I got here so she must have gone to visit the twins.

My first upload for today is “hands”. Two of my church family ladies allowed me to take a photo of their hands as be all enjoyer our fellowship hour. 

Another upload for today is “back in the day”. This image is one I took over twenty years ago. It was one of the times my son came home from a deployment. 

The word today is fact.  When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right. Victor Hugo.  I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. Henry David Thoreau.  Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact. George Eliot.  Society cannot exist without law. Law is the bond of society: that which makes it, that which preserves it and keeps it together. It is, in fact, the essence of civil society. Joseph P. Bradley.  Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it. Frances Wright.  My evidence that I am saved does not lie in the fact that I preach, or that I do this or that. All my hope lies in this: that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner, I trust Him, then He came to save me, and I am saved. Charles Spurgeon.  There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance. Hippocrates. What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed? Michelangelo.  To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. Charles Darwin.  Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact. Honore de Balzac.  Christianity is the root of all democracy, the highest fact in the rights of men. Novalis.  

The next upload for today is “my reflection today”. That me, part of me anyway, taken in the rear view mirror while I was waiting at a traffic light. 

Article: Many people who have shared parts of their lives with dogs and cats know that unconditional love in this world lies in the lives of “animals”. But I wonder do they know that is actually affects their health. The title is “Dogs are helping people regulate stress even more than expected, research shows”. This was written by two professional social workers. The article opened with explaining that there was a 2022 survey taken of 3,000 adults. More than one-third of them reported that the were “overwhelmed” with stress. Furthermore, other research taken covered “negative health consequences of higher stress levels, which include increased rates of cancer, heart disease, autoimmune conditions and even dementia”. As the story progressed it is noted that this is “where dogs can help”. So there were tests over the last 40 years that have confirmed to study the effects that animal companions have on people. They found in these tests that humans feel more relaxed in the emotional support they felt in their everyday life. More of the results have shown that “a 24% lower risk of death and a four times greater chance of surviving for at least a year after a heart attack”. Now there are tests that have grown to show even a deeper and “more biologically complex effect on humans than scientists previously believed”. In one of the studies it showed that when people are overly stressed there is a chemical reaction in the body that “activates the adrenal glands to produce the hormone cortisol”. This cortisol “eventually makes its way into your saliva, making it an easily accessible biomarker to track responses”.  This hormone and it’s affects are shown to be lower when “they’re with a dog than if they’re alone – even lower than if they’re with a friend”. There are further results in these tests that can alter the full effects but the positive reaction of having the dogs is interesting. In ending the article they say “dogs aren’t just good company....they might just be one of the most accessible and effective tools for staying healthy in a stressful world”. I did just a bit of more research on the subject and found “It's worth noting that the extent to which pets reduce cortisol may vary from person to person and pet to pet. Some individuals may find one type of interaction more beneficial than the other, and some pets may be more naturally suited to providing stress relief”.  

This is another of those days I have a fourth upload. This one is “breaking the rules”. I assumed I meant breaking a photo rule. I used breaking the rule of thirds rule, which is to keep the main subject off center. 

It’s going to be a collection of what ever I can find in the freezer/frig for dinner tonight.

Joy

                            under the Broad Street ridge