August 12, 2025 a thought for today, One day teaches the other. Lithuanian Proverb

My first upload for yesterday was “my choice”. It is one of my series of “black and white”. It is one of the chairs next to my desk. And the step stool next to it which is an essential for petite persons. 

The next upload is “cards”. I only have one deck of cards in my house right now. My son, Bob, was a magician and had several. This one I had made using a photo of one of my sister’s paintings. 

The last upload for yesterday was “what I wore”. Is it a sort of staple in my easy living days. A comfortable of slacks, an old scrubs top. I found them very comfortable when I wore them daily oh so many years ago. 

Life today. Yesterday was on the mildly busy side and productive. I got the bulletin completely done and out for review. Then I got a lot of little things on the standing to-do list touched on, there were small but progressive check offs. I didn’t leave the house at all. I was able to get all of my photos shot here. I also got a quick start on the upcoming newsletter. As I was doing the bulletin I was looking up the history of one of the hymns in the bulletin. I liked what I read and the way it was put. I’m not sure but I think it was AI. That doesn’t mean I am all in favor of AI but I think in the right hands and used properly it can work. I want to take some more time to see how it rolls out.

Oh, and while playing around with my camera I found a feature I hadn’t realized was there. It was a surprising “accident” (possibly AI also). I am sure I will be trying it more often. 

The first upload for today “a tiny detail”. This is one of the very first buds on my new miniature rose bush. 

Today is on the mild side too. Brian sent an early message and wanted to know if he could come to do the lawn today. It seems like a perfect day for that so now that is out of the way. 

I did get some multi tasking done. I always have my computer list. I broke away from that a few times. Once to meet with Brian on what I needed done today. Another of the “break aways” was to clear out the sink and load the dish washer. Yesterday I received the window box containers I had ordered so I took a break to set one of them up a few minutes ago. It is now my rose garden. I have three miniature rainbow colored rose bushes. They are so tiny and even have some buds and one full open. They are about this size of a dime when opening and spread to about the size of a nickle.  While I was at it I watered the other two gardens, there will be four, I have one more to set up. I also popped a potato in the oven to bake for dinner. 

I mentioned that I am having the problem with losing a tooth here and there. I have decided I am not going to wear false teeth. They are too expensive especially since I am on a fixed income. They are uncomfortable, I have one bridge so I know the feel. I am at an age where I don’t want to spend any part of my naturally waning days getting use to them. So I am going to wear a mask when I am out and about, not so different from wearing ear rings or head scarves and other “adornments”. I have ordered two that are advertised as meant for Christian gatherings and one in a flesh color. They will become part of my “Sunday go to meetin’” ensemble. 

The next upload is “wild”. For this one I “captured” a rascal week growing beside my garage door. 

The word today is faith.  The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience. James Russell Lowell.  Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand. Thomas Aquinas.  Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other. Blaise Pascal.  Fear is the denomination of the Old Testament; belief is the denomination of the New. Benjamin Whichcote.  Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God. Blaise Pascal. God enters by a private door into every individual. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  I live and love in God's peculiar light. Michelangelo.  Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. George Washington.  Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains. William Penn.  The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness. Henry David Thoreau.  I believe though I do not comprehend, and I hold by faith what I cannot grasp with the mind. Saint Bernard.  Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life. Jonathan Edwards. The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason. Benjamin Franklin. 

The last photo challenge upload for today is another “my choice” and another of my “black and white” series. I borrowed the basket from church for a different image in the series but it did pan out so I will return the basket tomorrow. 

Article: There has been a lot of talk about global warming in recent years, I thought this might be informative about the ancient past and how it may relate. The title to the article is “56 million years ago, Earth underwent rapid global warming. Here’s what it did to pollinators”. Pollinators are natures way of fertilizing flowers and not only the ornamental kind. The events of climate change “can cause a mismatch between plants and their pollinators, affecting where they live and what time of year they’re active”. I never thought about it or learned about it that I remember but according to this article 56 million years ago some plants from the tropics “moved” to new areas. They took with them their pollinators. It is noted here that in the last 150 years the carbon dioxide concentrations have increased more than 40 per cent due to human activities. This increase on carbon dioxide has “warmed the planet by more than 1.3°C.” I learned from the article that increases “are not only unprecedented in human history but exceed anything known in the last 2.5 million years”. The “warming event” 56 million years ago was “caused by the release of a gigantic amount of carbon into the atmosphere and ocean. This event is known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum”. Over a period of 5,000 years more carbon appeared in the atmosphere, most likely from “volcanic activity and methane release from ocean sediments”. The atmosphere remained at that “elevated” level of 100,000 years. Over the years studies show that plants and animals and their habitat changed during those time periods. Studies have been conducted to on pollination and its effects over those periods. These studies have shown that “pollination by animals became more common during this interval of elevated temperature and carbon dioxide”. It showed that pollination by wind decreased. So some plants pollinated by the wind are found “in moist northern hemisphere temperate regions today”. Those pollinated by animals were “related to subtropical palms, silk-cotton trees and other plants that typically grow in dry tropical climates”. The climate change 56 million years ago “may have provided invaluable resources to animals such as the earliest primates, small marsupials, and other small mammals”. The 56 million year ago even “altered ecosystems on land and in the sea” though during those changes “land species and ecological interactions seem to have survived”probably in part due to the rate of ”anthropogenic climate change”. One of the studies showed that “in the absence of major extinction, forest ecosystems and their pollinators could reestablish into very similar communities even after a very long period of altered climate”. The article ended by suggesting that “the key for the future may be keeping rates of environmental change slow enough to avoid extinctions.” On my further research comparing 56 million years ago to now: “the global warming today is happening much faster and is largely caused by human-produced emissions from burning fossil fuels”. 

Hamburgers and baked potatoes for dinner. 

Joy 

                      proudly together