February 20, 2026 a thought for today, Gifts are according to the giver. German Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

This first challenge was “low level.” This was a collection of fallen leaves left from the end of autumn 2025 in a corner on my back deck. 

The next challenge was titled “diamonds.” I don’t have any diamond stones
laying around my house so I used this diamond shape in one of the church windows. A diamond is a “quadrilateral with four equal sides.”

The last upload for yesterday was “a light source.” I took several shots of lights in different settings. I decided to use this one of some of the different kinds of light in a traffic situation. 

Yesterday’s printing didn’t go quite as smoothly as I had hoped. The bulletin went perfectly in about twenty minutes. The newsletter was a different story. I tuned the computer on as soon as I walked in the office, hoping it would boot up when the bulletins were done. It didn’t. I left it on as I traveled through the church to put the bulletins out. When I got back to the office, it still hadn’t come on. So I decided to go to Fed Ex to have a copy printed so that I could run the rest off manually on the office copier. When I got in the car at FedEx I realized the copy was the wrong size. I headed back to the church any way. I had left the computer on, finally it had booted up. So I did the printing with a few times to clear out jams. Through it all I feel needed, useful and appreciated. That makes life happy and not so lonesome.

Life today. Dorothy and Denise met me at church this morning to finish the newsletters. It was good for Dorothy and me to be together again. Patti had another request. She asked that we put an extra envelope in the already folded newsletters. That took a bit longer to unfold and re fold. When I got to the church there was a light on in the hall way in the lower level and the alarm had not been set. I called out but no one answered and there were no cars in the parking lot. So I was a little antsy but all seemed ok. Someone must have forgot to turn off lights and set the alarm when they left last night.

On the way home I stopped for a Wendy’s sausage on a biscuit and to scan for possible photos for the day on the way rest of the way. 

Finally I can relax a little on trying to make deadlines. I am back on the letter and have gotten the photos ready for uploading. 

I stopped after some more work on the letter and photos for lunch to run the sweeper in the bed room and another kitty care task time.  So the rest of the afternoon should be less tense. 

The weather is nice to day. The temp is decent at about 47 degrees but is dropping. We had quite a rain storm last night. There was a bit of lightening and thunder with it. One clap of thunder was so loud that Bobbi disappeared from the bed in a flash. I didn’t even see a streak as she was so fast. I don’t think she touched the floor until she got through the doorway and to the next room.

Lowell called and invited Sue and I to dinner at York Steak House, always a perfect treat 

The word today is rush. Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman. Margaret Fuller. Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. Henry Ward Beecher. The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone. George Eliot. Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. Sir Francis Bacon. A hair on the head is worth two on the brush. Irish Proverb. Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called. John Stuart Mill. Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind. Leonardo DaVinci. The marriage state was designed to complete the sum of human happiness in this life. It sometimes proves otherwise, but this is owing to the parties themselves, who either rush into it without due consideration or fail in point of discretion in their conduct towards each other afterwards. Samuel Adams. That great mystery of TIME, were there no other; the illimitable, silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing ocean tide, on which we and all the Universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are not: this is forever very literally a miracle; a thing to strike us dumb,-for we have no word to speak about it. Thomas Carlyle. The wind is rushing after us, and the clouds are flying after us, and the moon is plunging after us, and the whole wild night is in pursuit of us; but, so far we are pursued by nothing else. Charles Dickens. Great and unexpected successes are often the cause of foolish rushing into acts of extravagance. Demosthenes. There is no fire like passion. There are no chains like hate. Illusion is a net, Desire is a rushing river. Gautama Buddha. A talent can be cultivated in tranquility; a character only in the rushing stream of life. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Time is the silent, never-resting thing ... rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing oceantide, on which we and all the universe swim. Thomas Carlyle. 

Article summary. I summarized an article a while ago about “reaching out and touching.” Today I found this article with a bit of a different way of looking at the sense of touch. I thought we could take a look at the kind of thinking about touch from another source. The article title is What’s lost when we’re too afraid to touch the world around us? Chunjie Zhang, Associate Professor of German, University of California, Davis. At theconversation.com. The article started with telling about the author’s son and the experience of his wanting to touch things they pass on their daily walks. It seems to be a natural action for him to touch things on the play ground like bike racks and tree trunks and picnic tables. She went on to say she wondered what “might being lost” in her stopping him from the touching instinct. Would it stop him from leaning “about the world without his sense of touch? She thought back to what she had observed with thoughts of some other “thinkers” on the subject as the described that we see shapes but that doesn’t “reveal” the actual feel of it. A German philosopher observed children in a “nursery” and watched how the children kept “grasping and lifting” things seemingly to find  “the most primary and necessary concepts.” It was seen that “our knowledge of the world” is “transmitted through the skin.”  Later in the article is was mentioned that a neuroscientist noted that touch was the first sense because it was developed in utero. It was also noted that touch helps in the action of cooperation as well as aids in health and fosters growth further mentioning the fact that in holding premature babies it can lead to their survival. The article brought a notion that during the “social distancing” of the COVID period even “subtle and brief” touching helped with “emotional well-being.” I was interested in seeing toward the end of the article that in some cultures touch “plays a bigger role” in life than may be perceived. It went on saying that we also have to be mindful that social distancing is also crucial. I assume that means be conscious of our surrounding and activities. On a personal note at my church we have a “passing of the peace” period where we go around greeting each other with a hand shake or “fist bump.” 

Photos in my life today

Have a look at my first challenge offering for today, “poetry.” I used the nursery thyme “pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?”

Next is the assignment title “stripes.” I considered stripes in the pavement of
the street and street signs. I decided on this one on a US Postal truck. 

The third image upload for today is “what calms me.” I use several “brain games” to aid in my aging mind’s health. This is one of them. In helping with my health they also aid in what “calms” me. 

The last image upload is “o is for...”. I used a can opener for my image of
choice today. BTW, I had one heck of a time with this, the opener didn’t seem to want to go the full distance. 

Joy 

         

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