April 21, 2026, a thought for today, Willows are weak, yet serve to bind bigger wood. Italian Proverb

Photo in my life yesterday

The first challenge was “I walked here.” I walked here many times on my lunch hour when I worked at the United State Courts. 

The next upload was “animals or wildlife.” This is one of the geese I found around the pond at the local park. 

The last challenge was titled “sidewalk.” It is a side walk near where I go to church. 

Life today. This is THAT week, the week of the month that I barely have time to breathe. I did, however, manage to get the bulletin done. Then made an appointment for tomorrow for getting my laptop to Micro Center for a new battery. I had time to handle some emails that needed tended to. I also squeezed in time to get a photo printed for the gallery wall I am planning. 

I had this letter started and three photos chosen for today before I left for food pantry. Now to finish the letter and prepare the photos for uploads.

Food pantry was very busy today. The intake table worked pretty steady. 

As soon as I get the photos done I have to clean out the dishwasher and sink. The cleaning lady is due here tomorrow. I like to have as much out of the way as I can. I need to have that and a couple of other things done by 4:30. I have a meeting at church at 5:00. 

The word today is toward. It is a mistake to regard age as a downhill grade toward dissolution. The reverse is true. As one grows older, one climbs with surprising strides. George Sand. By learning to discover and value our ordinariness, we nurture a friendliness toward ourselves and the world that is the essence of a healthy soul. Thomas Moore. It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become toward the defects of others. Francois de Fenelon. Idleness and lack of occupation tend - nay are dragged - towards evil. Hippocrates. Toward no crime have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief. James Russell Lowell. A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence scepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone. Denis Diderot. Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end. William Shakespeare. The first step towards amendment is the recognition of error. Seneca. With malice toward none, with charity for all, ...let us strive on to finish the work we are in, ...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. Abraham Lincoln. Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people we personally dislike. Oscar Wilde. Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within the hearing of little children tends towards the formation of character. Hosea Ballou. Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. George Washington. This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet. Rumi. Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject. Thomas Mann. We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. Henry David Thoreau. 

Article summary. I was looking for something on idea of friend and friendships and found this one about Abraham Lincoln and one of his friends and how it affected their lives. I ended up learning more about Mr. Lincoln than I knew along with another viewpoint on the friendships issue. I believe this is the case in most kinds of readings and research, learning more about things than you may have anticipated. The title is Did Abraham Lincoln’s bromance alter the course of American history? Charles B. Strozier, Professor of History, City University of New York. At theconversation.com. I liked the opening sentence, “In the spring of 1837, a “long, gawky, ugly, shapeless man”, it is a very well used word in describing our 16th president of the United States. In that year he was in a store in Springfield Illinois looking for a room for the night. The store owner, named Joshua Speed, told him the cost which was more than he wanted to pay. After some discussion back and forth the store owner, seemingly feeling that he liked the stranger’s attitude and decided to give in. He said he had a double bed in a room upstairs that he would be willing to share.  Mr. Lincoln didn’t discuss it any further from that, picked up his “saddlebags” and headed upstairs to the room. As the article went on “so began what would become one of the most important friendships in American history”. This author apparently did a lot of research for this story. I may have heard this in history but I don’t recall it, Mr. Lincoln had “two serious, suicidal bouts of depression” in which the friendship was instrumental in helping him through those periods. Lincoln stayed there for four years. Their relationship grew, they became inseparable. The shared “stories, feelings, fears, hopes and dreams”.  This is where the friendship part of my interest in reading this article enters. By the way a point some may question, the author made a point of saying “all the evidence suggests their relationship was not sexual”. Both men had an “anxious and confused” feeling about dating women. Lincoln himself had a tragic relationship with his “first love”. She died in 1835. In 1839 he met Mary Todd when she was 21 years old when he moved to Springfield Ill from Lexington, Kentucky. After dating for a while and became engaged. But that was ended a year later. Then Lincoln went through one of his serious depressions. This is one of the times that Mr. Speed helped him recover from the depression with a friendship that would never be broken. Later Mr. Speed met someone and became engaged, however, soon after that he also suffered a period of depression. Mr. Lincoln returned the love and care for his friend. Mr. Speed got well and was happily married and was happy. As this article goes on, it tells that after Mr. Speed was happily married. After that Mr. Lincoln seemed in a better frame of mind about marriage and “resumed his courtship of Mary Todd”. They were married in 1842. Mr. Lincoln ended a letter to a business partner who asked how he was doing by saying “nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder.” This article ends with saying that Mr. Lincoln was at times sad but was never again “clinically depressed and suicidal”.  It appears to be believed and rightly so that the friendship must have been “therapeutic” for both of them. 

I have a lot of loose ends to tie up before an early evening meeting so I am having something from the freezer.

Photos in my life today

 My first upload for today is “a park”. This is about three blocks from my home. It is a place I visit often for many reasons on of which it to take photos. 

The next upload is “Easter eggs”. This one doesn’t need much of a description. Sue and I are the only ones here now so we don’t color many eggs, just enough to enjoy remembering the season. 

The last upload is another “animal or wildlife” assignment. This was taken at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium a few years ago. 

Joy

                        from one of my bouquets to brighten the room