May 29, 2026, a thought for today, Time and opportunity one never has in one's hand. Norwegian Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

My first challenge was “look down.” I had taken several shot of looking down staircases. As I got out of the car, I noticed my shadow. I liked the lines and the shade of color.

The next assignment was “I wore this.” This is pretty much my hanging out
“outfit” most days. 

The last upload was “my choice.” It is one of my “minimalist” series. As I was going through the church placing the bulletins, I found “minimal” types of images. This light switch against the stucco texture is one of them.  

Life today. I think I have mentioned before l like Fridays.  It is catch up day for things from the “back burner.” I also got three more of the photos for the gallery wall printed and two of them mounted and framed. 

A little while back I mentioned that when I “watch” my soap opera show I feel I am visiting friends. That made me curious. I wondered if there was some documented reality for that feeling so I looked it up. Here is what I found.  TV characters as friends, are  known as a "parasocial relationships.” They are attachments that require no energy to maintain, offer consistent comfort, and carry zero risk of social rejection. They can be the characters that are seen as an emotional connection or a sense of community. We have to take into consideration that they do not replace the “real world” in socialization. For a healthy life style there has to be solid outside relationships, also, which there are in my life. I have solid relationships with church family, blood related family and extended family. This “parasocial relationship” is also true of other television shows that I enjoy now and then like Grays Anatomy, Chicago Med, Blue Bloods, Law and Order, Equalizer with Queen Latifah and more here and there. I feel reading books can have the same affect.  

I have put off a couple of other things I wanted to get done today back on the back burner because I have had a few interruptions as well as getting lost in some other kinds of research. Not to mention a couple of breaks for looking out the window and day dreaming for quick breaks.

Now I have a grocery order to put in and a couple smaller household chores to get out of the way. 

The word today is about. Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself. Friedrich Nietzsche. Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. Thomas H. Huxley. There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it. Denis Diderot. One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing. Oscar Wilde. We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us. George Eliot. The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it. Benjamin Disraeli. We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. Charles Kingsley. You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. Plato. Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew. Saint Francis de Sales. Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control. Denis Diderot. If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way. Buddha. Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening. Oliver Wendell Holmes. When one can hear people moving, one does not so much mind, about one's fears. Ann Radcliffe.

Article summary. I am sharing a bit more with information about cats. It had been about forty years since my family had shared space with a cat. For the last eight months or so I have been re-learning, it has been an eye opening event. The title to this article is What have cats ever done for us? Catherine Douglas, Lecturer in Animal Science, Newcastle University. At theconversation.com. It started out with something I was unaware of, there are some people who feel cats often kill birds and small mammals leading to a “decline” in their numbers. I always felt that habit was inborn (for a reason beyond our understanding) and a fact of nature not a human’s ability to control other than a human form of extension for the cat. Humans put up barriers that birds and other critters have less and smaller escape routes by buildings and fences, poles and wires, vehicles and much more not of the “natural type”. The author goes on to say cats have contributed to our lives in many other ways and mentions studies that have proven that theory. Some of the helpful areas they have been found to be beneficial in is improving childhood problems, including reducing allergies, school absenteeism, mental health issues as depression and post traumatic stress, aiding in diabetes control and hospital visits. The benefits in the elderly are helping with independent living, quicker recovery from heart disease and other health issues. As the article moves on it shows that in the health issue known as dementia cats may be an “alternative or addition” to medication to improve “cognitive function, language, motor skills and mood,” in other words, quality of life. All of this mentioned so far can, according to the article, offers the pet-human relationship as “positive social and economic influences for local communities and society as a whole.” So far the article touched on young children and seniors. Then it mentions other areas of childhood that can be affected. In classrooms they can benefit with “fostering empathy with animals” which may lead to developing more compassion to “fellow humans.” In middle age Europe cats became associated with witches and witchcraft but that attitude did not travel to elsewhere in the Middle East. Asia, or the American colonies. The article related that colonists were “grateful to cats for their part in ensuring the Mayflower’s safe passage.” The cats were as vital as the crew, they kept “vermin at bay,” kept them from chewing the ropes and eating the human’s food that “couldn’t be replenished at sea.” So, cats have proven some of their contributions to the human side of nature. Domesticated cats go back in history 10,000 years. Today, modern research credits these historic bonds with providing humans psychological comfort, stress reduction, and overall mental well-being.

I am trying a recipe I found on line, garlic butter beef pasta, for dinner. 

Photos in my life today

The first upload for today is “pasta.” I made dinner a little early today so I could use the meal as part of my uploads for the day. This is butter garlic pasta. 

The second challenge is “I found.....” A penny face side up lying on the concrete porch. 

The last assignment is another of “my choice”. It is another in my series of
minimalists. This is one of Sue’s after shower lotions. 

Joy

this bonus image is one I uploaded to my Fine Art America page a while back...it is on several household items such as cups, tee shirt, puzzles, and more 

Want to shop? Visit: fineartamerica.com search for joy rector click on “view shop”  and redbubble.com search for jarector