October 20, 2026 a thought for today, It is not with an axe that the violin is played. Welsh Proverb

Photos used in my life yesterday

The first challenge was “s is for...”. I used part of my lunch sandwich for this image. 

The second upload was “my choice”, and one of my series of “mirror image”. This was a scarecrow as part of a McDonald harvest display on an October day. 

The last assignment was “bones”. I happen to have kept the xray from my hip replacement.  This is it. 

Life today. This has been an “action” packed day. I made some real progress on the template I am rebuilding. The cleaning lady was here, usually her mother comes with her but she wasn’t feeling well today. Besides making some real headway on the template I got a good start on the letter before I left for food pantry. Once I got home, I was lucky enough to find and generate the four photos for todays upload. 

Tomorrow I hope to be able to complete the new template....it’s a long shot but possible. The next project would be getting a new template for the newsletter. The best scenario would be if I can get it done early next week. Otherwise, we will have to skip at newsletter for November and move right onto one for December. 

Autumn is totally here. The leaves are falling. There is not a lot of color, at least not here in my neighborhood. But the fallen leaves, the cooler temps and foot ball are positive signs. 

When the temps were predicted to drop to freezing the other day I brought the two porch rail (window) boxes with the miniature roses in the house to spend the winter under grow lights and out of the cold. 

The word to ponder today is escape. Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. Edgar Allan Poe. To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence. Friedrich Nietzsche. You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. Abraham Lincoln. A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and of vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. Ann Radcliffe. If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. Chinese Proverb. Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled. Horace. A man whose life has been dishonourable is not entitled to escape disgrace in death. Lucius Accius. A bird that you set free may be caught again, but a word that escapes your lips will not return. Jewish Proverb. Rather do what is nothing in the purpose than to be idle, that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot when the fliers escape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and is the self-made sepulcher of a living man. Francis Quarles. Many have been ruined by their fortunes, and many have escaped ruin by the want of fortune. To obtain it the great have become little, and the little great. Johann Georg Zimmermann. Who escapes duty, avoids a gain. Theodore Parker. Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand. Henry David Thoreau. God tolerates even our stammering, and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us - as, indeed, without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray. John Calvin.

Article summary. I think virtue and compassion are things people show in a outward kind of reach out and touch sort of thing. From this title I see that it can help our well being also. That should be a given, if we are helping others we generally feel good that we can help in some way, shape or form. So that should mean feeling content that we are able to help others. That should make us overall healthier if our emotional system is at ease the rest of our person would be also. I wanted to see what this author has discovered and shares. After all that is what we are here for in the first place...to love one another. The title is Is being virtuous good for you – or just people around you? A study suggests traits like compassion may support your own well being. Michael Prinzing, Research and Assessment Scholar, Wake Forest University. At theconversation.com. The opening paragraph explained that there are to theories on this subject. On the one hand there is the thought that “virtues such as compassion, patience and self-control may be beneficial not only for others but also for oneself”. This one was found in a research report in 2025. On the other hand, two great  philosophers from back in history, Thomas Hobbes and Friedrich Nietzsche, “argued” the opposite. The difference has inspired research into the subject. One of the opposing feeling is some feel that kindness adds to our well being while the other sees that while helping another can lead to “suffering or misfortune”. The author and peers “investigated this question”. They wanted to see the degree to which people were “compassionate, patient and self-controlled” as well as their level “how pleasant or unpleasant they felt” and how meaningful. They used them to act with using those three degrees and found that those actions seemed “to help people cope”. So this contradicted the theory that virtue is good for others and bad for the self”. In the study of morality it showed “how outside forces shape a person’s moral behavior”. The article says that in future studies something that needs to be considered is a persons’ “stage of life” and social difference in other parts of the world, and how all of this affects virtue”.

Photos in my life today

My first assignment is “t is for....”. I had to think about this one. I decided to do a tube of something. When I picked up the toothpaste tube I realized it was another T too, Total. 

The next challenge is another “my choice” and another of my series of “mirror image” . This fire hydrant with weeds growing around it seemed to be a good subject. 

The last upload is “picture”. This is a photo of a sketch my sister did
of our grandfather. 

It will be a quick dinner. I have a meeting at 5:00. 

Joy

want to shop? Visit: fineartamerica.com search for joy rector click on “view shop”  and redbubble.com search for jarector (and take a look at flickr.com search for rectorjoyce)