Always.
Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’
This Is How We Win
Posted in Holidays, Likes, tagged #ThingsILike, hope, inspiration, science fiction, Thoughts on May 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »
For You, With Love
Posted in Likes, tagged Thoughts on April 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Finding Our Way
Posted in Other, tagged #ThingsILike, inspiration, persistence, science, Thoughts on April 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I’d like to say something inspirational, something supportive, something that will help you navigate the challenges we’re all facing these days. At the moment, though, I’m coming up a little short.
Instead, here’s an image that reminds me that even in the darkest times, our persistence, our knowledge, and our shared humanity will help us find a way forward.
Oh, This World
Posted in Other, tagged #ThingsILike, inspiration, Motivation, quotes, Thoughts on March 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
— Abraham Lincoln
Stay Spotless, My Friends!
Posted in Likes, tagged #coronavirus, #stayspotless, #ThingsILike, #WashYourLyrics, free, home, Thoughts on March 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »
tl;dr (even though it’s short short short!): Covid-19 a.k.a. The Coronavirus. Ugh. But we’ll get through this.
In service to the greater good, I am amplifying this genius little tool: Wash Your Lyrics.
Type in a song title and artist, come away with a custom hand-washing poster to make it easier to get through the whole… freaking… twenty!… seconds… worth of hand-washing the CDC and every other knowledgeable organization / official / healthcare professional / your mom says we all need right now. More details here, but it’s pretty straightforward.
Obviously, it’s been done before, but to get you started here’s a set of hand-washing instructions set to the world’s most obvious song choice (waiting to see stats on song selections, but I’m pretty sure I’m right):
Let me also take a moment to thank all the public servants, health care professionals and first responders working on the front lines. Stay safe, my friends!
We, Not Me
Posted in Other, tagged #Election2019, Canada, home, Thoughts on October 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Canada has an election next week. Politics aside, the Conservative party slogan has been bugging me and now I know why.
“It’s time for you to get ahead.”
Not “us.”
When I first came to Canada from the U.S. one of the things that stood out for me was a subtle but telling difference in language. Driving north, I saw a billboard that read “Let’s remember…” Let us, together, for the good of all. Once I noticed it, I saw that same framing in many other places as well.
I don’t see that as much in the States. I still love my first country but I’m not blind to its faults, either. There’s a lot more “Do this” followed by ”here’s how you’ll benefit,” sometimes accompanied by “or else.” Not “let’s come together to build a better world” but “look out for yourself.” The unstated follow-up is that no one else will. Not so here. No country is perfect, of course, but there’s a reason folks here can see a doctor or fill a prescription and not break the budget.
This tendency to work for the communal good is one of the many things I love about Canada, and one of the things that, regardless of political party, I hope we all remember.
Photo by Nathaniel Bowman on Unsplash
Asclepias tuberosa to the Rescue!
Posted in Likes, tagged #savethemonarch, #ThingsILike, awesome, home, nature, summer, Thoughts, yay on August 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »
It’s summer and I’m enjoying a bit of vacation time (yay!) and what do I spot on my new Asclepias tuberosa? A monarch butterfly caterpillar!
I’ve seen a monarch or two in the neighborhood this year but not many. (Not like during my childhood down south, when my mother used to pull the car over just about anywhere to find caterpillar-rich milkweed by the side of the road.) There’s a reason why these butterflies are listed as at endangered in Ontario:(
That said, awareness of the issues around butterflies and their disappearing habitat is rising, and it’s not all bad news. I’m happy to see milkweed left to grow by the roadside, to find native milkweed varietals at the garden center, and to watch butterflies flitting in the park. If we had more sun and space I’d plant a butterfly meadow, but for now, we went with butterfly weed. Glad we did:)
As an added bonus, I also saw fireflies in the yard a couple of weeks ago for the first time north of the border:) Here’s wishing you a happy and constructive summer!
Happy Solstice!
Posted in Writing, tagged #AnAnalemmaIsNotARodent, #summer101, #ThingsILike, NASA, nature, science, summer, Thoughts on June 21, 2019| Leave a Comment »
That’s right, today is the summer solstice. At 15:54 Universal Time (that’s 11:54 a.m. in my neck of the woods), summer officially starts in the northern hemisphere! For more on the analemma, or figure-eight described by the sun as it arcs across the sky (think the calendar Tom Hanks etched on a rock in Castaway, or check out this composite photo from NASA). And NatGeo has a nice, detailed piece on the solstice here: What is the summer solstice? The answer might surprise you.
What is summer? So many things, not least light, glorious light to do as you will. Or, you know, mess up bedtime;)
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.— Bed in Summer, Robert Louis Stevenson
Have a wonderful summer day!
My Point Still Stands
Posted in Writing, tagged home, Neko, Thoughts on April 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »
I was planning to post a bit on the triumph of hope over cynicism, the shared sense of powerlessness at the root of frustrations across the political spectrum, and how to address that sense through constructive action in response to the constant barrage of no-good news, but I can’t find it.
So instead you get this:)
Neko says hello. (Ok, really she says, “Seriously, human? I’m sleeping here!” Because she’s a cat, and that’s how cats roll.)
