Exhausted

I love that somebody came up with a whole sentence in the word EXHAUSTED:  "Haste has exhausted us."

Two children's books for TWOsday

Fairy Tales of Fearless Girls ~ by Susannah McFarlane, 2020, children's, 128 pages

This is an illustrated picture book of reimagined fairy tales with a feminist twist, perfect for fans of the classic stories.  Each story has a modern twist, a different illustrator, and all the charm of a classic storybook.  This accessible book is perfect for young princes and princesses learning to have courage and follow their hearts.

They may be small, but they’re big of heart—

kind and cheerful, brave and smart.

And so with courage, hope, and laughter

they make their own "happily ever after."

In this treasury of modern fairy tales, the heroines make their own way to happily ever after, and there isn’t a damsel in distress in sight!  Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Thumbelina don’t let fear or self-doubt hold them back.  Using their wits, bravery, honesty, and kindness, they problem-solve their way out of tricky situations.  See how Rapunzel invents her way out of her tower and how Red Riding Hood outsmarts the wolf!

Power to the Princess: 15 Favorite Fairytales Retold with Girl Power ~ by Vita Murrow, illustrated by Julia Bereciartu, 2018, children's, 96 pages

What if princesses didn’t always marry Prince Charming and live happily ever after?  Fifteen favorite fairytales have been retold for a new generation.  These princesses are smart, funny, and kind, and can do anything they set their minds to.  Focused on issues including self-image, confidence, LGBTQ, friendship, advocacy, and disability, these stories are perfect for sharing between parents and children, or for older princesses or princes to read by themselves.  They teach that a princess is a person who seeks to help others, is open to learning new things, and looks for ways to add purpose to their lives and to the lives of those around them.

Get reacquainted with these powerful princesses:

• Snow White — champion of real beauty
• Sleeping Beauty — specialist on sleeping disorders
• Thumbelina — music producer and advocate
• Rapunzel — world-famous architect
• Belle the Brave — undercover agent
• Elisabeth and the Wild Swans — fashion designer
• Cinderella — prime minster and businesswoman
• Star and the 12 Dancers — dancer
• The Goose Girl — stand-up comedian
• Princess Sevinah (and the Pea) — founder of the Fairyland Dating Service
• The Snow Queen — winter sports coach
• The Little Mermaid — advocate for peace between mer-people and humans
• Zade — storyteller (of 1001 tales) and businesswoman
• Evangeline (The Frog Princess) — natural historian
• Little Red Riding Hood — environmentalist and Princess of the Wolves

Power to the princess!

World peas, whirled peas, and giving peas a chance

Books I'm re-reading

All That Matters ~ by Jan Goldstein, 2004, fiction (California, New York, Maine), 198 pages, 9/10

Jennifer Stempler has nothing left to lose.  The love of her life left her, her mother died in a senseless car accident, and her Hollywood producer father started a brand-new family — with no room in it for her.  So, 23-year-old Jennifer decides to pursue (permanent) oblivion — in the form of Xanax and tequila — on the beach near her home in Venice, California.  But Jennifer's depression is no match for her nana's determination.

Gabby Zuckerman refuses to let her granddaughter self-destruct.  With her trademark feistiness, this force of nature whisks Jennifer back to her home in New York City, intending to prove to Jennifer that her life cannot possibly be over yet.  In fact, it has just begun.  Through jaunts in Central Park and road trips to Maine, Gabby tries to teach Jennifer how to trust and hope again.  But when Gabby reveals a secret — one that challenges Jennifer with a haunting and heartbreaking truth — Jennifer must find whether she has it in her to provide the final gift only she can give.

I have been culling my shelves before moving into a new apartment in February.  I've read this one before, but I've decided to read it again.  Then I'll donate it to our little Crown Center library, shown in this photo.

Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner ~ edited by Ellen E. Garrigues, 1895 and 1910, poetry, 46 pages

This is a slim little volume, with brown covers imprinted with slightly darker brown words.  That's why I photographed the title page instead of the cover.  It belonged to the aunt I was named for.  Bonnie Reynolds was my mother's only sister.  It was her textbook in high school, back in 1921.  This one is probably a collector's item, even though she marked in it as she studied.  It's another one I'm about to re-read.

Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way ~ by Lao Tzu, a new English version by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1997, religions, 126 pages

When I taught religions of the world at Chattanooga State, I took my collection of Tao Te Ching translations and asked students to find #11 and read it aloud to the class.  That's my favorite chapter, so the students got to hear several versions of it.  My own personal favorite translations were Stephen Mitchell's and Ursula K. Le Guin's.  Here's her version of number eleven, which I now have on my Kindle.

The uses of not

Thirty spokes

meet in the hub.

Where the wheel isn't

is where it's useful.

Hollowed out,

clay makes a pot.

Where the pot's not

is where it's useful.

Cut doors and windows

to make a room.

Where the room isn't,

there's room for you.

So the profit in what is

is in the use of what isn't.

Ursula K. Le Guin:  "One of the things I love about Lao Tzu is he is so funny.  He's explaining a profound and difficult truth here, one of those counter-intuitive truths that, when the mind can accept them, suddenly double the size of the universe.  He goes about it with this deadpan simplicity, talking about pots" (p. 14).

 

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Saturday sign

How did YOU spend lockdown?

Lucy by the Sea ~ by Elizabeth Strout, 2022, fiction (Maine), 291 pages

A divorced couple are stuck together during lockdown.  As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton (the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton) is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by William, who is her ex-husband and sometimes her friend.  For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the sea.  The novel captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire.  At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart, like the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering and the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one.  I've enjoyed other books by this author, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Mailbox Monday on Friday

Nine Women: Portraits from the American Radical Tradition ~ by Judith Nies, 1977, 2002, biography, xxii + 342 pages

In an expanded edition of her history of American women activists, Judith Nies has added biographical essays on feminist Bella Abzug and civil rights visionary Fannie Lou Hamer and a new chapter on women environmental activists.  Included are portraits of Sarah Moore Grimké, who rejected her life as a Southern aristocrat and slaveholder to promote women's rights and the abolition of slavery; Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave who led more than three hundred slaves to freedom on the Underground Railway; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the first woman to run for Congress, who advocated for women's rights to own property, to vote, and to divorce; Mother Jones, "the Joan of Arc of the coalfields," one of the most inspiring voices of the American labor movement; Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who worked for the reform of two of America's most cherished institutions, the home and motherhood; Anna Louise Strong, an intrepid journalist who covered revolutions in Russia and China; and Dorothy Day, cofounder of the Catholic Worker movement, who fed and sheltered the hungry and homeless in New York's Bowery for more than forty years.

Mailbox Monday encourages participants 

to share the books they received and also 

check out the books received by others.

I've been watching for this book all week, but 

it arrived later than promised.  I'm just happy

it's here and in better condition than I expected.

Do animals make plans for the future?

Beginning

One early November morning, while the days were getting colder, I noticed that Franje, a female chimpanzee, was gathering all the straw from her bedroom.  She took it under her arm out onto the large island at the Burgers' Zoo, in the Dutch city of Arnhem.  Her behavior took me by surprise.  First of all, Franje had never done this before, nor had we ever seen other chimps drag straw outside.

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? ~ by Frans de Waal, 2016, nonfiction, 352 pages

This book explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition ― in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos ― to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long.  Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame?  Reading this book will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal ― and human ― intelligence.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Thursday Thirteen

1.  Ginnie Sams has a geeky mind, and she made a difference in the world.  Especially MY world.  She's the friend who took me in after my quadruple by-pass surgery in 2009.  I was looking for something else today when I ran across this video on YouTube.  Enjoy meeting my friend Ginnie, who was a member of Mensa when I met her many years ago.  Joining Mensa requires an I.Q. score of 148 or above.

2.  Here's a photo Ginnie took of me holding her cat when I was recuperating at her house on Lookout Mountain.  The cat's name was Wootchie.

3.  While composing this post, I stopped to call Ginnie and wish her a very Happy Thanksgiving.

4.  I also talked to her daughter for awhile, remembering things from the past.

5.  While on YouTube, I discovered a new (to me) recording of "Whippoorwill," a haunting tune by R. Carlos Nakai.

6.  "Whippoorwill" is the one piece I've memorized and play most on my cedar flute.

7.  I've posted "Whippoorwill" on this blog several times.  Click the link to hear the various recordings.

8.  Now I'll have to pick up my cedar flute and play this haunting tune again, won't I?  Yes, I did have to play it for myself.

9.  I slid the flute out of its green felt "case" and woke Clawdia with the dulcet sounds of "Whippoorwill."

10.  Word of the Day #1:  dul·cet /ˈdəlsət / adjective = (especially of sound) sweet and soothing.  Example:  "I didn't even try to record the dulcet tones I played on my cedar flute just now."

11.  Today I read about the book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal and promptly put it on reserve at my library.  I'll tell you more about it later.

12.  Today I had the usual Thanksgiving fixings, another word for me to define.

13.  Word of the Day #2:  fixings (plural only) = the necessary ingredients for something, especially food or a social event.  Example:  "The fixings for Thanksgiving must include turkey and cranberry sauce."

Thursday Thirteen is home of the easy meme where you make a list of 13 things on Thursdays.  The topic is your choice.  The only rule for Thursday Thirteen is to write about 13 things.

Being thankful ~ a cornucopia

 

Word of the Day

cor·nu·co·pi·a /ˌkôrn(y)əˈkōpēə/ noun = a symbol of plenty consisting of a goat's horn overflowing with flowers, fruit, or corn; an ornamental container shaped like a goat's horn; an abundant supply of good things of a specified kind.  Using the word:  "I found this image of a cornucopia of foods on Jan's blog and thought it was perfect for a Thanksgiving blog post."

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, share a thing or two that YOU are thankful for.  I'll start with my list.  I am thankful for my family, for my health, for a great place to live here at the Crown Center, and for the many friends I have made over my lifetime...............Your turn!

A word and a new book

Word of the Day

chak·ra /ˈCHäkrə / noun = (in Indian thought) each of the centers of spiritual power in the human body, usually considered to be seven in number.  (It sounds like:  shaa·kruh)

I found this chart online from Yogapedia, so it isn't from the book.  The list actually starts at the bottom (with the root chakra) and ascends to the crown chakra at the top:

1. Root Chakra
2. Sacral Chakra
3. Solar Plexus Chakra
4. Heart Chakra
5. Throat Chakra
6. Brow Chakra
7. Crown Chakra

Chakras and Self-Care: Activate the Healing Power of Chakras with Everyday Rituals ~ by Ambi Kavanagh, 2020, self-care, 218 pages

Kavanagh says we should embrace the timeless teachings of the chakra system for peace of mind, better physical health, and a sense of alignment, fulfillment, and purpose.  Why?  Because the key to optimal health and well-being is within us, in powerful energy centers called chakras.  Ancient cultures understood the sacred healing power of chakras and that self-care aligned with nature.  This book helps us engage in a series of meditative exercises that activate and balance each of our seven main chakras, offering daily and seasonal rituals to show us that true prevention not only comes from the ways we care for our bodies, but the ways we spend our energy.  It's been a long time since I read about this idea from India, so I'm curious to learn about these features:

• Affirmation, visualization, and activation exercises to align and balance each chakra for improved energetic flow.
• A comprehensive guide to the seven main chakras plus astrological and elemental correspondences and goddess archetypes.
• Essential oil blend recipes and sacred stones to open and support each chakra.
• Daily rituals to recharge and restore your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
• Seasonal energy rituals to reconnect with nature's rhythms and lunar cycles.

Thankfully Reading Weekend

Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves is hosting the 2022 Thankfully Reading Weekend (Wednesday through Sunday, November 23-27).  There are no rules except to devote time to reading.  Okay, I'm in!  Maybe I'll come back here and list what I've read.  Maybe not.

Do you have credit cards?

Note to self:

Be sure to cancel credit cards before I die.

Customer service being what it is today, you can probably imagine how this could happen.  A lady died in January, and Lloyds-TSB bank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and then added late fees and interest on the monthly charge.  The balance had been $0.00, but now is somewhere around $60.00.

A family member placed a call to the Bank.

Nephew:  "I am calling to tell you that she died in January."

Bank:  "The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply."

Nephew:  "Maybe, you should turn it over to collections."

Bank:  "Since it is two months past due, it already has been."

Nephew:  "So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?"

Bank:  "Either report her account to the frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!"

Nephew:  "Do you think God will be mad at her?"

Bank:  "Excuse me?"

Nephew:  "Did you just get what I was telling you, the part about her being dead?"

Bank:  "Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor."

Supervisor gets on the phone.

Nephew:  "I'm calling to tell you, she died in January."

Bank:  "The account was never closed, and the late fees and charges still apply."

Nephew:  "You mean you want to collect from her estate?"

Bank (stammer):  "Are you her lawyer?"

Nephew:  "No, I'm her great-nephew."  (Lawyer info given.)

Bank:  "Could you fax us a certificate of death?"

Nephew:  "Sure."

Fax number is given, fax is sent, conversation resumes.

Bank:  "Our system just isn't set up for death.  I don't know what more I can do to help."

Nephew:  "Well, if you figure it out, great.  If not, you could just keep billing her.  I don't think she will care."

Bank:  "Well, the late fees and charges do still apply."

Nephew:  "Would you like her new billing address?"

Bank:  "That might help."

Nephew:  "Rookwood Memorial Cemetery, 1249 Centenary Rd, Sydney.  Plot number 1049."

Bank:  "Sir, that's a cemetery!"

Nephew:  "Well, what the #*!! do you do with dead people on your planet?"

Moral of this story:  It's better to laugh than to cry.  I posted this on my Joyful Noiseletter blog in February 2008, so I figured it's time to share it again.

Monday musing ~ about Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel, and the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet ~ by Meggan Watterson, 2019, theology, 246 pages

A gospel, as ancient and authentic as any of the gospels that the Christian bible contains, was buried deep in the Egyptian desert after an edict was sent out in the 4th century to have all copies of it destroyed.  Fortunately, some rebel monks were wise enough to refuse-and thanks to their disobedience and spiritual bravery, we have several manuscripts of the only gospel that was written in the name of a woman:  The Gospel of Mary Magdalene.

Mary's gospel reveals a radical love that sits at the heart of the Christian story.  Her gospel says that we are not sinful; we are not to feel ashamed or unworthy for being human.  In fact, our purpose is to be fully human, to be a "true human being" — that is, a person who has remembered that, yes, we are a messy, limited ego, and we are also a limitless soul.  And all we need to do is to turn inward (again and again); to meditate, like Mary Magdalene, in the way her gospel directs us, so that we can see past the ego of our own little lives to what's more real, and lasting, and infinite, and already here, within.

Watterson explains how and why Mary Magdalene came to be portrayed as the penitent prostitute and relates a more historically and theologically accurate depiction of who Mary was within the early Christ movement.  And she shares how this discovery of Mary's gospel has allowed her to practice, and to experience, a love that never ends, a love that transforms everything.

Now, THIS is more in line with what I believe.  I quit calling myself a Christian long ago, not wanting to be confused with those who hatefully scream at others without showing a bit of love or compassion.  I've been calling myself "a follower of Jesus."  In my opinion, Jesus told us to care for one another, not to worship him.  So I'm ready to read this book I downloaded onto my Kindle yesterday.  Anybody want to join me?  I'd love to discuss the book with you.

Sunday Salon ~ books and life

Owls and Other Fantasies ~ by Mary Oliver, 2003, poems and essays, 92 pages

A perfect introduction to Mary Oliver’s poetry, this stunning collection features 26 nature poems and prose writings about the birds that played such an important role in the Pulitzer Prize winner’s life.  

 

Within these pages you will find hawks, hummingbirds, and herons; kingfishers, catbirds, and crows; swans, swallows and, of course, the snowy owl, among a dozen others — including ten poems that have never before been collected.  She adds two beautifully crafted essays, “Owls,” selected for the Best American Essays series, and “Bird,” a new essay that will surely take its place among the classics of the genre.

In the words of the poet Stanley Kunitz, “Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing.  Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations.”

For anyone who values poetry and essays and for anyone who cares about birds, Owls and Other Fantasies will be a treasured gift.  For those who love both, it will be essential reading.

This also counts as a Nonfiction November selection.  Oh, and I can also claim it as library loot.

I'm still reading The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann (1966), and my friend Fay's copy arrived by mail earlier than expected.  She and I plan to discuss it one of these days soon.

When I took the Crown Center bus on the grocery store trip this week, I chanced upon a new (to me) chewy granola bar:  fudge-dipped coconut.

This photo shows a 2-ounce size, but what I bought were 1-ounce bars.  I ate one shortly after I got home, and it was delicious.  😄  I used to call Donna a choco-holic, so I'm pretty sure she would have loved one of these.

Here's a 2019 photo of a blooming tree near the old gazebo at the Crown Center where I live.  I found it while searching for something else on my blog.  This whole area and the greenhouse you can see beyond the gazebo are no longer there, since that's where our new building is currently being constructed.

In the background is the Crown Center building that will remain when people from my building are moved into the new one being built where you see the grass and the gazebo and the pink tree again.  It looks like I took these photos on the same day, but they were taken two years apart.  This one is from 2017.

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time

zones — to share what we have been reading and doing during the week.  

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Caturday post by Clawdia

Yes, it's Caturday, and Bonnie left the computer open for me as she promised.  Typing this is hard work for a cat, you know, since I don't have long fingers like humans.  But we cats are very smart and can manage to do a lot more than people imagine.  I think it's selfish of humans not to share their technology with cats like me, cats who would enjoy a chance to publish online.

So what shall we discuss today?  I think I'll tell you about my new plastic bag.  Well, actually, it's a very old and torn bag with several holes.  But it's MINE.  Best of all is that Bonnie took some photos.  I didn't know about them until later, but she was willing to share.  I'll show you my favorites, if she can figure out how to send them to me.  I think I'll go sit on (or inside of) the "holey" plastic bag again, so.....

Clawdia, 'til next time   >^..^<

Beginning ~ with an empty birdcage

Beginning

The empty wicker birdcage beside her began to rattle impatiently.  Zoey gave it a sharp look as if to say they were almost there.  It stopped.  She glanced at the cabdriver to see if he had noticed.

Other Birds ~ by Sarah Addison Allen, 2022, magical realism (South Carolina), 304 pages

Down a narrow alley in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina, lies a stunning cobblestone building comprised of five apartments.  It’s called The Dellawisp and it is named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy.

When Zoey Hennessey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at The Dellawisp, she meets her quirky, enigmatic neighbors including a girl on the run, a grieving chef whose comfort food does not comfort him, two estranged middle-aged sisters, and three ghosts.  Each has a story, whose ending isn’t yet written.

When one of her new neighbors dies under odd circumstances the night Zoey arrives, she is thrust into the mystery of The Dellawisp, which involves missing pages from a legendary writer whose work might be hidden there.  She soon discovers that many unfinished stories permeate the place, and the people around her are in as much need of healing from wrongs of the past as she is.  To find their way, they have to learn how to trust each other, confront their deepest fears, and let go of what haunts them.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

A classic worth reading ~ library loot

The Bridge of San Luis Rey ~ by Thornton Wilder, 1927, fiction (Peru), 192 pages

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below."  This immortal sentence opens The Bridge of San Luis Rey, first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim.  It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, was the best-selling work of fiction that year, and is still read throughout the world.  Brother Juniper, a Franciscan monk, witnesses the tragic event.  Deeply moved, he embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention, not chance, that led to the deaths of the five people crossing the bridge that day.  His search leads to a timeless investigation into the nature of fate and love, and the meaning of the human condition.

Talking turkey

"Talking turkey" means to discuss something frankly and practically.

Do you recycle?

Recycling helps us keep the environment clean and preserves our natural resources.  America Recycles Day began in 1999.  What should we recycle?  I posted about it HERE, where I reminded myself which numbers on plastic can be recycled.  Numbers #1-5 and #7 are accepted, but not #6.

Growing old

We Spread ~ by Iain Reid, 2022, psychological suspense, 304 pages

Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life.  She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip.  Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.”

Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well.  She even begins to paint again.  But as the days start to blur together, Penny — with a growing sense of unrest and distrust — starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world.  Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?  This novel explores questions of conformity, productivity, relationships, and what it means to grow old.

Speaking of old folks, I got my latest booster Saturday.  It was bivalent, like this image found online.  That's good, I think, since I read that most experts agree that older people — I'm 82 — should get the new bivalent shots now, as should those who have chronic conditions and those who are immunocompromised.

Word of the Day

bivalent = The updated boosters are called bivalent because they protect against the original virus that causes COVID-19 and the omicron variants, BA.4 and BA.5.  The previous boosters are monovalent because they were designed to protect only against the original virus.

November 13th is World Kindness Day

Readin' and writin' and 'rithmetic

I'm reading about writing.  Yeah, I'm slowly working my way through So You Want to Write: How to Master the Craft of Writing Fiction and Memoir (2nd edition) by Marge Piercy and Ira Wood (2010), which is very appropriate for Nonfiction November.  By the way, even though I am reading some nonfiction, I am not doing the "assignments."  I'd rather read.

"Writing something down is a way of keeping it."  I borrowed this line from a very old post on Colleen's Loose Leaf Notes blog (see #44).  I also found a list online of the benefits of writing things down:

1. Writing things down helps you record everything that has your attention.
2. Writing things down helps clear your mind.
3. Writing things down helps clarify your goals, priorities, and intentions.
4. Writing things down helps keep you motivated.
5. Writing things down helps you recognize and process your emotions.
6. Writing things down encourages daily progress.
7. Writing things down enables a higher level of thinking, and therefore, more focused action.
8. Writing things down develops your sense of gratitude.

"Over to you" is the way that person ended her list.  My thinking is closest to Colleen's, I believe.  I blog so I can keep track of the things on my mind:  the books, the words, the ideas.

The main thing I say about myself (on the sidebar, under my photo) is that "I read to explore ideas."  Writing it down continues my exploration of what's happening.

(Did you find the "arithmetic" in this post?  Sorry, it's only that list of eight numbers above.)

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts Sunday Salon, a

place to link up and to share what we've been doing

and what we've been reading during the week.

========================================

Deb shared in the comments that she had signed up at the Mayo Clinic's site for a month-long program to increase kindness in the world.  Here's the link:

https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/wellness/kindness