My smile

Another rainy day here on the Eastern Shore.

How we love individual trees, but how we forget that our tree is embedded within a community of beings—a forest—without which that individual could not exist. It is only through relationships that a solitary tree is able to survive. So, too, ourselves.

~ Fred Bahnson, from The Church Forests of Ethiopia

Beech leaves in the sunlight on another day.

I had this odd thought this morning, one that felt like a piece of a half-remembered dream.  A warning, maybe, but it felt more like a hope.  That we would all have to pass through this virus, or let it pass through us, and that it would become part of who we are as humans from now on.  It’s not a prophetic dream or thought.  Just the reality of things.  We’re all going to be affected by this in some way, even if it’s only as part of the history of these times.  Plenty of people have already noted that this shows us how connected we are all on this planet.  I do hope we learn the importance of that as time goes on.

Today’s April Love 2020 prompt is:  My smile.  Trees, lately, have been my smile, or what make me smile.  They are part of my community.  I watched the short film, The Church Forests of Ethiopia, on Emergence Magazine this morning.  I read the essay, too.  I highly recommend it (and I linked to it in the quote at the beginning of this post).

I do have a selfie of me smiling that I could post, but it’s not going to happen today.  I was reluctant to post a photo of me, especially the current me who is so badly in need of a haircut.  Then I decided I would because… why not?  I took the photo, sent it to myself so I could download it to my computer and then upload it here.  That’s when our internet connection went wonky.  We can’t get to some websites at all, and I am unable to download the picture from my email.  Our internet service provider says they are terribly, terribly busy right now.  So, we’ll have to make do with some photos from earlier in the year, none of which include me.  They were taken way back in January, before the world went strange.  (I have enough photos in the archives, photos never used, to get me through years of blogging.)

The Weathervane building.

Today is Day 4 of the self-care challenge.  How are you doing today?

I was up quite early this morning to do my yoga and meditation practices, and I took a short afternoon walk in the drizzling rain.  It will have to do.

Here’s a video for today:  Don’t Socially Distance Your Heart (a Total Eclipse of the Heart parody).

Floating in early January.

Thanks for visiting today.  We have not been able to watch the sunset lately.  Thick clouds keep obscuring our view.  Even so, I watch for it.  I hope you do, too.

Be safe, be well.  ♥♥♥

An old sunset.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  1,296)  Stomping around in the puddles.  1,297)  Finishing up our art project.  I will show it to you soon.  I promise.  1,298)  Getting outside, no matter what the weather.  1,299)  Spinach, onion, and potato omelet for breakfast.  1,300)  Recipes sent to me by friends.  I’m looking forward to trying out a few.