A Monday meander: Time traveling

“Lotus Blooms” by artist Karen Fisher. (North Carolina Botanical Garden 2022 Sculpture in the Garden)

Lotus flowers lead harrowing journeys. Their seeds sprout in murky swamp water, thick with dirt and debris and snarls of roots. For a lotus to bloom, she must forge her way through this terrible darkness, avoid being eaten by fish and insects, and keep pressing onward, innately knowing, or at least hoping, that there is sunlight somewhere above the water’s surface, if she can only summon the strength to get there. And when she does, she emerges unscathed by her journey and blooms triumphantly.

~ Sarah Jio, All the Flowers in Paris

If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.

~ Masaru Emoto, Secret Life of Water

“Cardinal Points” by Debbie Cohen, Jude Casseday, Bruce Edwards.

It’s hard to believe that it has been a full month since our visit with friends in North Carolina.  I still haven’t sorted through all the garden photos.  I did go through them to get rid of the bad/blurry images and to pull out images of our friends to send to them, but the bulk of the photos were taken on our garden tours and it will probably take a bit of time to get through them all.  I suspect that those of you in winter climates will appreciate the warmth of some of the flowers.  It was an 80°F day when we took our walks through the gardens.

If you follow me on IG or FB, you’ve seen this sculpture. My inner girl can relate very well to her attitude. “Judgment,” by artist Stacey Wright.

(Note about “Judgment”:  The artist’s statement, in part: “I saw this young girl, loved her expression, and couldn’t resist sculpting her. But then, as I was sculpting, the weight on her shoulders and the validity of her attitude became stronger: ‘Stop messing with my planet! My body, my choice! Why do guns matter more than me? Why won’t you listen to me? What kind of world are you leaving me?’ While she started as an aggrieved child she came to embody the fear, anger, and resentment future generations will have, needing to clean up our messes…”)

Thanksgiving is coming up this week and I’ll be traveling again for that.  We’re celebrating with M’s sister this year.  She wanted to cook and I certainly don’t mind having someone else cook for me.  Especially a Thanksgiving meal!  There’s a lot of work that goes into that.  I’ll be happy to help if she needs it, but I suspect we’ll be shooed out of the kitchen.  I’ll shoo her out when it’s time to clean up.  The cook shouldn’t have to do the clean up.  That’s a rule we instituted in our home long ago and we still hold to it.

“Tropical Luminary Bird,” artist Anjana Tumuluri

As I sort through the photos and look up the names of the sculptures and the artists, I realize that we didn’t see all of the sculptures in the garden.  I probably walked right past more than a few of them while talking with friends or looking at plants or flowers instead.  Some of the sculptures were so well placed that it would be easy to miss them.

“Grazing Horse,” by artist Keith Savage

Some, of course, were so big that there was no missing them.

A twisty tree that has grown into its own sort of sculpture.

The weather here has finally turned cold.  We woke up to a temperature of 22°F this morning.  M fired up the woodstove over the weekend and that should keep us fairly warm.  Actually, it keeps me fairly hot (since I tend to run hot).  The cats, Izzy and Bella, are loving the heat from the fire and will probably spend a good chunk of the winter in the living room soaking up the heat.  Mornings are spent in our bedroom because of the sun.  Once the sun leaves, they move to the living room.

Sunlight and warmth expressed through flowers.

I haven’t updated you on Bella’s condition in a long while.  She’s doing well.  She still has trouble eating but she’s eating enough food that she’s not losing weight.  She won’t eat the prescription food (for cats with kidney disease) and with her being 15+ years old, I’m not going to force the issue.  I am going to order some milk for cats.  It is essentially Ensure for felines.  Like most cats, she loves all things dairy.  We don’t feed her very much cheese or milk because she doesn’t tolerate it well (and nobody likes cleaning up vomit).  This stuff is made especially for cats who don’t tolerate dairy well.  A Lactaid for kitties.

They look like they were dancing.

I’ve thought about taking her back to the vet, but I don’t really see the point.  I don’t think they’ll be able to come up with an answer to why she’s having difficulty getting food into her mouth and swallowing it.  They checked out a number of things already, and the hope was that taking care of her teeth would take care of the problem.  It didn’t, not really.  On the positive side, she doesn’t appear to be in pain, she is drinking plenty of water, and she does okay with the foods that are mostly gravy/liquid.

Meandering.

I haven’t commented on the election and I feel like I want to since I brought it up in previous post.  Like many, I am relieved that we didn’t go totally off the rails.  Still, there is so much that needs to be changed.  Politicians should be held accountable in some way for their words.  Words matter.  They matter a lot.  As Colorado Rep. Brianna Titone (D) tweeted on Sunday after the shootings at Club Q in Colorado Springs, “When politicians and pundits keep perpetuating tropes, insults, and misinformation about the trans and LGBTQ+ community, this is a result.”

I don’t know why people have to “other.”  There are all kinds of explanations, none of which make much sense to me because I don’t feel that way.  I do have a good idea as to why the politicians are doing it.  They have lost their one-issue (the right of a woman to decide what she does or does not do with her own body) and need another that will be just as strong, and garner just as much hate and anger.  It is enraging to hear them talk about “grooming” from the LGBTQ+ community when we all know that grooming and sexual abuse happens in their Christian churches.  I’ve yet to hear about a child being groomed or abused at drag related events.

(If you don’t know which politicians I’m referring to, the Washington Post has an article that quotes, for instance, Boebart who has warned “all the drag queens out there” to “stay away from the children in Colorado’s Third District!,” slurs, and more.)

“Mighty Mouth” by artist Peter Thomas

Time put away my soapbox.  Thank you so much for visiting and joining me on another meander.  I’m not sure if I’ll be back before next week or not.  It depends on how much I need to do before leaving for Pennsylvania.  In the meantime, how about we meet at the Point for sunset this evening?  It’s scheduled for 4:47 PM.  Dress for winter.  It’s not too bad out there now (high of 48°F) but it is breezy and it’s always colder by the water this time of year.

Please be safe, be well, and take a little time to just Be.

Bringing back “Judgment” in all her glory.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  3,046)  A nice long conversation with my father this morning.  3,047)  This crisp, beautiful, November day.  3,048)  Bags filled with greens from the garden.  3,049)  Oatmeal for breakfast.  3,050)  Family and friends.

More meandering.