Happy Valentine's Day!
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There is an interview with the Four Women of "The Squad" on Democracy Now.
After reading the transcript of these four diverse women,
at a time when I was getting very disheartened about the state of the country and the world,
I found HOPE!
They are, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York,
Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts,
Rashida Tlaib of Michigan
and
Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
These women are on the front lines and they are passionate and positive
and Hopeful!
So, whatever you do, don't lose Hope.
Hope will get us through.
Love and compassion
and passion for the things we love –
will get us through.
©2020 Laine Quinn, Wild Waves
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While burning a few things on the deck in the chiminnea,
I noticed these caterpillars munching away on the Butterfly Weed.
It was over a month ago. There were about 10 or 12 of them, and they decimated that plant.
Then yesterday,
while leaning over the rail to reach a hanging pot I spied this little one in the same area.
She is no bigger than the joint of my thumb.
Will she emerge from her cocoon?
We will have to wait and see.
I brought her indoors, as the temperature was dropping.
There is so much hidden in plain sight that we never even notice.
It was chance that led me to the caterpillars and the butterfly.
Look at the little bugs on the left.
I didn't even see them until I blew the photo up!
Garden Joy! February in Florida, annuals to plant!
©2020 Laine Quinn
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What if, instead of multiple networks of highways,
America was crisscrossed with lines of light rail?
And there were lovely terminals scattered everywhere,
and people could travel safely and comfortably,
south to north and east to west and back again,
in climate controlled modern rail cars?
Imagine the lives that wouldn't have been lost over the last 50 years to highway fatalities.
Wakanda!
The fictional city in the Black Panther movie,
where women were empowered equally to men
and developed technologies of peace.
A City outside of the greedy capitalist unsustainable consumer economy
that we have spread through the globe like a virus threatening our very existence.
A fictional utopia?
Yes.
But we are living in a real dystopia,
one that with a few different choices would improve exponentially.
This Earth really is a Paradise that we need to reclaim.
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Imagine that over 100 years of air pollution from cars and trucks
never happened.
That the arduous task of extracting oil from the earth was abandoned.
When Henry Ford was building cars,
he experimented with bio-fuels,
namely Hemp, the versatile plant that matured in a single season
and grew in every state in the Union.
Unfortunately Ford Motor Company was subsidized by Standard Oil,
John D. Rockefeller's cash cow and defiler of the earth and air.
Hemp not only threatened oil production,
but could easily have replaced cotton
and the cotton industry was having nothing to do with that.
Same with Paper.
And Pharmaceuticals?
Forget it.
Hemp,
quick – renewable-
inexpensive
abundant,
and in those times of monopolized industries,
Banned.
The Titans of Industry and Wall Street have given us the world we live in.
The environment is decimated and we have endless profitable wars,
killing off the regular folks who just want to live a good life.
And now we have to fight a Sisyphaen battle to reclaim our right to breathe,
to be healthy,
to live to see our children's children.
One step at a time.
Researching information about Henry Ford unearthed some dark facts. To see the link above click on his name.
How long has this been going on?
Tsk, Tsk……
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HELP!
What if, when chemical companies came up with the idea
to spray food crops with the deadly compounds
that were developed in wartime,
someone very important had said,
"This is a really bad idea."
OR
What if, 20 or 30 years later, when a bright caring poet/scientist
saw the effects of these deadly poisons first hand
and sounded the alarm, that birds were dying, bees and butterflies too.
And the chemical big wigs had said,
"Oh my, this is not what we had intended.
We can do better than this."
If either one of those things had happened,
we would have vegetables and fruits
that actually tasted like something, instead of tasting like nothing.
And the bees and butterflies wouldn't be on the edge of extinction.
The Earth would be healthier and her people and their children.
Silent Spring was published in 1962, by Rachel Carson who died of breast cancer 2 years later, in 1964.
"Though much is taken, much remains and much returns." John Elder quoting Wordsworth with an addition, in Courage for the Earth, Celebrating the life and writings of Rachel Carson.
Things we can do…feed the birds, and plant flowers that attract bees and butterflies and grow our own veggies!!!! And buy organic when we can afford to.
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When you bought groceries in the '50's and early 60's,
they were packed in sturdy paper bags.
These bags were then used as trash bags that,
when full, were taken outside to metal trash cans.
(I can still hear the sound of the metal cans on trash day!)
Milk and soda came in returnable glass bottles that never made their way to the trash
because you could get money for returning them!
There was no plastic.
No Styrofoam.
Until there was.
And now the earth is drowning in plastic.
In those short 50 or so years,
drowning in plastic.
So…
Paper grocery bags?
Insist on it.
Cloth?
Even better.
Paper trash bags?
Why not?
Be creative –
small steps for mankind and womankind and children kind.
The Earth will survive human recklessness,
but humans won't.
Paper is a renewable resource, and with the return of the versatile Hemp plant, there is even more reason to have faith in paper.
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"…a soulful ecology is rooted in the feeling that this world is our home
and that our responsibility to it comes not from obligation
or logic, but from true affection.
…As long as the heart is involved, care of the place will follow."
Thomas Moore, Care of The Soul
The thing to understand is that this in not your fault or my fault
because we didn't recycle enough or we use too much plastic,
or we believed that Round Up was safe.
The problem is institutionalized.
From the auto industry to plastics manufacturing,
oil producers have held sway over these industries for a century.
Chemical companies have been spreading their propaganda since WWII.
And governments have been holding their hands ever since
and silencing concerned voices.
There are little things that we can do in our lives and homes.
And lots of little things add up.
More later!
Home sweet Home! The cat, the hammock, and the flowers are still with me in my new home!
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"If kindness takes a little longer,
it's worth the extra time."
Eleanor McEvoy
When we develop kindness towards ourselves,
we can change the atmosphere of our days and lives;
the atmosphere of our homes and work environments,
and our relationships.
Kindness, first for ourselves.
All love and peace radiate from our tender hearts.
They say we have ten years, it might be less, to get this right, to turn around the dire need that the earth is in.
If we wake up everyday with a kind heart and gentleness towards ourselves,
then we can appreciate the beauty that is all around us.
This appreciation for life can carry us to the finish line,
one day at a time.
The kindness quote is from a song by Eleanor McEvoy. I recommend the book "Loving Kindness" by Sharon Salzberg for some kind inspiration.
Flagler Beach pier love notes, ©Laine Quinn
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Whenever I see a line of pelicans coming along the beach, over the waves,
their wingtips just grazing the water, I get a little bit jealous of how simple
their life appears to be.
It seems that the creatures of this world are better at meeting their daily needs
than the oh so intelligent higher mammals who actually destroy or poison
the very things that support them.
From now on, my blog is dedicated to our home planet,
the lifeboat that we – all of us – are sailing on through space.
I am joining the chorus of concerned citizens of Mother Earth
to do my small part to alleviate the pressure of too many years
of human recklessness that has threatened our time here.
My first step is appreciation, and gratitude for the beautiful world we still live in.
The wonderful old oak trees in my neighborhood, and just last week, the hungry caterpillar on the butterfly weed,
and of course the beaches and all the life bursting there, the birds and fishes and dolphins.
A heartfelt appreciation and gratitude.
Bowing in humility before the multiplicity of life, here on planet Earth.
Brown Pelicans doing what they do as they surf along the waves at St. Augustine Beach.
©LaineQuinn 2020
Lainesblog Thinking Out Loud
Gleanings From Living Long
Lainesblog Thinking Out Loud 