In addition to these most recent books pictured, I am also reading:
Saturday morning on retreat, and breakfast consists of oatmeal. Hot, solid, healthy, and filling. I add a small amount of butter, brown sugar, and craisins. My tea of choice is Bigelow’s orange spice, and a bowl of cantaloupe and blueberries round off the healthiest meal in my repertoire. I don’t know why, but I almost always take a photo of the first bowl of oatmeal on the weekend. I look forward to it every time, and I never get tired of it. It’s a wonderful start to a weekend of contemplation, inspiration, and learning.
While driving to work yesterday, the sun in my eyes, I saw a person walking on the sidewalk opposite where I was. He (this is presumed) was wearing blue bike shorts and a blue shirt, not too bright, but not navy either, in another timeline, I’d probably describe it as American flag blue, both spandex, made most likely for exercise or biking and a red do-rag on his head. See if you can picture it.
I asked myself, out loud mind you, “Is that Spider-Man?”
I did a double take, and what he was wearing came into better focus, and I laughed. I enjoyed the rest of my drive to work.
I don’t have a photo (I was driving after all), so below are some of the other things I’ve seen this week on my way to and from work:
In honor of today’s national coloring book day, I have added three NEW color sheets to my downloadable page, found here.
Each sheet may be downloaded for personal use. You can preview them below.
Happy Coloring!
A few weeks ago, I spent a couple of hours at the St. Kateri Shrine and Historic Site braiding sweetgrass for their gift shop. Sweetgrass is one of the four sacred plants of the Haudenosaunee and it is used along with cedar, sage, and tobacco in their sacred ceremonies. The shrine grows it there among other native-to-the-land plants. I tried to describe the sweet smell of it and all I could come up with is that it smells like sweet grass. Not grass clippings, or freshly mowed; it’s different, but that’s as far as my olfactory vocabulary would cooperate.
During St. Kateri’s weekend, they had a sweetgrass demonstration that I participated in with one of the elders from Akwesasne, one of the Mohawk communities in upstate New York, on the border with Canada. She showed us how to pick and clean the blades and then we braided some and she taught us how to make a bookmark.
The materials couldn’t be simpler, although I couldn’t tell you where to source them: wood splints – these are shaved birch bark, I believe and freshly grown sweetgrass. You’ll need a bucket of water as the sweetgrass is easier to manipulate when it’s moist. You will love the smell that permeates throughout the space and on your fingers.
It was a fun and educational experience, so when I was sent this video on how to make a sweetgrass bookmark, I thought I would share it here as part of my ongoing writings about St. Kateri Tekakwitha.
Today is St. Kateri Tekakwitha’s Feast Day. This year marks the special occasion of the 350th anniversary of St. Kateri’s baptism here in New York. On Thursday, I’ll have a special travel edition with information on visiting her shrine for her feast day weekend happening in a few days.
In the meantime, I’m announcing a new page here on the website called Traveling with St. Kateri Tekakwitha found here. I wanted to celebrate and commemorate her baptismal anniversary while also including some of my visits to her spaces and the Mohawk lands as well as some of my research adventures as I write the book about her and her shrines.
A little something about St. Kateri:
The topmost photo is of the statue at the shrine at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Lake George, NY. The simplicity and elegance of the wood carving is an inspiration in my devotion to St. Kateri as well as the spiritual, sacred feeling it evokes when I visit it.
There are hundreds if not thousands of things to criticize the Trump Administration, the Republican Congress, and the Supreme Court about. Seriously. But people, could we get a grip and focus on prioritizing some of them?
I’m talking about the newly vacant Senate seats in South Carolina and almost in Kentucky.
This is the link to the Hollywood Reporter obituary of Randolph Mantooth, who died on Thursday at the age of 80.
A sad day for those of us who grew up with him and Kevin Tighe who played Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto, respectively on the hit television show, Emergency!.
I still hum the music when I’m backing my car into the driveway.
When the show came out, there were only a handful of paramedics. The show was practically a public service announcement for recruitment. The profession was so unknown when Randy was told his role would be as a paramedic, his question was, “what the hell is a paramedic?”
Decades later, we all know how crucial those paramedics and EMTs are in an emergency and the show was integral in expanding that reach. Mantooth and Tighe continued to support the fire service and the LA Fire Museum over the years.
We introduced my oldest son, then three or four years old, to the show in reruns when he was obsessed with fire trucks and fire fighters. He dressed up as one for Halloween when he was four. He visited fire stations wherever we traveled including his uncle’s fire station on Long Island. He even went to college for fire protection/safety and became a volunteer fire fighter and an EMT during and after college. Emergency was a favorite show of his.
A few years ago, he was in California for a training session for his job, and he visited the Los Angeles Fire Museum, and got himself a Squad 51 t-shirt.
Part of the museum’s statement is below:
From Los Angeles County Fire Museum
Thank you Randy for your friendship! You will be sorely missed.
To Randy’s wife Kristen and Randy’s family. We are here for you all and want to thank you for sharing Randy with us and the world.
We are so very sorry for your loss.
The Museum will be accepting condolence cards for the family. If you would like to send a card please send to the Museum’s shop address at:
LA County Fire Museum
9834 Flora Vista St
Bellflower Calif 90706
KMG 365
Let’s start with the obvious:
Being against pedophiles doesn’t make anyone a progressive. Thomas Massie is a ridiculously conservative Republican who likes raw milk and taking governmental services away from the people who need it, and let’s not get into his views on the second amendment.
Not to mention that Kentucky changed the law to prohibit the Democratic governor from appointing anyone. He should call a special election and force TPTB to prove that McConnell is living and recovering. Am I the only one who feels as though Tom Kean of New Jersey was a trial balloon for something like this?
Vote blue no matter who is null and void when the candidate is a rapist with a Nazi tattoo, neither of which he apologizes for, not that an apology wipes away the heinous actions. We are Democrats. We don’t vote for rapists or Nazis. Ever. If that means Susan Collins gets another term, so be it. Fuck Nazis is the minimum.
The DSA is not a friend of the Democratic party. They don’t even claim to be Democrats. Stop giving them our money.
If they can’t blame it on Joe Biden, they don’t report it.
And how do we protect ourselves and our kids?
Also see previous DSA comments.
Tragic and heartbreaking doesn’t begin to cover it.
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