
Remembering President Jimmy Carter
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Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Inauguration of the former and next President is in thirteen days, and the mid-term elections are in six hundred thirty-four days, and many of us will be counting the months, weeks, days, and hours until that election day.
We must resist in all our legal capacity, and we must be loud.
My two strongest focuses, in addition to holding onto our democracy by any legal means necessary, are combating antisemitism and trans-hate. Some of it is transphobia, but the majority of what I’m witnessing is ignorance and hate, and we all need to be allies.
The graphic below is useful in vetting news sources. In the coming weeks, this is going to be more difficult with opinion pieces masquerading as facts, with declarative statements masquerading as already existing in law. Two examples of this are:
The media continually calling Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel the next Secretary of Defense and Director of the FBI, respectively. They are not, and they will NOT be until they are confirmed by the United States Senate. They are merely nominees; not even designees yet.
The second is the acquiescing to calling Musk and Ramaswamy as any kind of official and calling DOGE anything other than wishful thinking. A new government department just doesn’t magically appear without Congressional approval, and these two numb nuts have no position within the government. They may still, but not yet.
We haven’t gotten through the first week of January, and our potential is still out there. Still within us, ready to break forth. Our ambition. Our motivation. Our inspiration. How will we keep it at the forefront in the coming months?
I’ll share five ways that I plan on being inspired this year.

My four words for the beginning of the year. They may stay all year; they may transform; they may be added to or replaced. And that will be okay because it will be what I need at that moment. Follow along and let’s see how it goes.
Inspired. Intentionality. Inclusivity. Interconnectedness. 2025.
January 6 will forever be Trump’s legacy—a violent, unforgivable assault on our nation’s capitol. No amount of revisionism or whitewashing by the MAGA GOP will erase it. The entire world watched in horror & nothing will ever change the fact that Trump is a fraud.
Olivia of Troye on Bluesky. Olivia is a former Trump Administration official (1st term)
Please visit below the cut and ensure that January 6th is remembered, today and every day.
Continue readingFor readers who have been here for awhile, I rarely if ever declare or think about New Year’s Resolutions. That changes this year. After the election, I’ve been inundated with lies and misinformation, not to mention the focus on stupidity rather than real news, and I am damn sick of it. That led me to think about my life and my writing.
I may have already written about my new job, but I started working in October, and it is the kind of place that feeds my soul. I have never had a job like this before, and every day is a joy to be there, and that allows that joy to follow me home. It’s been a good couple of months.
Obviously, I’m disappointed (understatement) about the election. I hope we can get through the next two years, and use the midterm elections to return to sanity. My first Election Connection of the new year will appear in this space next Tuesday.
As I mentioned yesterday, I am really proud of my series writing, and those will continue. In addition to Election Connection, there will be more Mental Health Monday, monthly Inspired and Friday Food posts, and I’m hoping for a return to Penny Prompts – the writing prompts based on Louise Penny’s writing and her Armand Gamache mystery series.
Those are both my intentions and my inspirations and I hope to find more throughout the year. You will find more of my new year’s thoughts below the cut.
Continue readingIn some ways, saying goodbye to 2024 is bittersweet. It is both a relief and a sadness. I’m still wearing my Harns/Walz bracelets and yearn for what might have been. Nothing was going to be perfect, but I have no doubt that it would have been better.
I spent yesterday looking back at this website, traveling from December all the way back to January to find which posts stood out to me. some were great; Some were not so great, but they all propelled my writing forward. A few of my favorites are linked below for you to also look back on. Tomorrow, I’ll begin with my intentions and actual resolutions for the New Year.
After 25 or so years home with my kids, I now have a job outside the house that I truly love. I never expected this to happen, and I’m so glad that the time was right, both for me and the place.
I have a good path forward for my book. I’m organizing the research and the photos, and I will also be presenting a program in the summer on St. Kateri’s Journey and her life.
Yesterday we learned of the death of President Jimmy Carter after nearly two years in hospice care and after the death of his beloved wife, Rosalynn a little more than a year ago in November of 2023.
I remember bits of his presidency and his family, especially his brother, Billy and youngest child, Amy, who was a year younger than me. I remember his deep southern accent and his wide smile, but mostly I remember that after he left the Presidency did his public service really begin. I can’t begin to relate his accomplishments – there are others better suited to telling those stories, but I do want to acknowledge his passion for the American people and their experiment as well as his compassion and faith that I admired and hope to emulate, although I know I’ll never come close.
To read about his legacy, visit his Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, online here and the Carter Center, next door to the Library and Museum.
For funeral arrangements and the schedule for his lying in state in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia, visit:
USA Today has a fairly comprehensive discussion of what is planned both in Washington and Georgia at this link.
This short clip on C-SPAN has President Carter talking about some of the funeral arrangements for when “his participation at the Carter Center is reduced.”
The Carter Center and The White House will have more information as it becomes available.
The state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter will be Thursday, January 9.
All federal offices and some state offices will be closed in commemoration and as part of the
National Day of Mourning.
All flags will be flown at half-staff for 30 days, beginning on December 29, 2024 at all public buildings and grounds as well as military posts, and half-mast on all naval vessels.

A Look Back Through Photos:
Continue readingA-Angry. B-Bitter. C-Concerned. D-Despairing. E- Exhale
Now that the Catholic (Liturgical) New Year has begun, and the Global New Year is on the horizon, I thought that for this last inspired of 2024 I would share five things I’m grateful for and five intentions I plan for the upcoming months.
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