Book Rec – Embrace Your Weird by Felicia Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FELICIA DAY!!!

^{Felicia Day, taken from her book jacket. (c)2019-2023}

Felicia Day is Human Extraordinaire. She’s talented, cute as a button, and has the perfect color red/ginger hair that I strive for. I had known her in geek and fandom circles, and then she appeared in my favorite television show of the moment, Supernatural. Her character was the epitome of geek, nerd, D&D master that I grew up with and grew up as. In honor of her birthday, I am recommending one of her books that I am currently reading.

I borrowed her book, Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity from the e-library at the end of 2019. I read about two chapters in, and knew that a borrowed book, an e-book would not do. I was expected to write in this book – something both foreign to me and impossible to do with an e-book. I broke down and ordered a hard copy in paperback with my Christmas Amazon money and waited until the perfect moment to start.

One word of advice: there is no perfect moment.

^{Embrace Your Weird book with my go-to post-it notes}
^{and the pens I bought especially for working in this book.}
^(c)2023

Some of the tasks are really thought-provoking, and some were emotionally draining, but also exhilarating. I was proud of getting through the tasks thus far. I am not even halfway done with the book. I did put it aside for a time for other (creative) projects, and I’ve picked it up again, and in picking it up, I wanted to share it with you.

There are seven chapters with several parts in each chapter. Each chapter lets you look into yourself and learn what might be holding you back from busting out the creativity and finding your jam. That sentence channels Felicia in all the best ways. Don’t be afraid to try. A lot of the hesitation for me (and for Felicia, as it turns out) is anxiety. Name the monster and it can’t hurt you, or something like that.

The book is go at your own pace, which is why I’ve been able to start it, put it down, and continue it. Notice that I said “continue;” not “start again.” The book, like your creativity, is a never-ending journey that pauses when the need arises and continues when you’re ready. I was ready last week, actually, but the book’s been missing. It was a victim of cleaning for guests, and shoved in a large green tote bag, which I only remembered yesterday morning.

This book breaks two of my rules:

Read and follow the directions as closely as possible.
Write in the book.

Despite my guilty childhood of scribbling in books, writing in books is anathema to me, but I’ve adapted with this special book.

I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I am!

Election Connection – Women’s Rights Today

Today marks 134 days before the next Election Day, and 500 days until the next Presidential Election Day. It seems like a very far time away, but it really isn’t. It will be here before we know it. It is also not too early to become familiar with your local elections and issues happening that will be addressed on the next two Election Days.

Our voting numbers in this country are abysmal. I know we want to represent freedom, and you should have the freedom to decide whether or not you want to vote. However, that should come with a dreading realization that with your one vote, you can change how things are done in this country. Look at Michigan. I am personally for a national day off for voting and automatic registration at 18 as well as requiring all those eligible to vote. We are still using a Presidential election system built on slavery and proportioning electoral college votes on land rather than on people.

How does this affect women’s rights, the presumptive focus of this missive?

Inspire. June.

Inspire is a little late this month…okay, it’s a lot late this month. It’s not that I’ve been procrastinating as much as I’ve been absorbing and acting on the plethora of inspiration that I’ve been exposed to in the last several weeks. Sometimes there is a lull or a slight time of unknowing what I’ll write about, but this month was the opposite. How do I choose from the things that inspired me this month, and continue to inspire me? This paragraph formed the introduction to a much longer article on some of the inspirational things I’ve been exposed to throughout June; however, I decided to share some stories from last night’s World Peace & Prayer Day Interfaith Service that I attended at the Historic St. Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine in upstate New York and save the longer writing for another day.

World Peace and Prayer Day was started in 1994 by Avrol Looking Horse to honor the birth two years before of a white buffalo calf, which was a sign of changing times to come as well as the “coming of the mending of the Hoop of All Nations”. She was named Miracle. June 21st was chosen because it is a powerful time to pray for peace as well as being the Summer Solstice and the longest day of the year. It is an offering and hope to heal all of Mother Earth’s gifts that live on the earth, including the Earth herself.

Speak evil of no one. If you can say no good of a person, then be silent..

Let not your tongues betray you into evil,

For these are words of our Creator.

Let all strive to cultivate friendship with those who surround them.
Handsome Lake, Iroquois Prophet

Pride

For the next four weeks, I’ll be posting some information, links, art, and photos for Pride and hopefully including some LGBT+ history. I’d like to start by saying that last week I heard some complaints by folks with nothing better to do asking why Pride gets a month and our veterans only get one day. This is obviously meant to create an issue where there is none. First, Memorial Day is not about veterans in that way; it’s about the war dead, which most people are glad to ignore until it suits their agenda. If they really felt this way, they’d spend Memorial Day at the cemetery, at a house of worship, volunteering instead of barbecuing and at baseball games and concerts. Second, there are many, many veterans (and war dead) who are in the LGBT+ community, and Pride is as much for them as any other person. Third, for those who declare that “pride” is a venal sin, I’d like to suggest that those divorced, adulterous, lying, hypocrites stay quiet and/or remove the log from their eye.

I wonder if, when these people see a rainbow in the sky if they shake a fist at it and complain loudly to the Creator about how woke He is.

Pride was born in revolution, even though LGBT+ people were around long before 1969. The ones who are out and open and celebrate Pride are not only celebrating themselves but are celebrating those of the community who are still not out, for personal reasons as well as safety ones.

My friend has a denim vest with the stenciled words: The first pride was a riot. I’ve used that to influence the art I created last night for this post. Sometimes the simplest designs tell a greater story.

Marsha P. Johnson

Sylvia Rivera

Stonewall Riots

Library of Congress Research Guides: 1969: The Stonewall Uprising

Mental Health Monday – Sleep

I don’t know anyone who gets enough sleep. Like my kids, I stay up way too late, and even with intentional naps, there is no way to catch up on missed sleep.

I slept very late today. I hadn’t intended to. I went to bed early with a stomachache, and slept until I was refreshed, which was quite late. I needed the sleep apparently. I was surprised at how much I needed it considering I actually got a lot of sleep over the weekend.

I had the privilege of attending a weekend retreat guided by Terry and Darlene Wildman. You’ll hear more about them (and the retreat) in an upcoming post. The retreat was centered around the First Nations Version of the New Testament, and the weekend was filled with music, Scripture, prayer, and really good, deep conversation. I usually have a difficult time settling down on retreat to sleep. Even though, I’m very comfortable at the retreat house, I just can’t quiet my mind. This retreat gave me the exact opposite experience. I went to sleep every night before midnight (sometimes long before) and woke up refreshed at around seven in the morning, with an alarm, and the sunrise out of my window.

At the end of the retreat, I had another event through the Cursillo movement. I had to drive out, and on my way, I decided to take a quick stop at the St. Kateri Shrine. I was so close, and after the weekend enveloped in Native spirituality, I felt the pull to sit on that holy ground, near to where St. Kateri was baptized. I decided to face the seven directions that we prayed with (East, South, West, North, Above, Below, Inward), and after a few more moments, I proceeded with my drive.

I wasn’t tired. I was refreshed. Except for last night’s stomachache, I felt great, and didn’t think I needed any extra sleep or naps.

My body told me something different.

This is my reminder to you that even though you may feel fine, feel rested, feel awakened, your body may tell you something different. Try and take the opportunities when they arise to get the rest you need, whether it’s deep sleep, resting your eyes, sitting in nature with no other thoughts. Rest, not only your body, but your thoughts.

The photo below is the (four) directions I faced at the St. Kateri Shrine. East begins in the top left, and follows the direction of the sun, what we now call clockwise.

^{St. Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine,}
^{Fonda, NY}
^(c)2023

World Bee Day

In my town, I’ve seen signs all over unmowed lawns, stating, “No Mow May.” This has proved very convenient for our family as our lawnmower is on the fritz, so I guess we’ve got one more month to get it repaired or replaced.

Sustainable Saratoga has some helpful tips on how not mowing benefits bees, which benefits all of us. Of course, check your local ordinances for property upkeep, but generally, you’re only required to mow your lawns in June, July, and August, but it varies by locality. Also, visit their link for Pollinators and Native Plants (Saratoga County and parts of Upstate New York.)

If coloring’s your thing, visit my new page: Coloring Sheet (link in the menu) and look for the World Bee Day sheet to download and color.

And if you like a snack while helping the bees, stop into your local Starbucks where they have the new Bumblebee Cake Pop, but I took photos of it from all angles, and all I see is a yellow cat. If someone could show me the bee, I would very seriously appreciate it!

^{Bumblebee Cake Pop from Starbucks.}
^(c)2023

Plant these helpful varieties to save the bees.

Yom Hashoah

“If we wish to live and to bequeath life to our offspring, if we believe that we are to pave the way to the future, then we must first of all not forget.”
Prof. Ben Zion Dinur, Yad Vashem, 1956

A few links to follow to learn about this day as well as reflect on it. In addtion to Holocaust Remembrance Day, which began at sundown last night, it is also 80 years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. I have a well-worn book about the Uprising that I’ve kept since childhood.

Yom Hashoah is specific to commemorating the Jewish people who perished in the Holocaust.

Click photo to be taken to the Twitter thread that explains this.

Information from Yad Vashem about today’s remembrance day.

Friday Food. April.

Passover, Easter, Spring Break, Prom Season. So much to do, including cooking. Holiday cooking plus the regular everyday cooking that we’re expected to do. These last few weeks had me teaching, my daughter working practically every day after school, my son trying to break the world’s record for most movies seen in a month (kidding), my husband’s job is one person short, and no one wants to cook dinner. They also don’t want to pay for take out or fast food, and frankly, I don’t blame them. I thought I would take this Friday Food to share some shortcuts and new things to try.

Everyone knows about cooking two meals on Sunday and then eating leftovers. I try to make one big meal a week, like a roast beef, a pork loin, or a whole chicken. They make a great meal, and then they make great leftovers. All of them can be eaten as sandwiches later in the week with a side of chips and cole slaw. If the first night is mashed potatoes, the next night can be rice. My daughter likes Minute Rice, but regular rice is very easy to make. I got the recipe from The Kitchen Survival Guide by Lora Brody and while I’ve changed some things, the gist of it is the same.

Election Connection – Book Banning/Challenge Update

This is specific to a Texas school district, but challenges are happening across the country.

A federal judge has ruled that the books in question be returned to the library within twenty-four hours and left accessible while the case is ongoing. They are prohibited from removing any books while the case is in litigation.

According to this CNN article, while the Texas school said the books were removed as part of their normal weeding procedures it is clear that there were outside influences at play based on the subjects removed, including topics of race and LGBT+.

Disagreeing with the subject matter is not a reason to remove the books from the library. I also disagree with the comment in the article that pastors should be involved. Absolutely not. The separation of church and state is critically important both to the founding of this country and its ongoing evolution of welcoming all, despite the recent contradictions to that.

Part of the problem is the ignorance of those complaining about the books. They call many LGBT+ books pornographic when they are not sexual in nature and simply talk about feelings and gender as any adolescent character in a book would do. They are also trying to restrict CRT (critical race theory) which none of these books teach despite perhaps being written by a person of color or are about a person of color. As has been explained over and over again, CRT is not something that is taught in the schools, not even at a high school level. It is typically a subject in post-graduate and law schools.

As a writer, I understand that not all books are for everyone, and I agree that parents can determine the appropriateness of books for their children within reason (as I have done for my children without banning books for everyone), but I expect that we should trust in the schooling and expertise of librarians and teachers who have studied this field for a number of years.

I am also concerned about a random group of uneducated people coming in and removing books rather than letting individual parents and children make the determinations for their families on what is age-appropriate.

I hope the country steps back from the abyss; we are well beyond the slippery slope, and we need to offer modern books with timely subject matter while also encouraging the reading of classics while explaining the reasons that some of the material isn’t appropriate, and maybe never was.

Times change. We should change with them.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28

Griffins and Ginger Snaps

-I write, and I have a blog because of course I do-

links