One of the skills I've tried to hone this spring has been nature photography. I have loved taking photos of plants and animals for a long time, and it used to be a regular part of my job back when I worked in a plant ecology lab. On some of my increasingly long walks this spring, I found myself slowing down to admire the beauty of spring wildflowers and started taking my camera with me when I went out. After getting frustrated when photos didn't turn out quite how I wanted them, I checked out some ebooks on photography and started studying. Here are a few of my recent...
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The brutal treatment and killing of the handcuffed George Floyd has set off protests and destructive riots in cities across the country. Would not an understanding of our shared humanness have caused us to pause and take to heart the words in this poem.
UNDER THE SKIN
Mary Spain*
Come, meet me in the dark with outstretched hands
I would not know your colour or your kind;
And do not speak, in case my biased mind
Forms judgement long before it understands
The words you use. Conceal from me the lands...
Staying at home during the pandemic has given me lots of time to do more reading. A few weeks ago I even stayed up past my normal bed time to finish a book about the Enneagram that I was especially enjoying. I pushed through to the end and went to bed with lots of new thoughts swirling around in my head. The next morning I woke, and one of the very first things I saw scrolling through social media was an...
I have been feeling badly about not protesting for Black Lives Matter. I worry about my health issues, my twelve years’ older partner and her health issues. Dan Halterman, my neighbor, is a protest parade of one which seems fairly safe. He passes by my house and I’m not there to join him because I’ve been in class for my expressive arts therapy designation or babysitting Anthony. I guess the grateful Little Caesar’s employee gave him and his new friend a pizza on Cleveland Avenue. My two younger children did go downtown bringing supplies, putting their white bodies to...
In my first Daily Connector in April, I shared about my Polish heritage and introduced you to Dublin’s Kosciuszko Park. When I was working, I did not have much of an interest in genealogy. Meanwhile Sally would sit down with my Grandmother on most of our trips to Pittsburgh, gather stories and work on my family tree, while I was out back with my uncles drinking beer and pitching horseshoes all day. That all changed after I retired when I went to an aunt’s funeral in Pittsburgh. Sally was still working so she suggested that I take along the family tree that she had done. She had not...