A New Year’s resolution I can keep: Buy more flowers. Not every day or week, but certainly more than the 3-4 times a year that has been my habit. These are the first flowers of 2013.
A bright spot in winter
Weekly Photo Challenge: Resolved
I accidentally cleaned my closet floor. I was looking for a sock. I had one hiking sock in view but could not see its mate. I needed them to go for my walk at Lady Bird Lake. It was cold, around 28 degrees, and I wanted to wear my warm hiking boots. I wasn’t interested in freezing my little tootsies off on a 4-mile walk, so I didn’t want to wear my running shoes; they are, by nature, breezy.
Downtown Austin at dawn, from Lady Bird Lake
To wear my hiking boots, I needed my hiking socks, as in both of them. That led me to pick up everything, layer by layer, up off the closet floor. Oh, I finally found the missing sock but not before I had re-shelved shorts, jeans and sweatshirts, swept the floor and arranged all the shoes.
It wasn’t what I had planned for my Sunday, but I reaped the benefits of my efforts as I walked 4 miles on Lady Bird Lake in freezing temperatures with warm feet.
(I felt like a 7-layer dip with the way I was dressed, but other than my split lip from the freezing dry air, I didn’t have any problems with the cold.)
Peace to all
In 1914, during the Great War (World War I), an unofficial truce took place on Christmas Day along the Western Front. Some German and British soldiers took it upon themselves to celebrate Christmas by stopping the war, greeting each other, exchanging what small items they had as gifts (cigarettes, chocolate, etc.) and playing a soccer game. Peace broke out in more than one area and in more than one year.
There is a memorial in Ypres, Belgium commemorating this truce that was lead by the soldiers themselves.
This is my favorite Christmas story.
Gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
Treat these as gifts for each day.
Be a light in the darkness
So many possibilities for this week’s photo challenge, Thankful.
I owe a great thanks to Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg and his printing press, invented around 1440. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to read 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff or the anthology When I Am An Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple, edited by Sandra Martz. The title is a line taken from the poem Warning, by Jenny Joseph. These books are only two of my favorites. Thank you, thank you, Herr Gutenberg. (I’ve posted a photo of my messy bookcases before; I don’t feel the need to do so again.) The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin has one of the original Gutenberg Bibles. It’s an amazing piece of history.
Photo taken from my cubicle window
I am thankful to have worked near the Texas Capitol building. I find it quite beautiful.
And not last and not least, but I’ll stop listing things I am thankful for or we’d be here all day and all night, I appreciate digital cameras. When I started blogging, I couldn’t have guessed how much I liked taking photos and posting them. It sure turned out that way. I wouldn’t have discovered this if digital cameras hadn’t come along, and that’s point-and-shoot cameras, specifically, available to the casual, amateur photographer like me. Hubby has a “real” camera, where he can decide on all types of settings. I’ve tried it and it’s really not for me. Here’s one of my favorite photos that I took.
Sea shells at the Houston Museum of Natural Science
It's a long story ... 