A CELTIC PRAYER

 This is an adaptation of a Celtic prayer that I found in the book KNITTING INTO THE MYSTERY.

May the blessing of light be on you,
light without and light within
and light inside the darkness within.
May the blessed sunlight shine upon you
and warm your heart 'til it glows,
like a great peat fire, so that strangers may come
and warm themselves; and that friends may come.
And may the light shine out of the eyes of you,
like a candle set in the windows of a house,
bidding the wanderer to come in out of the storm.
And may the blessing of the rain be on you--
The soft, sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit so that the seedlings of light
in you shadow may spring up,
and shed their sweetness on the air.
And may the blessing of the great rains be on you,
that they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there many a shining pool,
and sometimes a star.
And may the blessing for the earth be on you--
the great round earth
who carries all; the great round earth
whose suffering has already become radiant.
May you ever have a kindly greeting for people
you pass as you are going along the roads.
And now may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly,
your kin and all creatures.

Blessed be

I've noticed that prayers of the Celts can't be read quickly. They loved their words and every one of them counted. To be said slowly, mindfully.

THE BULLSHIT PRINCIPLE

 Sometimes you just have to call bullshit by its right name. 

Sounds  about right. Some folks may not believe the moon is made of cheese but they will claim until both sides are blie in the face that the moon lnadings were faked. Only now it's the twin towers were an inside job, there was massive voter fraud in 2020, heck there were claims that Uvalde was "fake news" before the victimes were even buried. 

IT'S ALL A DANCE

 

Much more fun than trying to take any longer than necessary with the sad sack in the last entry. They are out there and like a black hole. They will suck all the joy and mystery out of the universe if you let them. 

That is a map of the tectonic plates. And that little guy up north is the Juan De Fuca plate. It's subducting, slowly moving under the Pacific Northwest and northern California. At the blinding speed of up to two inches or so a year. The whole surface of the earth is moing in one direction or another. It's too bad this map doesn't show the deep ocean trenches where basaltic magma flows up to the surface pushing everything next to them away. 

And while those plates are creeping along the earth is rotating on its axis. Spinning at about one thousand miles per hour. So much for the sun standing still over Jericho. Just my personal opinion. The earth revolves around the sun at about sixty seven thousand miles per hour. The solar system revolves through the Milky Way Galaxy at just over half a million miles per hour. It takes us about a quarter of a million years to make just one revolution. The whole galaxy is rotating around the galactic center at about four hundred senventy miles per hour. 

I've been trying, with some success, to work my way through a geology text. But when I got to the point where I was contemplating all that spinning, all going on at the same time, I got just a little dizzy. And then I stepped back a little and just thought about the wonder of it all. And at all the hard work it takes to make the measuments, double check, do it again and maybe give up a cherished belief or two that the evidence won't support anymore. 

There are two ways of looking at the world. You have evidence and come up with an explanation that fits the evidence. Or you have an explanation and you go looking for the evidence to back it up. Even if you have to twist the evidence like a pretzel to back it up. Treating scripture as a science textbook is one glaring example. And I believe I will stop there. 

DON'T KNOW HOW TO TITLE THIS ONE

 

 

This is from a page on Face Book. It is not a fake page. I'm not really sure where the author of this word salad is coming from. I assume with the crack about our president that he is referring to the folks who believe that the 2020 election was not stolen from the previous tenant of the White House. There are a lot of words that don't say a whole hell of a lot. And honestly say more about the author than they do about the targets. The crack at the end. You all don't know how sad your are but I do. Whew!

I was going to do more with this sad sack. Glad I do not know this person. 

THE CLIMATE CHANGE BAROMETER

 Back in the mid seventies I bought a rhododendron for my folks anniversary. We planted it on the south east cornor of the house. It was the last to bloom and the last to bloom out. Usually about mid June.

By the mid nineties I started to notice that I was dead heading the shrub by the end of May. A full two weeks earlier. That bush became my "climate change" barometer. 

By the early teens the hot weather was arriving in early July instead of mid July. The temps were a little higher and it was lasting longer. To make it more interesting we were getting some colder spells in the winter. That last winter were were in Springfield it got to sixteen below and for the lower Willametter Valley that is COLD. 

I also learned another valuable lesson with that shrub. It's called Blue Jay. And I was told that is would live up to it's name. It's actually lavender blue. If you want it "bluer" dig in some iron sulphate around the roots. Give 'em an iou and go shopping when the plant is actually in bloom. Saves time. 

WARNING SNOWFLAKES AHEAD

You can melt one snowflake. Puy s loy of snowflakes together and you can get an avalanche or a glacier. One will get you now the other will get you later. Slowly and steadily. 

BUTTERFLY IN SPACE

 

 

The butterflynebula  loacated in the constellation Scorpius. Shot was taken by the Hubble telescope. 

Because to be honest trying to deal with that last belief about liberty in the back country brought to the colonies by the borderers and scots Irish is too damn depressing. Actually what it boils down to is what we are seeing around us. Shert definition "you have to respect my rights and I will respect yours when or if I feel like it. See you later after I spend a little time contemplating thst beauty.