Sunday, 16 February 2025

 

What you have done is out there 

and what you have done remembers 


Friday, 14 February 2025

Valentine Heart Tanika

 

If I was a Londoner, rich with complaintWould you take me back to your houseWhich is sainted with lust and the listless shadeIf I could have held you once more with that lightIt's nothing to you, but it keeps me aliveLike a Valentine's Day, it's a Valentine's heart, anyway
The king and the ages, they fall by the planIt's always the tired and the ordinary man(It's the) challenge it's funny and suchI want to see you againI want to see you againIt's so simple and plainBut I'll come back and see you again
The lie is the angel, it doesn't existI tell you it's funny but you like just to twist all my wordsIt's a shame you're so youngMy word, it's a shame I'm so dumbI figure a house with the smoke and the fenceThe people round here would be pleasedTake my word on this
I would believe just in you, just believe in youAnd five days to catch me around with my ringAs I visit the friendships which meant everything to the girlWith the clown's face, to the girl with the clowns face, round here


Valentine Belinda

 I made a rule about you

I made a planFor getting my feet back on the ground.Bury my face in the cloudsFor hours on endBut time only flies when you're around
It was cold and dark the last time I saw you.Your hair was long and falling in your eyes.You said my hands were warm and that I was specialTo you
Valentine,

You say that it's complicatedBut baby you're wrongThere's nothing more obvious to me.That we're on a trip together33, 000 light years longAnd I'm hurting so bad 'cause you don't see
The night you walked me home, I gave you a pictureOf Eden's trees falling to the groundAnd now I feel, I feel like you're a perfect stranger
Without youValentine,


Valentine,You know that I'm fighting this love in vainThe sun's been shining for a weekBut it still feels like rainValentine.I know you're not mineYour'e somebody else's flameBut when those hearts and flowers fadeOh my darlin', look my way

And I don't know why you stayBut when those hearts and flowers fadeOh my darlin', look my way

Valentine T'Pau

 

Songs for my valentine
Give the game awayIn rhyme I make mineSing all that I cannot say
I know mine are the tears I never cryI know mine is a love I must deny
We go our separate waysWith nothing but a smileHearts break in many waysOh how, you've broken mine
I know mine are the arms you'll never holdI know mine is a love remains untold
Hey, hey, hey!Sunny valentineCome on shineYour love my way

 The February fog,

Turns all into blobs,
Orange street lights,
To Valentine's Night.

Wednesday, 12 February 2025

Wednesday February 12: Snow Moon




















called the snow moon — a nickname inspired by the heavy snowfall typically seen in February in parts of the United States,

The full moon offers an opportunity to sit in the fullness of your life. It is a time to feel deep gratitude for the many blessings you have and experience. It is also a powerful time to recommit yourself to the projects and relationships that mean the most to you.


Names for this month’s Moon have historically had a connection to animals. The Cree traditionally called this the Bald Eagle Moon or Eagle Moon. The Ojibwe Bear Moon and Tlingit Black Bear Moon refer to the time when bear cubs are born. The Dakota also call this the Raccoon Moon; certain Algonquin peoples named it the Groundhog Moon, and the Haida named it Goose Moon.

Another theme of this month’s Moon names is scarcity. The Cherokee names of Month of the Bony Moon and Hungry Moon give evidence to the fact that food was hard to come by at this time



Tuesday, 11 February 2025

 

Why does February feel 

like one big Tuesday?




Tuesday, 4 February 2025

  

 If only life's variables were as cut and dried as the rules of mathematics. 

If only there were clear answers, certainty, clarity, right or wrong. 

But all you can do is eliminate as many unknowns as possible. 

Then pick an answer and hope. 

Hope that at the end of the day, it's an answer you can live with.



 On average, a healthy heart beats 115,000 times per day. 

When excited, the heart rate can double. 

The heart pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through your entire body 24 hours a day. 

It never rests.

 The heart is the hardest-working muscle in your body. 

But when it’s damaged, it’s just like skin. It scars, and scar tissue can be very dangerous in a heart. It weakens it. And eventually, a heart full of scars stops working.

 Scarred hearts don’t heal, but over time, the scars can change. 

They can become smoother, softer. 

And some scars can even fade away.


  

Life doesn't owe us a thing. 

It just is. 

Like a river, it goes where it goes. 

You can try to fight against the current. Or you can learn to ride it. 

 All day, every day, we fight against the current.

 Sometimes we lose, sometimes we win. 

Sometimes, the current carries us exactly where we need to go

. And sometimes, it slams us right into the rocks.


 24 hours. 

1,440 minutes.

 86,400 seconds. 

 One day can bring you back from the brink, change your entire life in one heartbeat, one single breath.

 That's all it takes to save your life. To change your life. 

One single day can pull us from the depths of despair.

 And one single day can fill us with more possibilities than we could imagine.


 Have you ever had the starring role in a play? 

A solo in a recital? All eyes on you. Waiting for you to do what they came to see. Feeling the incredible pressure to perform. 

There was a time when they used to call operating rooms an operating theater.  Scores of people get ready for the show, the sets are arranged, there are costumes, masks, props, everything has to be rehearsed, choreographed, all leading to the moment when the curtain goes up. 

You know what they say about Carnegie Hall? There is only one way to get there.

 If only life was just a dress rehearsal... And we had time for do-overs... We'd be able to practice and practice every moment until we got it right. 

Unfortunately, every day of our lives is its own performance. 

It seems like even when we get the chance to rehearse and prepare and practice, we're still never quite ready for life's grand moments.


 The human body is designed to compensate for loss. 

It adapts, so it no longer needs the thing it can't have. 

But sometimes the loss is too great, and the body can't compensate on its own. 

They say the inability to accept loss is a form of insanity, it's probably true. 

But sometimes, it's the only way to stay alive.


Carpe diem

 Carpe diem. 

How annoying is carpe diem? 

How are you supposed to plan a life, a career, a family, if you're always carpe-ing the diem? 

We'd all be too busy, living in the now. Whatever that means. 

I'll admit, the Romans had a point. You gotta live life. And living means that every morning, when you wake up, you have to choose. 

It means seizing what life offers in the moment and forging ahead, no matter the weather

... or closing the curtains, and shutting out the day.


 

Turbulence. 

It means anything from a few little bumps to a catastrophic weather system that could knock your flying tin can right out of the air. 

We've hit a snag, a bump in the road. 

Turbulence. So, you know, you better buckle up.

 One of the most unpredictable things about encountering turbulence is its aftermath.

 Everything's been shaken up. Undone. Turned on its head. 

So, if you have the choice to avoid the plane crash, do you take it? Do you play it safe? 

Or do you get on board and take your chances?


 We are forced to acknowledge the mysteries of life. 

We're forced to acknowledge that certain kinds of magic exist. 

And that history, and memory, and the ghosts of our past, are sometimes just as tangible as anything we can hold in our hands.



 Just like we need food and water, humans need each other. 

A brain study revealed that when placed in an MRI, a patient's reward center lit up when another person sat in the room.

 Neurons fire when we talk to someone, think about someone, and they go haywire when we hold someone's hand. Our brains and bodies are actually programmed to seek each other out and connect.

 So then why do so many people prefer being alone? Why do we often run for the hills when we feel the slightest connection? Why do we feel compelled to fight what we're hardwired to do?

 Maybe it's because when we find someone or something to hold onto, that feeling becomes like air. And we're terrified we're going to lose it. And trust me, you can get pretty good at the alone thing. 

But most things are better when they're shared with someone else.


 Most people believe that who they are today is pretty much who they will still be in the future.

 Our minds trick us into thinking our entire history, every choice, every change and chance, has led to this specific moment, 

what we call now.


 

The reason that God 

made February short a few days 

was because he knew 

that by the time people came to the end of it 

they would die if they had to stand 

one more blasted day



 

Why does February feel like one big Tuesday?



Sunday, 2 February 2025

  In Japan, when a piece of pottery breaks, some potters fill the cracks with gold. 

The potters, they see the repair as something beautiful. They know that the unexpected happens. Change happens. They know that nobody gets through this world in one piece.

 That doesn’t have to diminish us. The cracks are part of our history. They will always be with us. They made us better. They made us stronger. 

They made us something new.



 

the truth is gonna come out sometime. 

And the one thing you can't do with the truth is hide from it. 

Because the truth is gonna come looking until it finds you.


Time

 

Time is a strange thing. 

When you're waiting for something good to happen, it can feel like time is dragging on. 

But when you want it to slow down, it goes by in the blink of an eye. 

The odd part is time isn't real. It's a concept imagined by scientists based on the imperfect movement of the Earth around the Sun. 

So why do we put so much importance on something that's just a theory? 

Because it's all we have.

 There's never enough time. Work. Kids. Life. Death. Something always cuts our time short.

 So our best bet is to make the most of the time we have. Or make up for lost time. 

But sometimes, if we're really lucky, time stands still.


phlebotomy

 

Before the advent of surgery, many illnesses were treated with phlebotomy, also known as bloodletting. 

Bloodletting is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease.

It was one of the most common medical practices performed by surgeons from ancient Greece until the late 19th century. 

The practice has largely been abandoned because we now know that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the use of bloodletting is harmful to patients.

 And yet, we did it as a standard medical practice for over 2,000 years. 

It wasn't a blip in the history of medicine. It was an era. 

For decades, many doctors were convinced that bloodletting was harming more than it helped. But just as many were convinced that it was the only cure. 

Doctors, like most human beings, are risk-averse. They prefer the safety of what they know over the thrill of new innovations. 


 change requires incontrovertible proof, which is not always easy to come by. 

It has been theorized that surgery itself is just an era that will pass. But that's a long way away.

 And in the meantime, there are eras within eras. 

We discover new science, we posit, prove new theories. And then we bang our heads against the wall trying to convince ourselves to actually change our practices in line with what we know.

 Because the end of an era is easier said than done.



 

I used to try to decide which was the worst month of the year.

 In the winter I would choose February



 Even though February was the shortest month of the year, 

sometimes it seemed like the longest


Saturday, 1 February 2025


 The day and time itself: late afternoon in early February,

 was there a moment of the year better suited for despair?




 February is a suitable month for dying. 

 the winter hateful, hanging on too long



February

 


















February

 

February

I am lustration, and the sea is mine! 
I wash the sands and headlands with my tide; 
My brow is crowned with branches of the pine; 
Before my chariot-wheels the fishes glide.
By me all things unclean are purified, By me the souls of men washed white again; E'en the unlovely tombs of those who died Without a dirge, I cleanse from every stain.


  • Wednesday February 12Snow Moon

The day and time itself: late afternoon in early February,

 was there a moment of the year better suited for despair?



February is a suitable month for dying. Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long


Why does February feel like one big Tuesday?


Even though February was the shortest month of the year, sometimes it seemed like the longest


I used to try to decide which was the worst month of the year. In the winter I would choose February. I had it figured out that the reason God made February short a few days was because he knew that by the time people came to the end of it they would die if they had to stand one more blasted day


The Polar Intuit of northwest Greenland, the northernmost people, call February ‘seqinniaq’, “the month when the sun appears


The February fog,
Turns all into blobs,
Orange street lights,
To Valentine's Night.

When the wind strays,
Fog's mantle is grey,
Laying misty bouquets,
On barren, muddied days.

The daffodils of March,
Can cheer up Plutarch,
Adorned in Kelly green,
No sign of foggy screens.


Light a fire in flinty February,
As the evening time comes down,
Welcome all the family home
With shopping bought from town.

Hear the logs crackle and roll,
And the sparks pop and hiss,
A storm roars down the chimney,
To deliver its tempestuous kiss.

Drowsiness in the living room,
As the expiring embers fade,
Up we go to those clean sheets,
And beds so neatly made.


Friday, 31 January 2025

  

We are like roses that have never bothered to bloom when we should have bloomed 

and it is as if the sun has become disgusted with waiting



 

I wasn’t lonely. 

I experienced no self-pity.

 I was just caught up in a life in which I could find no meaning.



  

 I didn't have any friends at school, 

didn't want any. 

I felt better being alone. 

I sat on a bench and watched the others play 

and they looked foolish to me.



 The organs in the human body have entirely different functions. 

The cells which make up those organs act independently of each other. 

But in a healthy body, seemingly independent cells quietly depend on the functioning of the others. Because when one system stops working, the others can't function for long.

Just as organ systems are codependent for survival, so are human beings. Studies have shown that our happiness and health depends on our relationships not just functioning, but thriving.

 Sometimes the best we can do is bear each other's burdens and ease each other's pain. 

And hold each other's hands in the dark.


 The vagus nerve is longest and most complex of the cranial nerves. 

It transmits information to or from the surface of the brain to tissues and organs elsewhere in the body. When a body sustains an extended period of stress or trauma, the vagus nerve becomes hyperactive. 

We think of stress and trauma primarily as primarily emotional. The real impact is on the body.

 When the vagus nerve is triggered, it fights to slow the heart, blood pressure drops, and you can experience nausea, tunnel vision, ringing in the ears, low blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat. 

And when the mind suffers, the body suffers. 

And it can be difficult to undo the damage. 

Recent studies suggest that when we experience physical sensations related to intense emotions, it comes back to the vagus nerve. We think of the pain of a broken heart as being outside of our control. 

But science suggests that if we laugh instead of cry, if we sing instead of ache, we might just heal faster. 

Of course, when we're hurting, sometimes it's just easier to keep hurting than to try to heal.


 Tensions exists throughout the entire body. 

How it affects you depends on how you manage it. 

Some people can self-regulate by breathing, meditation, exercise. They develop tools that help them fight the stress and reduce the pain it causes. 

But not all people are wired that way. Some people feel completely overwhelmed by it. 

And the tension freezes their bodies until they can't move at all.


 The area dividing the brain and the soul

Is affected in many ways by experience --


Some lose all mind and become soul:
insane.


Some lose all soul and become mind:
intellectual.


Some lose both and become:
accepted



 regret is mostly caused by not having done anything


Wednesday, 29 January 2025

Brenda Ann Spencer - 29th January 1979

 Brenda Ann Spencer - 29th January 1979  

Aged 16 at the time of the shooting,  

Monday, January 29, 1979, 


2025 is 46 years since the shooting 


Spencer was charged as an adult and remanded in custody 


She was 18 on April 3 1980 


On April 4, 1980, a day after her 18th birthday, she was sentenced to 25 years to life


She has been denied parole four times 


Her next opportunity for a parole hearing will be in 2025 


She will be aged 63 and will have spent 46 years of her life in prison 





On January 29, 1979, sixteen year old Brenda Spencer pointed her .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle that she had received as a Christmas present from her father out her bedroom window to San Diego's Grover Cleveland Elementary School across the street.

 She waited for the school to open, then at 8.30 am, began firing on the students who were arriving at the school. 

For twenty minutes, Spencer fired 36 shots, killing the school principal and the school's caretaker, as well as wounding eight students, aged 6 to 12 and a San Diego police officer. 

During the next six and a half hours, Brenda talked to the police and press, before finally surrendering. 

Explaining why she had done what she did, she said: 

"I just started shooting, that's it. 
I just did it for the fun of it.
I just don't like Mondays.... 
I just did it because it's a way to cheer the day up.
 Nobody likes Mondays." 

She was tried as an adult, and pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, eight counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of assault on a peace officer and is serving two 25-to-life sentences.




Incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Chino, California. Spencer became eligible for parole in 1993, but was denied parole four times and will not be eligible again until 2025 



















Tuesday, 28 January 2025

 


 There is a breed of Tuesday in January 

in which time creeps 

and no light comes 

and the air is full of water 

and nobody really loves anybody.











Saturday, 25 January 2025

Planetary alignment - January 25 2025

 The six planets will form an astronomical alignment known as the "planetary parade".

 six planets - 

Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus - are set to align in the night sky today, January 25