A Litany of Thanks


I heard this poem by Max Coots recited on Sunday and saved it to share today.

 

Let us give thanks:

 

For generous friends…with hearts…and smiles as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us we’ve had them;

For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, plain as potatoes and as good for you;

For funny friends, who are a silly as Brussel spouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends, as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;

For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you throughout the winter;

For old friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts, and witherings;

And, finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, and who fed us in their times that we might have life hereafter.

For all these we give thanks.

 

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Athena


Most of my posts are poems, things I have learned, travel adventures, or serious comments about the world. This one is more of a personal sharing post.  Here are three photos of my dog, Athena.  She is a standard poodle and quite fearless and territorial.  She will even stand off coyotes.  Sometimes this makes me sad because I do enjoy the wide variety of wildlife where I live.  However, I like the idea that she is fearless and protective and warns me about anything unusual.  Nothing escapes her notice.

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When I took this, she had just demolished a bone and fragments appear on her left leg.

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She and my grandson playing.

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Inspecting her territory in her short summer haircut taken last summer.

I just finished the book “American Wolf”.  Most people do not associate their dogs with big predators. Poodles were originally bred to hunt.  When I watch her roam the wild around my house, hunter, predator comes to mind.  I have watched her chase foxes, coyotes, skunks, you name it.  She is clever enough to never get too close to the skunk.  The coyote and she had a stand off. Eventually, Athena won.  I have not seen a coyote since and that was months ago.

 

Some Things I Learned This Week


A lovely autumn day with a few flowers still in full bloom.  Snow starts at ten tonight they predict.

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In spite of this loveliness, I keep thinking about a few sad facts I learned this past week.

On June 2, 1924, Congress granted citizenship to Native Americans born in the US and finally, the original inhabitants of the USA could actually vote.  Well, some of them.  Certain states still barred them from voting until 1957.

More tigers live in captivity in the United States than in the wild worldwide.  95% of wild tigers gone in just one century.

More people have died from opioid addiction in the US in the last few years than from Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars combined.