everything is growing and changing
all in their own time
each in their own way
we watch and care for them
soon they will all be something new.
—
“and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
― Anais Nin
lucky to see a rollicking game of dungeons and dragons
with grandies and friends
lots of action, imagination, and fun
—
“it does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”
-j.r.r. tolkien
The Onbashira festival is held only once every six years, (next one will be in April 2022), to metaphorically revitalize the Suwa shrines. The historic and lengthy event has been performed for over 1,200 years in Japan, and consists of two month-long components. The Yamadashi takes place in April, during which four very large tree trunks are felled by hand axes in the cemetery of a shinto shrine. They are wrapped and adorned in red and white, and then dragged by teams of men towards the Shinto shrines, who test their courage during the trial by performing “kiotoshi”: dangerously riding the logs downhill on rough inclines. The Satokibi, in May, sees these logs used as symbolic support structures. They are raised in the shrines by hand, while one man straddles the top, singing. When it is fully raised, and the man on top balanced many feet in the air, success is declared. A remarkable spectacle.
—
“to celebrate a festival means; to live out,
for some special occasion and in an uncommon manner,
the universal assent to the world as a whole.”
-joseph pieper
—
source credits: mental floss magazine
walked by this hanging on a campus student house and really loved it
—
“in fact, the world needs more nerds.”
-ben bernanke
thank you sarah freligh, for your beautiful poem
in this national poetry month and every month.
when beautiful seasons join hands
early morning, late april, michigan, usa, earth
—
“the poetry of earth is never dead.”
-john keats, from ‘on the grasshopper and cricket.’
“if one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected – those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most – and listens to their testimony.”
-james a. baldwin
Mis-baken Identity: Mysterious Beast Reported in Poland Turns Out to Be a Croissant in a Tree
In mid-April, a rogue pastry terrorized citizens of a neighborhood in Kraków, Poland.
The incident started when a menacing, brown object appeared in a tree near the home of an anonymous citizen. It remained for two days. The concerned woman called the Kraków Animal Welfare Society to report the unidentifiable animal on Tuesday, April 13, saying that residents were afraid to open their windows.
The team on the other end of the call struggled to identify the so-called “tree beast.” When they asked if it might have been a sick bird of prey, the woman responded by saying it looked more like an iguana.
This spurred some suspicion. A tropical reptile wouldn’t survive long in Kraków’s chilly spring weather, but they decided to follow up on the call anyway. Domesticated animals sometimes end up on the street after being abandoned by their owners, and the alleged iguana may have been an exotic pet.
When animal welfare officers arrived on the scene, the source of panic became clear. It didn’t take long for them to discover that the invader wasn’t an iguana—or an animal, for that matter.
Locals had confused a croissant stuck in a tree for a mysterious animal on the loose, the BBC reports.
The croissant had been lodged in the branches of the tree, apparently too high for citizens to recognize what it was. The story of how it got there in the first place remains a mystery. The Society’s spokesperson theorizes it was dropped from a window or tossed by someone trying to feed birds. Though this report turned out to be a false alarm, the organization still encourages people to err on the side of caution when they see something unusual.
—
“i saw a man angrily shouting at a pigeon.
i think there’s a strong chance it was a case of mistaken identity.”
-tumblr.com
—
source credits: Mental Floss, Michelle Debchak, BBC, Nationalpost.com
it is my great pleasure to introduce you
to humor writer and fellow blogger Barb Taub’s latest book
PLEASE DON’T ASK FOR EXTRA GLASSES
it’s a rollicking tale of friendship, fun, travel to India adventure and misadventure
all taken with a tiny grain of salt and huge dose of humor
it’s a wonderful multi-cultural mashup of history, color photos,
travel tips, shopping advice, food suggestions, language and negotiation skills,
and chock full of ‘I wish we’d known that/what not to do lessons’
even if you never plan to travel to India, you’re sure to enjoy this read.
—
“she generally gave herself good advice, though she very seldom followed it.”
-lewis carroll
I didn't have my glasses on.... 