Cee’s instructions for this week’s challenge are to show off photos that make her need to put on her sunglasses indoors. This gallery contains the photos that I think fit that fun challenge! (The butterfly photo that I use for my gravatar was taken by my friend Sarah Corlett.)
Today’s Daily Prompt: Underground reminded me of a list of facts about slugs I included in the PNW GreenFriends Newsletter in August of 2015 (Page 20). Before compiling that list, I had no idea that 95% of slugs live underground. It is still near impossible for me to visualize that reality. Here is that list:
Did you know…
Only 5% of the slug population is above ground at any one time. The other 95% is underground digesting your seedlings, laying eggs, and feeding on roots and seed sprouts.
Slugs do play an important role in ecology by eating decomposing vegetation.
A slug lays 20-100 eggs several times a year.
Slug eggs can lay dormant in the soil for years and then hatch when conditions are right.
In favorable conditions a slug can live for up to 6 years.
Slugs used to live in the ocean, which is why they still need to keep moist
One individual field slug has the potential to produce about 90,000 grandchildren.
It’s been estimated that an acre of farmland may support over 250,000 slugs.
A cubic metre of garden will on average contain up to 200 slugs.
Slugs leave their own individual scent trail so they can find their way home.
A slug can stretch out to 20 times its normal length, enabling it to squeeze through the smallest of openings.
A slug has approximately 27,000 teeth – that’s more teeth than a shark.
The above facts are excerpts from: Fascinating Sluggy Facts. Go there to learn many more facts about slugs!
You can also find fascinating information about slugs at:
I believe, at the core of every person, there is a part that is both trusting and trustworthy. Due to life’s traumas, however, that part may recede so deep inside that it may seem unreachable. In time, a person may even develop a belief system that says people are not to be trusted.
When people come from that framework, they are likely to see negativity, and even danger, coming from all sides. They don’t trust what others say, and look for ulterior motives. In time, they may become excessively independent. The thought of being interdependent may be unfathomable. The inability to trust often leads to anxiety and depression.
I have been a psychotherapist for almost 30 years. During those years, I have seen so many clients reclaim their right to trust. As they heal from the traumas of their past, they shift from the life stance that people are untrustworthy to an attitude that people are trustworthy unless proven otherwise.
That doesn’t mean that they start to trust without discrimination though. Once they work through their childhood and adult traumas, they stop projecting negative behaviors on everyone and will become much clearer in seeing the true “red flags” that indicate potential problems. They are more likely to surround themselves with a support system of healthy people. They will know their own weak areas and will avoid situations that are likely to pull them into unhealthy behaviors.
Reclaiming the right to trust is not an easy journey, but it is well worth the time and effort.
Written for Daily Prompt: Trust
Photo Credit: pixabay.com
I decided to go off-theme again for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday. When I posted Good Morning to You yesterday, a friend told me about a ditty she used to sing to her children. Her story reminded me of a song I sang to my children when they were infants. It is called Sarasponda.
I had wondered, even back then, what the song meant but I never looked into it. Yesterday I checked it out and was fascinated by what I learned.
Wikipedia said Sarasponda is believed to be of Dutch origin and it is thought to be a song that women sang when spinning at a spinning wheel. Many sources describe the lyrics as nonsense words, but others think they are onomatopoeic and are meant to represent the sounds a spinning wheel makes as it spins.
It is a tune that is frequently sung around campfires so I probably learned it when I was a Girl Scout, or when I traveled across the U.S. with my church youth group in the mid 60’s.
Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set
Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda ret set set
A doray-oh, A doray-boomday-oh
A doray-boomday ret set set
Ah say pah say oh.
There are many YouTube versions of Sarasponda. The tune is the same in each version but the way it is presented is very different. I have decided to share three different versions.
In the early to mid 90’s, I wrote a fun devotional song that my son told me sounded like a sea chantey. Years later, one line from that song would often come into my mind when I went on morning walks. At that point, though, the lyrics were different. They became “Good morning to you, good morning to you, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning to you.” I would sing the ditty to the plants and trees I encountered on my walk.
Thursday night, we had a big rain and wind storm in Seattle. On Friday morning I went outside to see how the trees fared. I found myself singing that song to each tree along my way.
First I visited the trees in my back yard:
Maple tree, good morning to you!
Holly tree, good morning to you!
Magnolia tree, good morning to you!
Juniper trees, good morning to you!
Blue Spruce, good morning to you!
Next, I walked down to the Greenbelt lot where we’ve been rescuing the trees from blackberry vines and ivy. I was eager to check out what had happened there during the storm. I could tell everything was fine, but it was still windy so I didn’t go as close to those trees as I would have normally. I didn’t want to take any chance that a dead branch would drop on my head.
Cherry trees, good morning to you!
Cedar trees, good morning to you!
Buddleia, good morning to you!
I look forward to seeing who you become now that you are freed from the blackberries. I also look forward to seeing if butterflies flock to your blooms.
Hawthorne tree, good morning to you!
I look forward to seeing what happens now that you have a chance to thrive.
And last but not least, beautiful Alder, good morning to you!
I thoroughly enjoyed my morning visit to each of these trees. Maybe this will become a daily ritual for me!
I wish each of you who read this post a very good morning, no matter what time of day it is in your part of the world.
This post by my friend Arati makes an important point in an unusual way. Enjoy!
To all the familiar voices expounding
I should
I have to
I gotta
I don’t have time
It’s gotta be done today
If I don’t no one else will
If I don’t do this it won’t happen…
Pause
Breathe
Watch a sunset or sunrise
through the branches of your favorite trees
or on the horizon beyond ocean
lake or desert
or reflected in the windows of tall buildings.
Have a cup of tea, herbal or black
decaf coffee, or enjoy the caffeine.
A glass of wine … or not.
Take a moment to sit
to stroll barefoot at the edge of the ocean
river or lake
in a meadow or city park.
Chill, as someone I love would say.
Don’t wait until ….
These photos were taken near a river in Greenwater, Washington. That town is close to Crystal Mountain.
When I hear someone use the word “promise” the psychotherapist inside of me goes on alert. The images that come to my mind are children who are in trouble saying “I promise I won’t do it again” to their parents, or parents saying “You promised you wouldn’t do that again” to their children. I also think of bickering children saying to each other, or even to their parents, “You promised!” when someone doesn’t follow through on a promise.
It is important that interactions between adults stay equal with the adult part of one interacting with the adult part of the other. Two adults interacting in a way where one is acting like a parent and the other like a child can be very disruptive to adult relationships.
I think when people of any age hear the word “promise” their minds often add the word “forever”. “Forever” doesn’t take into account that we have a right to change our minds. We may have committed to something out of fear or without having taken the time to think the situation through. Also circumstances may change. When circumstances change then our commitments may need to change.
That doesn’t mean we should just say “I will try.” I’ve been told that Alcoholic Anonymous has a saying that “Triers are liars.” Too often when people say “I will try” they are saying it to get someone off their back and have no intention of doing what the other person is asking for. In my group room, I have a Yoda pillow that says “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
I suggest people don’t make promises because to me that word in and of itself evokes a child or a parent-child response. I don’t think there is anything wrong with making commitments or agreements but it is important that those commitments be well thought out, clear and not come from an over-adaptive part of us. They should be made with an understanding that we aren’t going to be perfect and that if we decide at a later time that the commitment is not in our best interests we can look at what changes need to be made and re-negotiate it.
Post written for: Daily Prompt: Promises
Photo: Bickering Children by Bernhard Keil (1624-1687) via Wikimedia
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