Wednesday Wit

 

I myself have 12 hats, 

and each one represents a different personality.

  

Why just be yourself? 

(Margaret Atwood)  

Warm Chicken

It particularly touches my heart when people find it in their own hearts to care for the very least of us:  the animals.

Some of the animals most in need of help are the battery hens. The ones who have probably made your breakfast a time or two . . . or twenty.  

A battery hen is a hen that has been kept in a large egg-production factory farm all her life.  Their quarters are so tight and the conditions are so poor for these poor dears, they are often deprived of darkness (and therefore valuable rest) and even room to move.  And once these hens fail to produce eggs at their maximum rate, they are typically destroyed.  Quite a sad little life. 

The good news is, there are incredible human beings out there who rescue and rehome these hens.

Little Hen Rescue in the U.K. is one such collection of awesome human beings.

They take these hens from the battery farms and organize to find new, happy homes for them.

If you have it in your heart, you might consider adopting a few ex-battery hens.  How rewarding it must be to watch them roam free in the sunshine for the very first time. 

Perhaps you would like to help in another way, .  The way I have chosen to help in the past is to knit up some little hen jumpers.  That's right, chicken sweaters!  It's not as silly as it sounds.  Most ex-battery hens suffer from some degree of featherlessness.  When they are removed from their tight conditions, they are bald and cold -- having become accustomed to sharing the body heat of their neighboring hens.  While they regrow their feathers, they are helped by wearing a little sweater to help keep warm and secure.

Now how cute is that . . . 

If you're interested, you can find patterns for knitters and seamstresses here.  Just whip one up and send it to the address they have listed on their page.  I bet you can't make just one!

Decency and good deeds abound . . . if you only look for them.

 

Scattered Smiles

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.

These are but trifles, to be sure;

But scattered about along life's pathway, 

the good they do is inconceivable.  ~ Joseph Addison

I Re-Dedicate This Blog

Okay, so I'm back.

I've been gone.

I've been hurting.

My family has gone through some changes, and my daughter is not living with us.

It is what is best for her.

As for us, it has been a time of heartbreak as well as a time of relief.

I have a few dear friends -- and you know who you are -- who have been so loving and so supportive.  I truly do not know where I would be at this moment without them.

And there have been some disappointments.

Many people are unhappy with this change.

Many people have judged us harshly.

My son has lost not only a sister, but he has lost some of his extended family.

This hurts me beyond words.

So it has been a time of primal sadness,

and of deepest gratitude.

I see more clearly than ever whom I can count on, who loves me, and what love truly feels like.

I am here to testify to the importance of small gestures.

A note, a smile, a tender word, an understanding pause when there is nothing to say.

More valuable than gold.

It can save a life.

So as I find my way through this dark time in my life, I re-purpose this blog.

I now dedicate this blog to help soothe the souls of the walking wounded.

This will be a place, hopefully, of uplift, of reassurance, of kindness, of tenderness, a refuge.

I dedicate myself to finding, noticing, and sharing the kindnesses in life, the tender mercies, the light.

It seems to me, we could all use more of that just now.

So please bear with me as I find my new way.  I will not be talking so much about myself as I process and heal.  It is not for any other reason other than that where I am right now defies words, mine anyway.

I will be working to make this blog a provocation for more kindness and more tenderness and support in the world.

I want you to leave this blog happier than you came.  If not happier, perhaps more reassured or perhaps more content or perhaps just a bit more soothed and loved.

I have heard it said that you receive what you give . . . I know not where, perhaps in my own heart . . . so I send this blog out . . . setting such notion, sentiment, and intent in motion, free to find its way to those who need and, admittedly, in hopes of lifting up myself as well. 

I bid you peace, comfort, and friendship.

Share

The fact that I can plant a seed 

and it becomes a flower,

share a bit of knowledge 

and it becomes another's,

smile at someone 

and receive a smile in return . . .

those, to me, are continual spiritual exercises.

~ Leo Buscaglia

Blogtoberfest

The very best thing about blogging is the opportunity it provides to meet new people, people you would never ever have the opportunity to meet otherwise.

It never stops being a thrill to me to think that I have had conversations with people on the other side of this planet as well as people just down the road, all of whom I would have never otherwise met.

One of the most intense, concentrated, focused, and fun ways to meet new bloggers is to participate in Blogtoberfest.  Anyone can join in.  All you have to do is go to TinnieGirl's blog and add your link.  By submitting your link, you agree to post a new post each and every day in October (or the days that remain in October -- you can join late).  Then, you also do your best to visit as many participant's as possible.

It's like a world-wide block party!

 
Pull up a lawn chair!