Natural beauty

Via melannen, a request for peaceful nature photographs. This is vinca, photographed recently on a walk, yes flowering in January.



I've been inspired by jesse_the_k's sky photographs to pay more attention to the sky when I get the chance. This was my reward for going on an bike ride on a cold December morning. (Click for large version.)

Inauguration relief

I watched both videos siderea posted, "The Hill We Climb performed by Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman (6 min) and Biden's Inaugural Address (22 min).

I don't usually sit and watch videos, but these were worth my time and I recommend them to you. They're major historical events, and they're amazingly well done. I cried through them both, partly because of the content, partly because of the context, and partly in relief of the terror and anxiety I've been living with for four years and three months.

And also I'm simply relieved the inauguration went through without violence or disruption. Maybe having consequences dissuaded the white supremacist rioters and insurrectionists. Relief!

Things may not get better as fast or as much as any of us want, but they will stop getting worse, and I saw signs that there may be more improvement than I dared hope for. May it be so!

Also, a short twitter thread from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, TheRaDR, which also made me cry.

I’m proud of each of us who heard what Rabbi Josh Feigelson calls the essential human question — “For whom are you responsible?” — and knows that the answer isn’t only ourselves, not only our families or even only our community, but, rather, all of us, all of us, all of us.