4 NOURISHING MY PLANT

Food & Water time 

Plants - this plant was a office gift from a colleague I worked with in 2018 (who is now a friend). She loves plants and thought I needed one. One afternoon she came back from lunch and little walk and presented me with this small beautiful plant. I cherished it for two reasons, one the wonderful unexpected-ness of the gift for no other reason than the simple act of giving. Two, it made me realise that she listened when we talked about plants and I shared the only ones that bloom best with me.

At the height of Covid-19 when we began working from home. I had left it at the office, not realizing how long the remote work would last. The good part was that I used a 2litre bottle of water upside down in the soil that watered it for 3 week stretches. The plant sipped when it was thirsty and stayed in great health. 

One day someone from the office called to say she refilled my bottle of water and put it back in my plant as the soil was dry. I thought, oh no 😱😲😯. I had forgotten. I said thank you and made arrangements to pick it up since I had to also get a work computer. 

I brought my plant home, I apologized for leaving it alone so long and asked him where he'd like to be placed in his new home (yeah I know you'll think that's bizarre and yes I have genderize my plant 🤭). He said he'd like to be in the kitchen on the window sill, so, I placed him there and he has and continues to bloom masterfully. I have never seen leaves 🍃 bloom so large on plants like this. The conclusion, he is ecstatically pleased with his new home.

The little acts of kindness matter. Thank you @jgregg07

2 BE IN GRATITUDE

2 I AM HUMAN

I • AM • HUMAN

My Ethnicity 

My Culture

My Skin's shade

MY Eyes shape

My Gender

My Genitalia

My Identity

My Country of origin

Are NOT DISQUALFIERS

I AM HUMAN.

By D.S.B.S.Rhapsody Phoenix

2 RE.SIL.IENCE

Resilience - the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. 

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Quickly is not necessarily a prerequisite, recovery is...

The ability to recover is what you need to cultivate in order to MANIFEST. 

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Traversing through the Covid-19 pandemic and navigating the multitude of people's reactions and behaviors requires a steady dose of resilience. In fact i will go so far as to say that there needs to be a steady diet of resiliency consumption as many people seem to be flying off the edge of the earth due to the surgence, resurgence, replications and variant multiplication of the Covid virus. Its like the world is descending into madness and there are little implosions occurring in pockets of the cities around the world. 

As the world implodes in little degrees, we see these manifestation in pockets. Groups of willfully defiant people marching in protests refusing to exercise precautions by wearing masks (anti-maskers) and practicing social distancing creating super spreaders. To other's disobeying no travel order and stay at home orders in preference of going out. Its like mass hysteria and the downward spiral seems insidious. In Toronto: 

• One woman put a leash on her husband to walk him like a dog so she could go out during the stay at home order. She was fined in violation of the stay at home order. 

1. In another incident a man confronting another man for not wearing a masks, punches him in the face breaking some of his teeth. 

• At Walmart a man was arrested for assaulting an employee who asked him to wear a mask 

1. in a grocery store a fatal shooting occurred that started out as to the police over a man refusing to wear a masks and in a fit of rage started assaulting people. 

• A man was choked unconscious for not wearing a mask, in the video you can see him screaming, "i can't breathe, I can't breathe."

To say we need "Jesus" is an understatement as the safety measures, restrictions and fear takes a toll on our psyches. We have to find better ways of coping. Its not easy. I am mostly confined to my home (thankful that i have one), traveling through the city on for the essentials, medical appointments, groceries etc.). I am blessed in that in the mean time I am able to work from home. I am grateful to all things that enables me to be HERE, the breath of live, ability, mobility, vision, movement, music, books, family and friends. We must look at our blessings and not bow to our frustrations and limitations. Focus on what you have and not on what you don't have, on what you can do and not on what you can't do. Be thankful that we are alive and well as appose to the alternative, sick, dying or dead. 

Moment to Moment:

I do a lot of reading. I make a point to laugh a lot, outrageously, uproariously, unapologetically. I find something to smile about at the end of each day, even if it was a horrendous day.  If i experience difficulty finding that smile, i pick up my camera and go outside and take a snap of the universe at my finger tips. I pray, to keep my spirit up, to cultivate my resiliency with positive affirmations and to keep hope alive because the alternative is not an option for me. 

What are you doing to keep yourself resilient? 

10 ONTARIO CANADA STAY AT HOME ORDER

God have mercy 🙏🏿 on us. We are in the 10 month of living under the rolling terror of Covid-19. Worldwide 1.98 million are dead and counting. The US death toll is almost at 400,000 and rising swiftly as is Canada with a death toll of 17,538 and rising! Though more people have survived (51 million), the harrowing journey to triumphant survival is reported to be akin to swallowing fire and brimstone. It feels like we are worst of now, than when the Covid pandemic started in early 2020 and there was very little knowledge about the virus! Why, because many people are not listening! The fricking worst part of all is the continued complicitness and wilful defiance to not follow the suggested precautions is that it is killing people! The consequence here of failed compliance is no simple slap on the wrist or pat on the back. The consequence is horrible suffering followed by death! I mean, wake to fuck up people!

Today, Thursday January 24, 2020, Premier Doug Ford has implemented an EMERGENCY STAY AT HOME ORDER for Ontarians to help stop the spread of Covid-19 and it's variants. The order is in effect for 28 days and mandates essential outings only! Work, Food, Medical Appointments, Pharmacy trips etc and once again there are those wilfully defiant jackasses shouting about "growing threats to our civil liberties." Are you fucking kidding me! People are dying, DYING! not by the hundreds but by the thousands and millions! How will your "civil liberties" serve you from the coffin or the grave?

I understand the constraints, the strains, the frustrations, the mental, emotional and psychological challenges of be closeted at home for those of us who are fortunate to have homes. To have our movements restricted, our behavior dictated by any other than ourselves is uncomfortably discomforting but you have to look at the bigger picture. You want to live to tell the tale. Yes, the fall out is huge, not to mention the impact to employment and income, it's a domino effect, for fucks sakes I am living it! Yeah, it's hard on so many levels, some days it's down right gloomy. But, I am LIVING it! The operative word LIVING! Hello! LIVING! 

Sure there are no guarantees in life and nothing is promised. But, no one with a lick of sense will knowingly run onto a busy highway with cars, trailers and trucks speeding in all directions to play hopscotch or dodgeball just because they could. In this pandemic the action of one affects many. The reality is, no one can swear and attest for another's movement. We all have to exercise care for ourselves and for others because what we do or fail to do  can result in serious illness and death. Know one says you have to like it or you even have to agree with the necessary course of action. Just do the needful and survive to bitch about it later when we've all triumph over Covid-19.