I always feel better after I read your articles Connie. I love the pictures you share. This Californian hopes she can meet you and Sherrod someday so she can tell you how much she admires and respects you.
Community is key. Our church has decided to combine resistance, activism, and social justice with joy and community. We celebrate together and then get back to work to “do justice and love kindness.”
It took me several decades, but as I am about to turn 60 this year, I discovered what really gets me out of bed in the morning, besides being there for my family. I believe it is also the only thing that will maintain my sanity during the next few years, and it is simply giving to others. It's been my identity for as long as I can remember, but for good reason, it has become even more important now. Turning 60 obviously carries with it the fear of an unpredictable demise, but that's been with me for a few years now, as neither of my parents made it past 58. In fact, indulging my passion for genealogy, which I do every day in my spare time, started 14 years ago, after I unexpectedly had to undergo open heart surgery. I realized that the only thing I really had to leave to my kids were memories, which inevitably fade over time, and that was unacceptable, especially for me, as my own parents left several decades too late to meet their own grandkids.
By the way, if you happen to read this, Connie, please convey the following story to your lovely husband, as this is an example of what I am talking about. I didn't know who William Ellsworth Hoy was, until former Senator Sherrod Brown publicly advocated for his admittance to the Baseball Hall Of Fame. William played mostly at the end of the 19th Century, but his career included a stop in Louisville on the same team as Honus Wagner, and several years at the end with the Cincinnati Reds, where he was beloved all the way until his death at the age of 99 in 1961. I work at Volkwein's, a large and historic music store, in Pittsburgh, and one of my colleagues is an instrument repair technician, also with the last name of Hoy. I told him about William, and I also told him I would do the research to find out if he was directly related. Happily, he was, as William's great-great grandfather, Carle Hoy, was also my colleague's 7x great grandfather. That makes them 3rd cousins, five times removed, if you're keeping score at home. I absolutely love doing this kind of research, discovering lifetimes of stories about people I never met. Like I said, along with those I love, it is what gets me out of bed every morning, even after a restless night, which seems more common nowadays. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share this.
This: "We have failed to acknowledge the essential decency required to allow what is happening to our country become our personal problem." This really got to me in a deep and visceral way. You really got to the heart of what it is to know compassion. Because everybody's suffering is everybody's shared suffering and everybody's shared problem, because no man is an island. Thank you for your insights and your generosity, and especially for taking the time to put it all into words and share it. You make the world a better place.
I checked in at the Kenai (Alaska) National Wildlife Refuge to see how they were. No surprised but dismayed that they had lost one position, needed to submit the “5 bullet points” and were facing a likely furlough on March 15th. So we toured the visitor’s center and reached out to local volunteer groups and state employees who were savvy about native plants and invasives and set a plan for volunteer efforts to rehab some beds. The plant folks will suggest plants and teach volunteers about those, hold some classes on identifying invasives so we can arrange hikes in the refuge to tag candidate plants to harvest and invasives to remove (and how to do it.) By the time of the furlough we’ll be ready to put our local hiking groups, garden club, Watershed Forum and other to positive work to support refuge staff and improve one of our precious (soon to be underfunded) natural resources. It’s a small thing, but our first meeting brought out 15 volunteers and 5 organizations together in this deep red state. Small lights of hope. THANK YOU for your encouragement!
My faith community held a 6 week virtual songwriting workshop which started right before the inauguration. We wrote on prompts based on our spiritual faith. It was so comforting and lovely to join them each week and hear their work and check in. The timing couldn’t have been better, and the songs, chants, poetry and magic we created was inspiring.
Two years ago, I set up a support group for women recovering from alcohol, drugs, and abuse. Although we don’t talk about politics in the room, the love we share with each other, brightens our lives. My husband and I are also active along with many others and working to preserve heritage forrsts and shorelines around our home.
Thank you for your words of encouragement; it is a privilege to be part of this community.
I always feel better after I read your articles Connie. I love the pictures you share. This Californian hopes she can meet you and Sherrod someday so she can tell you how much she admires and respects you.
I love you for letting so many of us rely on you. May we pay it forward in abundance - joyfully!
Community is key. Our church has decided to combine resistance, activism, and social justice with joy and community. We celebrate together and then get back to work to “do justice and love kindness.”
It took me several decades, but as I am about to turn 60 this year, I discovered what really gets me out of bed in the morning, besides being there for my family. I believe it is also the only thing that will maintain my sanity during the next few years, and it is simply giving to others. It's been my identity for as long as I can remember, but for good reason, it has become even more important now. Turning 60 obviously carries with it the fear of an unpredictable demise, but that's been with me for a few years now, as neither of my parents made it past 58. In fact, indulging my passion for genealogy, which I do every day in my spare time, started 14 years ago, after I unexpectedly had to undergo open heart surgery. I realized that the only thing I really had to leave to my kids were memories, which inevitably fade over time, and that was unacceptable, especially for me, as my own parents left several decades too late to meet their own grandkids.
By the way, if you happen to read this, Connie, please convey the following story to your lovely husband, as this is an example of what I am talking about. I didn't know who William Ellsworth Hoy was, until former Senator Sherrod Brown publicly advocated for his admittance to the Baseball Hall Of Fame. William played mostly at the end of the 19th Century, but his career included a stop in Louisville on the same team as Honus Wagner, and several years at the end with the Cincinnati Reds, where he was beloved all the way until his death at the age of 99 in 1961. I work at Volkwein's, a large and historic music store, in Pittsburgh, and one of my colleagues is an instrument repair technician, also with the last name of Hoy. I told him about William, and I also told him I would do the research to find out if he was directly related. Happily, he was, as William's great-great grandfather, Carle Hoy, was also my colleague's 7x great grandfather. That makes them 3rd cousins, five times removed, if you're keeping score at home. I absolutely love doing this kind of research, discovering lifetimes of stories about people I never met. Like I said, along with those I love, it is what gets me out of bed every morning, even after a restless night, which seems more common nowadays. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share this.
I hope the print will be a giclee. High quality art is always a treasure. Think and act to the future.
To read this is to breathe more deeply.
This: "We have failed to acknowledge the essential decency required to allow what is happening to our country become our personal problem." This really got to me in a deep and visceral way. You really got to the heart of what it is to know compassion. Because everybody's suffering is everybody's shared suffering and everybody's shared problem, because no man is an island. Thank you for your insights and your generosity, and especially for taking the time to put it all into words and share it. You make the world a better place.
You help bring out the best in us. I'm grateful.
Beautiful, touching, and most inspirational! Thank you!!
I checked in at the Kenai (Alaska) National Wildlife Refuge to see how they were. No surprised but dismayed that they had lost one position, needed to submit the “5 bullet points” and were facing a likely furlough on March 15th. So we toured the visitor’s center and reached out to local volunteer groups and state employees who were savvy about native plants and invasives and set a plan for volunteer efforts to rehab some beds. The plant folks will suggest plants and teach volunteers about those, hold some classes on identifying invasives so we can arrange hikes in the refuge to tag candidate plants to harvest and invasives to remove (and how to do it.) By the time of the furlough we’ll be ready to put our local hiking groups, garden club, Watershed Forum and other to positive work to support refuge staff and improve one of our precious (soon to be underfunded) natural resources. It’s a small thing, but our first meeting brought out 15 volunteers and 5 organizations together in this deep red state. Small lights of hope. THANK YOU for your encouragement!
Thank you.
Running again?
My faith community held a 6 week virtual songwriting workshop which started right before the inauguration. We wrote on prompts based on our spiritual faith. It was so comforting and lovely to join them each week and hear their work and check in. The timing couldn’t have been better, and the songs, chants, poetry and magic we created was inspiring.
This is so lovely. Thank you, Connie 🙏🏻
Two years ago, I set up a support group for women recovering from alcohol, drugs, and abuse. Although we don’t talk about politics in the room, the love we share with each other, brightens our lives. My husband and I are also active along with many others and working to preserve heritage forrsts and shorelines around our home.