Happy New Year 2024

Happy New Year to you all. How you’ve missed me! And how I have missed YOU 🙂

I am looking forward to the new year filled (not fraught) with endless possibility. Unicorns, rainbows and the like.

At 11:59pm on New Year’s Eve I opened up my front door to clear the way for a fresh, untainted new year. Like vitamins and God, superstitions can’t hurt. You know, just in case. It was a cold night but beauty is pain.

While I still have a few things from the old year needing my attention and care I am quite ready to embrace the new.

I am decluttering, planning and organizing. It’s slow going on some days but that is still the goal. I will be back to volunteering at the food pantry by the end of this month. Wrapping up correspondence. Have booked a couple of plays I am eagerly anticipating. I hope to get on the open road (or in the friendly skies) for some travel. Maybe one day sit in the middle of a bird migration. Be mindful of how I can continue to advocate for those suffering in other countries while actual governments are looking the other way. Deep dive research on all the politicians (local, state and country) who are supposed to represent me/us. Catch up with some old friends. Try something new. Spend time with family. Read lots of books. Have some rooms painted and replace pieces of furniture I don’t like-or never liked-it’s time. Complete Hannah’s scrapbook (she’s now twenty-five) that I quit working on somewhere around her eighth year of school.

Hopefully, I haven’t taken on more than I can handle. With the scrapbook 🙂

I am sharing these goals so they fly out into the universe. Chances for success are greater if I release them from the matted gray matter.

I’ll keep you posted.

Until then, I wish you all good health for the new year. Anything after that is gravy.

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Bird Watching

Today, I was looking up into the trees at a local park. There is a bird call that I hear all day long here in Delhi. Belongs to the Brown-headed Barbet. A small bird with a green body.

Took this photo a couple of days ago. Not great quality.

For some reason I associate this bird’s sound with the noise at crosswalks. The one which signals blind folks that it is safe to cross the road.

So all day, like the Pavlovian dog, I just keep wanting to cross the street. Safely. Thank you, barbets.

I looked up trying to find the little sucker.

Imagine my surprise when this is what I see. In the middle of the day. Again, not the best photo taken with my phone. But I think you can figure out what it is.

Then I realize there are two sets of eyes on me.

Definitely not barbets.

So cool.

I was laughing because I attempted to take photos at different angles. In front. Behind. Didn’t matter because his eyes were always on me. Sort of like Jesus’ eyes in a picture my Aunt Rose Marie use to have hanging in her house. Always following. I thought of the old saying, “Eyes in the back of your head.”

It really is fascinating how their heads can do the 360 degree turn thingy.

The first time I have ever seen an owl, outside of captivity, was this past January. My husband and I attended an event at a place in Providence, Rhode Island. A Snowy Owl happens to reside on the roof. We caught sight of him while we were leaving.

Owls are cool.

To me.

I remember when my friend, Maria-Ann, and I ran a resale charity shop for a short while in Kuala Lumpur. We had a cute, wooden owl statue for sale. None of the Chinese customers gave it a second glance.

My friend mentioned that it didn’t give off positive vibes in the Chinese culture.

A lot of folks (from my part of the world) associate owls with age and wisdom.

Plenty of owls (with black, thick rimmed spectacles) on graduation cards in the United States. Every May stuffed owls or statues appear on the shelves in Hallmark stores. Ready to be purchased for the graduate-to-be.

Chinese do not have the same association. Believe owls are bad luck.

I get it. Everyone is different.

Here in India?

Owls are thought to bring good luck around the Diwali holiday.

That’s nice.

If sacrificed.

What?????

Folks looking to improve their financial situation think that the sacrificing of an owl will help.

India protects all of the species but there is a bustling black market that exists. Selling owls for hefty fees. All year round for different cures or luck but especially around the holiday.

You can even pay to have someone do the killing for you.

Now, we all have our beliefs, superstitions, etc. but I’m thinking if a person has to kill a living creature to enhance some aspect of their own life maybe a little regrouping is in order. A look at alternative, legal options in that quest for good luck.

Leave the owls alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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