I See You

I had another lucid dream about my kitty, Bandit. She was seated on the sofa, paws tucked up under her body, and she was simply looking at me.

When she was alive, she would often stare at me, right through to my bones, with such intense love in her eyes that I’d have to stop whatever I was doing and bask in the feeling of being so very loved. SIGH. I surely do miss that girl.

And, there
In the mists of my memory
I see you.
And, there
In the mists of my memory
You shall always be.

A little poem written by Athey Thompson

True Love

It’s time for the return of the mallards, a sweet reminder that spring is nearly here. These guys stayed close to me, finding things to eat while I snapped a few photos.

Photo by Enchanted Seashells

Duck sightings are good luck!

Photo by Enchanted Seashells

The duck symbolizes clarity, family, love, vigilance, intuition, nurturing, protection, feelings, self-expression, balance, adaptation, grace, and strength.

Spiritually, ducks are revered for their symbolism of balance, unity, and wholeness.

To see two ducks indicates inner reflection, balance, and unity, acknowledging efforts to integrate inner and outer realities, reassuring movement towards wholeness.

The encounter encourages emotional intelligence, making holistic decisions that align with values and intuition, and trusting inner wisdom to navigate life’s challenges.

Two ducks symbolize spiritual growth and evolution, pursuing a higher perspective, and accessing cosmic insight, revealing the intricate web of connections.

Ducks, especially in pairs, are often seen as a sign of good fortune and positive events on the horizon. 

That all sounds good to me:)

Slava Ukraine! #SupportUkraine

Everyone I know is deeply ashamed of this country and very sorry because however it occurred, the orange POS and his puppet master Muckrat are in charge of destroying democracy and our relationships with our allies.

I learned that my greatgrandmother emigrated to the United States though Ellis Island from Kviv, Ukraine, so I feel like Ukranians are my people, too.

Did you see this horribly hostile attack of President Zelenskyy by the sofa-lover Vance, the orange POS, and Hegseth, (who’s supposed to be the Secretary of Defense but I don’t acknowledge him, either)?

It’s absolutely abhorrent! We support Ukraine 1000%

VANCE: Have you said thank you once?
ZELENSKYY: You think if you speak very loudly—
TRUMP: He’s not speaking loudly. You’ve done a lot of talking. You’re not winning this. ZELENSKYY: Mr. Trump, you are increasing the volume of your voice, but not the logic of your argument. Ukraine is still standing. We are still fighting.
HEGSETH: Look, we have to be realistic. America can’t fund this war forever.
ZELENSKYY: Realistic? Like when your Defense Secretary Hasgeth refusing to even say Russia invaded Ukraine? You couldn’t admit the truth, and now you want to lecture me on reality? HEGSETH: This is about diplomacy. We need a negotiated settlement.
ZELENSKYY: Diplomacy? Putin broke every ceasefire, every treaty, every promise. What kind of deal do you think he wants? One where Ukraine still exists?
TRUMP: You don’t have the leverage. You don’t have the cards.
ZELENSKYY: Because you keep taking them away—blocking aid, repeating Putin’s lies, pretending this war is already lost. VANCE: You should be grateful. The U.S. has given you a lot. ZELENSKYY: Grateful? My people are dying while you sit here demanding I smile and shake hands with my enemy? Gratitude will come when Russia is defeated.
HEGSETH: But Ukraine needs to be realistic. There are limits to what America can provide. ZELENSKYY: And are there limits to what Russia can take? Or do you just let them redraw borders by force?
TRUMP: It’s going to be very hard to do business like this, Volodymyr.
ZELENSKYY: Ukraine is not a business deal. We do not trade away our sovereignty. We fight for it. VANCE: But for how long? What’s the endgame?
ZELENSKYY: For us, there is no exit. We win, or we cease to exist. The only question is whether America stands with us.

Amoral Architects of Destruction

That orange POS and his puppet master, Muckrat, are doing their level best to destroy America.

Not only have they fired thousands of government employees, in 2020 his administration delisted the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Some Federal protections for gray wolves were restored across much of the United States a couple years later, but a new threat to decimate the entire wolf population is real.

Regarding the environment and according to Defenders of Wildlife, President Biden took sweeping, historic action to permanently protect more than 625 million acres of United States ocean waters — and the wildlife living there — from the threat of offshore drilling.

Now the target of a Trump administration executive order to reverse course, coastal protections will be fought out in the courts, Congress and through engagement with the American public. At stake are protections for the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean in Alaska. Wildlife is caught in the balance.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act has been reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation would require all Americans to prove their citizenship status by presenting documentation—in person—when registering to vote or updating their voter registration information. Specifically, the legislation would require the vast majority of Americans to rely on a passport or birth certificate to prove their citizenship. While this may sound easy for many Americans, the reality is that more than 140 million American citizens do not possess a passport and as many as 69 million women who have taken their spouse’s name do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name.

Because documentation would need to be presented in person, the legislation would, in practice, prevent Americans from being able to register to vote by mail; end voter registration drives nationwide; and eliminate online voter registration overnight—a service 42 states rely on. Americans would need to appear in person, with original documentation, to even simply update their voter registration information for a change of address or change in party affiliation. These impacts alone would set voter registration sophistication and technology back by decades and would be unworkable for millions of Americans, including more than 60 million people who live in rural areas.

Additionally, driver’s licenses—including REAL IDs—as well military or tribal IDs would not be sufficient forms of documentation to prove citizenship under the legislation.

In short, the SAVE Act is disastrous legislation. The flawed leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives has declared that passing the legislation is one of their top priorities for the 119th Congress.

These are the actions of the amoral architects of destruction. The people who have now seized power are determined to throw the United States into mayhem.

Are you scared yet?

P.S. By the way, it will always be the Gulf of Mexico and Mt. Denali. We all know that those stupid decisions were just smokescreens for the real damage to our constitution, right?

Reach For The Light

When things are as bad as they appear to be here in the US, and with growing anxiety every day, sometimes all we can do is breathe and reach for the light wherever we can.

Light is the thing we seek
Within the darkest of day,
let it show us the way.


Little words by Athey Thompson
“Reaching for that Star” by Florian Ceglarek

Bad Times in the United States

It’s becoming more and more difficult to ignore that absolute shitshow that’s going on in this country since that orange POS and his puppet master muskrat defrauded the election in November.

And yes, I truly believe that his “winning” was not the will of the people; with muskrat’s help and maybe aided by a foreign government, there is a growing fear that the vote was tampered with.

I can’t imagine what the rest of the world thinks about us. The deteriorating relationships with our friends in Canada and Mexico is hard to believe, but it’s all real.

We are living a worst case scenario.

While all this is going on, yesterday my local congressman posted smiling pics of himself in my city having a cup of coffee at a local place like democracy isn’t burning to the ground. Talk about not reading the room! You should have seen all the comments telling him to get back to DC and DO SOMETHING to stop this madness.

As much as I try to stay away from watching the news and becoming overwhelmed with dread, THIS can’t be ignored, no matter how hard I try:

From the BBC (as I no longer trust most US based news sources):

The Trump administration has given Elon Musk’s deputies access to the federal payments system that controls the flow of trillions of dollars in government funds every year, US media report.

[From Enchanted Seashells: To clarify, this includes Social Security payments, social security numbers, and banking information for those who get direct deposit.]

Reports suggest members of Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – which is not a government department, but a team within the administration – have been granted access to sensitive personal information of millions of Americans.

Two officials at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were reportedly placed on leave after a standoff with Doge members over access.

Read the full article here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c77rkg5dm3vo

Little Ghost Cat

I’m trying to distract myself from all the horrible events going on in this country — too many to talk about — with memories of beautiful Bandit, who still visits me in my dreams. She was the real princess, not me.

“Hello, my love…”

Little Ghost Cat,
Sometimes, I hear your gentle purr
And feel the soft touch of your fur.
Then, late at night, old memories stir
Of the friend I loved and lost.

Little Ghost Cat,
By moonlight, now you come and go
Unseen and like moving water flow
O friend I loved and lost.

(I believe this poem is attributed to Barbara Parkhill Hall)

Can You Hear The Whales Sing?

I hope I’d be able to. It’s one of my secret wishes, to communicate with whales.

Yaskina Valentina

Remember Martin Luther King, Jr. (NOT The Other Event) On January 20,2025

And that’s about all I have to say about that meaningless event that’ll take place in Washington DC on January 20, 2025. Instead, let’s focus our attention on Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is SO repulsive…I learned that Alabama and Mississippi both combined the King holiday with “Robert E. Lee Day” to honor the birthday of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was born on January 19.

If you’re like me and refuse to watch a single second of the inaugural farce, there are plenty of ways for us to stay busy by streaming the King Center’s commemorative service and by volunteering in our community, as MLK Day is designated a day of service.

I absolutely will not acknowledge the magacult funeral of the death of democracy and neither will beautiful and intelligent former first lady Michelle Obama…

After election day, I really hoped something was going to be done to nullify the fraud, but now I’m really depressed. It’s going to happen and no one stopped it.

I’d never use the word “presidency” to describe his criminal power grab. Muskrat/Russia seemed to have succeeded in stealing the vote and I’ll never stop wondering why Kamala Harris conceded and why President Biden didn’t do something — ANYTHING — to stop this travesty.

That orange POS is a twice-impeached, convicted felon and that’s his legacy.

I will never acknowledge him as president. I didn’t last time, either. My condolences and sympathy go to democracy. It’s on life support right now.

P.S. I always kinda sorta liked Carrie Underwood, but I can ‘t understand her very poor decision to perform at the rapist felon’s inauguration. Shame on her!

Randy Rainbow nailed it in 2017:

Crow Brain

Crow Brain: keeps shiny and useless things or things to put shiny things in.

That is totally ME.

Neighbors have begun to complain about a recent increased influx of crows in our area and I am one of the few who defend their right to live and eat and roost anyplace they choose. I tell them the same thing I say when they complain about coyotes..LEARN TO COEXIST!

“Having a crow brain” means to possess a high level of intelligence, particularly in terms of problem-solving, complex reasoning, and the ability to plan ahead, similar to the cognitive capabilities observed in crows, which are considered to be among the most intelligent birds; essentially, it signifies a sharp mind with advanced cognitive abilities, even if the phrase is often used figuratively to describe someone particularly clever.

We’ve long known that crows exhibit extraordinary intelligence. The more scientists unravel about their brain structure and behaviors, the more crows seem to resemble humans. 

The breakthrough study published in Science revealed that crows show signs of perceptual consciousness and an ability to have subjective experiences unique to their individual minds. This means the birds keep new information, or memories, in the front of their brains for extended periodsand use it in reasoning and navigating new situations they encounter.https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/the-more-we-learn-about-crow-brains-the-more-humanlike-their-intelligence

And specifically, Seattle has a thing about crows.

My son shared this phenomenon with me: a single roost at the University of Washington Bothell campus is home to as many as 16,000 birds. The sight of thousands of crows flying toward the campus at dusk has become one of Seattle’s signature attractions for those in the know.

A crow-filled sky might stir Hitchcockian visions for some, a “murder” of crows harassing people when they venture outside. This is the time of year when Seattleites take to social media with tales of protective crow parents dive-bombing them for unwittingly wandering too close to crow fledglings too young to fly.

The advice to those pleading for help is almost unanimous: Befriend the crows!!!

https://www.kuow.org/stories/seattle-crows-are-so-smart-they-re-challenging-what-we-know-about-evolution