One Tiny House

Back in November I wrote about my annual obsession with Christmas village pieces (see Excitement is Simple) and my recent efforts to add a few more pieces. And no, this post isn't about Christmas villages again, but my newest "obsession" has grown from that interest.

I had been thinking it would be nice to have a couple of pieces something like the village, but that weren't typical seasonal pieces - houses or buildings without snow or seasonal decorations on them.

The Colour of our World

What is the colour of your world? Does it matter to you if one, or more of those colours disappear? Do the colours in your world melt and blend to create new shades and tones of both colours?

My world is multi-coloured, though I tend not to notice the colours. Of more importance to me are the feelings I get from my world.

If any single colour disappeared, my world would seem a little less bright, and a little more dark ... that seems to create it's own shade of grey, doesn't it?

Immigration and Culture Clash

Canada

Opinions on immigration (regardless of the country from or to) of people are usually very personal, but each country and their government have differing policies. Even just between individual human beings the treatment of immigrants (individual, or families) vary a lot. Oddly, even in one single individual their own opinions can fluctuate wildly. I'm not against immigration or immigrants - after all, if most (not all) of the inhabitants of North America (the US & Canada) look back in our past we'd discover many of our own families were once immigrants. If our countries hadn't openly accepted them, we wouldn't likely be here either.

My parents were both born here in Canada, but their parents were born in Scotland (maternal side) and Italy (paternal side). If they had been turned back when they came to Canada, my parents would probably have never met. Funny how that works, isn't it?

An Out-of-the-Box Opinion

Today I'm going to step away a little from the usual type of posts I make; partly because I'm getting pretty tired of undocumented medical and health articles that appear on my Facebook feed. Mostly, I block the crap using FB Purity (awesome FB app you can find on Facebook) but these posts are usually shared by my friends, and I'm picky about who I friend or let see my FB page.

The issues really come from the fact that too many people simply believe everything they see - if it's on the web it must be true, but ... there is nothing further from the truth than that. So many of the headlines we see are nothing more than clickbait, and contain partial truths, total untruths, or no useful information at all. When you see headlines blazing "YOU WON'T BELIEVE..." or "CURE CANCER (or Diabetes or Alzheimers)" or "SHE DID THIS AND THIS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT..."  you know it's going to be clickbait.

Lifes Heros

Whose your hero? It sounds like a question for a school essay, but in truth I think every person, whether adult or child, has a list of those they consider to be heros. Some lists are short, and some are quite long. I expect the older we get, the longer the list gets.

Heroes

This is my list - in no particular order, and it may never be complete since almost every day I could add someone to my "Hero List". Sometimes, we don't take the time to let those around us know how much we appreciate them. It counts, and we really should, before we no longer can. I found that out the hard way.

My hero list isn't short, but there are many people I don't personally know, who are heroes in the world, and every one of them has a story - one they sometimes can't tell on their own. And just as often, the ones you are real heroes, don't see themselves as heroes at all.

The Short List

Supporting Local Animal Shelters

Most cities and towns have their share of feral cat communities, and almost as often, some of these will end up in the rescue shelters, along with the unwanted pets, or animals rescued from abusive situations. Shelters do the best they can to care for them, but without continued support for their communities, it can be a struggle to provide the necessities like food and veterinary care. Each year, government funding is either reduced or frozen at levels that make it difficult for the shelters to provide everything necessary for their charges. That's where communities can help. Some shelters run charity drives; some offer a variety of ways to contribute, including volunteering. If you have pets, or even if you just love animals, there are often ways you can help your local shelter even if you can't contribute financially.

What's Better Than Financial Donations?

Volunteer to Walk a Dog!

Reading - Just Do it!

Open Bible

Reading has always been one of my favoured hobbies - from the time I was a little kid. I've always been able to lose myself for a few hours in a really good book, whether it's a novel or a reference and instructional book. If the subject matter interests me, I can spend a great deal of time "in" a book. Now, when I say a "book" I mean a "real world" book. One that's made of paper and ink, not something I have to look at on a screen. I am not a huge fan of ebooks or digital book readers. When I want a book to read, I want a book with paper pages, with ink on those pages, and covers. Not some cold, hard little piece of gadgetry.

Fitness Book, Horror Book, Humorous Book

Part of the reading experience for me is
actually having a printed book in my hands. Books have a smell that can't be replicated in an ebook, and while sometimes that could be a good thing, for me ... the  "scent" of a book is part of the reading experience. My dad used to have a box of really old books, and those books smelled musty - not so nice, really, but whenever I pulled out one of them to read that musty smell somehow managed to remind me that I was reading a book that has existed for a really long time.  New books have a smell too, but it isn't the same - they have a smell of newness about them.