“In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty.” - Phil Ochs
This isn’t the world I thought I would be living in in 2025. Seeing so many people hurting and losing rights they fought so hard for is discouraging and makes me feel hopeless. But I know the people in charge don’t represent the majority of us and the only way to fight back is to stand up for and support each other.
There’s an old pagan tradition of leaving flowers and gifts on your neighbors door to celebrate May Day and I thought it would be a nice thing to do. I spent about $40 at Trader Joe’s on a bunch of flowers and spent some time in the sun with my dog making the arrangements. I used pickle jars I had cleaned and saved for this.
Thank you everyone! It really did improve my mood and make me feel better. Especially getting those texts.
My mother was kind of an unlikable person and she tended not to get along with the neighbors. When I moved out at 19, I mostly ignored my neighbors (as I was taught). The fact that I have my neighbors phone numbers and consider them friends is a big improvement!!
One of the bouquets was for my neighbor, Jim, who lives alone and is in his 80s. He is a very nice man, but I hadn’t given a man flowers since I was in my early 20s and brought flowers to a boy I was seeing. He asked me why I had brought him flowers and I ended up taking them home with me (and stopped seeing that boy.) That was 20 years ago and I never brought flowers for a man again, but then I read something about how the first time most men receive flowers is for their funeral and that made me so sad.
So I brought Jim flowers and he was so appreciative and texted me that day, but he also texted me over the weekend with a photo of the flowers telling me how beautifully they were opening and thanking me again. So yeah… bring men flowers.
Lovely gesture and gorgeous flower vase arrangements. I like all of your quotes and sentiments. Nice note cards! I love your gesture. It really doesn’t take much to make someone happy, and ourselves in turn!
I like crows too. Their caws have never annoyed me but I guess if I had to hear them day and night, they might.
My mom watched a PBS special on how intelligent crows are. I watched it with her the 2nd time and it was amazing! I think it’s still on YTube.
It was titled A Murder of Crows: Crows do not have the best of reputations, but new research has shown they are among the most intelligent animals in the world, able to use tools and recognize each other’s voices and 250 distinct calls.