Volume 6 Issue 2
Greetings! Happy New Year!
Can it really be I am coming up on the sixth year of this newsletter? Time does fly sometimes!
January is such a strange month. Here in Northeastern Wisconsin we are feeling the teeth of winter. We haven’t had this much snow for several years. Personally I would be happy to do without this deep freeze cold! Aaagh! In my opinion anything below zero is extraneous! (Same goes with temperatures above 100 degrees.)
I had the occasion to attend a training and honestly I thought I was gonna fall asleep on the after lunch speaker. (C’mon guys! A full tummy and subject matter that sounds like Greek to me and has to do with numbers…that’s a sure recipe to snap my eyes shut!) A couple of times I felt my head going toward the table. Bang! Snore! (Wouldn’t that have been attractive?) Anyway, I had to do something to stay awake so I wrote what became this month’s article. –Now you know the story behind the story.
In This Month’s Issue:
Full Moon Names and Dates - Old Farmer’s Almanac
Thankful for the Simple Things - by Lucinda Schersing, Rev. D.D.
Links
Turtle’s Pond-erings
What is New On the Website?
General Information
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Full Moon Names and Dates:
February 2008
Venus and Jupiter are close together in the southeast, in Sagittarius, on the 1st. This spectacle is best seen around 6:30 a.m. On the 4th, the crescent Moon hovers below them. Venus gets lower each morning; when it meets Mercury from the 24th to month’s end, the duo is only 5 degrees above the horizon at 6:00 a.m. Throughout the month, Mars is easy to view at nightfall. The planet resumes direct (eastward) motion in Taurus, but loses half its light, as Earth races away at 66,000 mph. Saturn, at its closest point of the year, reaches opposition on the 24th, in Leo, at magnitude 0.2. A total lunar eclipse on the 20th will be visible from North America.
Eclipses:
There are two in February!
February 7: annular eclipse of the Sun. This eclipse will not be visible from North America.
February 20-21: total eclipse of the Moon. The entire eclipse can be seen from eastern and central North America. The Moon enters Earth’s umbral shadow on February 20 at 8:43 P.M. EST, and the eclipse becomes total at 10:01 P.M. EST. Totality ends at 10:52 P.M. EST, and the umbral phase ends at 12:09 A.M. EST on February 21. The penumbral phase (only) will occur over western North America, at the time of moonrise; it will be difficult to see changes in the Moon’s appearance.
Full Moon Date: February 20
Full Moon Names for February: Full Snow Moon, Full Hunger Moon
Special thanks to the Old Farmers Almanac
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Thankful for the Simple Things - Another Day Equals Another Chance-
by Lucinda Schersing, Rev. D.D.
Why are humans so ingrained in thinking they must not only remember the past but hang on so tightly that they become mired in the bad experiences and muck? Often so much so they cannot forget nor move ahead.
Animals - especially dogs, do not remember the ‘bad situations’, they remember the feeling/emotion surrounding a situation. This can be fear which can express itself as aggression, or a timid demeanor from being dominated by those they perceive as the dominate members of the pack.
People have so often been taught (in the Western world) that one must dominate and subjugate; that it is desired to be “top dog”.
Many people are not ruthless enough nor do they have the drive or temperment to be ‘top dog’. Many of us are fearful because of the way we have perceived or interpreted past experiences. It is not that we want to be followers or low- man in the pack. It just isn’t high on our list of priorities to be first the the necessary aggression that is needed is beyond our soul’s level of comfort.
It is however, desirable to learn to look at our past with clear vision, free of emotions like fear or sadness. It was what is was. Move ahead and live in the now. Today. That is all we can influence and be affected by - that which goes on in each moment - each “Now”.
Be like a dog and enjoy today. What happened is but a dream and only has power if we give it power. Look at the past, what did you learn from the experience? Remember not the feelings or emotions, but the lesson.
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Links
I think this is my favorite section of the newsletter. The only problem is to not innundate you with them! So many! So little space!
Rules of Thumb: (In case you are wondering just what a ‘rule of thumb’ is: I believe it dates back to England when a man could beat his wife with nothing larger than his thumb…hence, it became known as the ‘rule of thumb’.) Anyway! this is one cool site: http://rulesofthumb.org/
Think those glasses in your hotel room are safe to drink from? You might want to reconsider after watching this! http://www.break.com/index/never-us
iPhone Guitar! Pretty awesome! Now this guitar I wouldn’t mind practicing on…my fingers wouldn’t bleed! http://www.break.com/index/ipod-guitar-hero.html
Montage-ala-Google: http://grant.robinson.name/projects/montage-a-google/
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Turtle’s Pond-erings
Oh Joy! Truly! I am a dog lover that is dog-less at present. I have always had this dream of a place that all animals, domestic and wild, from winged ones to bunnies and in between- that are rescued or found injured could be taken to this place and they could receive the veterinary care, the love, compassion and rehabilitative training they need so they can be placed in loving forever homes. Without the threat of euthanasia - ever. Well, someone, (okay, a bunch of ’someones’) had the same idea and put it together to make it a reality! Isn’t that way cool?! It’s called Best Friends and Dogtown is part of it.
Dogtown is a new show on National Geographic that is on after the Dog Whisperer - Caesar Milan! You can visit Best Friends online at http://www.bestfriends.org/ I spend a lot of time on this site. I’m considering taking some vacation time there!
In another puddle of thought…
Why is it that sometimes people will ignore someone that is trying to show a more beneficial and ultimately timesaving way of doing something? So often I feel I have just wasted my breath and time, and would be further ahead just banging my head against a brick wall. Sooner or later the pain will go away…Aarggghhh! Gnashing of teeth!
What is New On the Website?
I will be putting up a couple more widgets that I found on the “favorite widget page”, http://www.turtlezen.com/favoritewidgets.html.
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That’s all for this issue. Keep smilin’. May you float as a feather upon the breath of the Creator.
May the Creator hold you in the palm of His hand.
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General Information (legal stuff)
Turtle Time Gazette Copyright 2008, Turtle Zen, except where indicated otherwise.
All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint only with permission from copyright holder(s).
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