Don't Ruin Your Summer FunWritten by Roger Carr
I love summer! Summer is my favorite season of year. I love playing sports outside and walking on beach. I especially enjoy being at an outdoor barbecue. Maybe you enjoy summer activities as well. Imagine with me for a moment being at an outdoor barbecue. Just a little distance away from you there's a swimming pool full of kids who are having fun playing, laughing and splashing in water. In another spot there might be a horseshoe game playing. You can hear "clank" of horseshoes hitting posts as players are trying to get a ringer. And of course there's barbecue grill. On grill might be hamburgers and hot dogs, chicken or steaks. The only thing better than smell coming from grill is taste of food when it's time to eat. Can you just imagine fun that you will have this summer?Now fast forward with me a few hours. You are at home and your skin is starting to itch. Just before bedtime you're taking your shirt or blouse off to get into your bed clothes and just material rubbing up against your skin is painful. When you do go to bed that evening you toss and turn trying to get into a position that isn't painful so that you can go to sleep. However, you spend hours awake only thinking about pain that your body is experiencing instead of tremendous fun you had that day. What is reason for this itching and pain? You have probably guessed it. You have a sunburn! Fortunately you can do something about it before it happens. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has provided us with some steps that we can take to help reduce our chance of having to deal with sun damage. These seven simple action steps are as follows: 1. Limit Time in Midday Sun - The sun's rays are strongest between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Whenever possible, limit exposure to sun during these hours.
| | Black Viola Symbol Of Death And ReserectionWritten by Judi Singleton
Today I was looking out my office window at my back yard at Black Viola, now they are just a little larger variety of violets which grow prolifically in my yard. I deliberately do not have curtains on my home office windows so I can frequently look out at nature or nature of my back yard anyway. I have bird feeders next to my window in a tree. Well, anyway this morning I woke up with a stark fear of death stalking me again. Now I know that part of healing I am doing is rooting out things from my dark side. I have no fear of rooting them out but for I know as I bring them into light they will just disappear like a sugar cube in water. It is hiding them that makes one afraid. Well, anyway I was contemplating these little black Violas. Offically they are called Viola Cornuta and commonly Bowles Black Viola. They are quite insignificant as far a show goes but they are truly beautiful in their own right. I was so taken by them that I got up and went outside and picked a small bouquet of them and floated them in a bowl. The unusual color of black of this flower it looks like velvet is suited to it connection to death and resurrection through my of Attis. Attis is an ancient Turkish God of vegetation, growth and fertility; they grew where his blood spilled. He was beloved consort of Goddess Cybele. In his worship pine tree his symbol were dressed with black Violas.When Attis refused her love, in her rage she unmanned him. All future priests that attended and worshipped Cybele castrated themselves. This is an odd story of contrasts as Cybele and Attis were both symbolized death and reserection. They were fertility Gods and Goddess mourning always death of nature in Fall and reserection in Spring. Why would her priests not want to sow their seeds? Perhaps they were sacrificing their fertility in their grief for Attis so he might be born again in Spring.
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