20 Comments

You just get better and better.

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❤️

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Love this thoughtful post. Our military and its wars are inextricably linked to our country's fascination with and proliferation of guns and the violence imposed our our citizens that ensues. And I'm not even a pacifist, and do believe that we should have a strong military and intervene occasionally. I see the same old solutions applied to new and different problems in a different time and become discouraged. As Steve Jobs said: "Think Different".

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Thank you, Joan, for your kind words and your thoughtful concern. I hope we can begin to think differently. It has to begin somewhere.

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Yes, it does. And we'd better start now.

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each day, I start anew, even with the hardest news swirling around me, and hope for better days ahead.

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Beth, thank you for this reminder of the most important thing we can do. This is a good way to start each day.

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Thank you for writing this post, Betsy. I too have difficulty comprehending the violence--human against human; it is challenging enough to take in the violence of nature: wild fires, floods, earthquakes, viruses. But it is in the stories of the individuals who lived and suffered and died that the heart lives. And why we must tell our stories, and the stories of those we know and care about.

On another note: welcome Lily. I look forward to more photos and stories of her and, of course, Frieda.

Shall I attempt #1000words of summer? A few more days to contemplate this challenge.

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I've enjoyed doing #1000wordsofsummer. I imagine you are doing something like it anyway and it's nice to be cheered on and cheer others on . I like the essays too. They are short, generous, abd help me keep going.

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I wish I were. Maybe that's why I'm thinking of signing up/committing.

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The lives beneath the numbers will always matter to me. My heart is broken for the loss of anyone who dies due to gun violence, but it is always worse when kids at school are murdered for no other reason than someone with an AR-15 showed up at their school. I live in a small town and we had a mass shooting in our library. Not as many deaths but many lives forever altered. We need gun control in our country,

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I'm so sorry for the trauma your town experienced, Kathy. I hope we, as a country, can make it safer for our children.

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I certainly hope so. The shooter was 16 and used his father's weapons. Thankfully he pled guilty and didn't put everyone through a trial.

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Congratulations to you and to Lily for her addition to your family! My pets bring me happiness every single day, no matter what else. Louie is my sweet "mews," and we added Mahlee (a stray) on February 1. My daughter's cat Potato will be 17 years old on June 21. And now we have chickens! They're still baby hens: Esther, Ida, Lizzo, Lola, and Winnie. We have become urban farmers.

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Thank you, Sandra. Animals keep us in the world, and keep our hearts open. Congrats on the chickens and good luck with the urban farming!

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Thank you for the insights today. And the book recs too.

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And thank you for the edits you caught! I appreciate that so much. Let me know what you end up reading. I hope your birthday week has been fantastic.

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It really has, in spite of all the horrible news.

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Thank you again Betsy for the wonderful shoutout about SoNovelicious. You are so generous with your community, both your readers and our little community of Bookstackers.

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It's been a joy, Gayla!

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