i am running into a new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind
that i catch in my hair
like strong fingers like
all my old promises and
it will be hard to let go
of what i said to myself
about myself
when i was sixteen and
twentysix and thirtysix
even thirtysix but
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me
Lucille Clifton, Good Woman: Poems and A Memoir 1969-1980
Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery, highlighting the break using gold, Celebrating the beauty of imperfections, seeing flaws and repairs as part of a life story rather than the end of usefulness.
“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go.
Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”
― L.R. Knost
“Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again.
And in between the amazing and the awful, it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary.
That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful.”
― L.R. Knost
When an author’s intent is to make evil appear to be good, or appear to be more powerful than good, or suggests that evil will not eat those who side with it, then he is engaging in “bad” or malicious writing. He is putting his thumb on the scales to make something which he desires to be true rather than present the truth itself.
Like a slick carnival barker who says “Hit the birdie and win a prize” at the same time he flips a switch to prevent the participant from achieving the promised reward, he is serving evil. He is promoting a false vision of reality for his own gain.
When Ben Swann delivers a news report, he looks and sounds like any other TV anchor: conventionally attractive, slick hair, clad in an unremarkable but well-tailored suit.
But unlike thousands of TV reporters around the country, Swann is a registered Russian agent. While taking millions of dollars to produce branded content for Russian state broadcaster RT over the past year, Swann has sought to build a media platform that aims to serve as a means of broadcasting January 6 conspiracy theories, RFK Jr., Alex Jones, RT’s stable of hosts, and the producers of Plandemic
The loss of tree coverage can be tracked in the history of local birdsong. When I stayed at my mum’s place in the northern beaches in 1976, I’d be woken by a cacophony of birds at dawn. There was a wide variety, all competing to be heard. Today it’s eerily quiet by comparison, just the usual suspects: magpies, lorikeets, kookaburras and so on. With every new person who moves here it’s “just one tree” they want to take out. Over time it’s become a dramatic change, to the detriment of the neighbourhood.
Penny Auburn, Newport
I love to walk each day and the difference between walking down a tree-lined street and a street with no cover is huge, with temperatures incomparable in summer. Councils seem to be vigilant in heavily trimming trees near power lines rather than finding a long-term solution to this disfigurement of half the streetscape. Damaged or removed trees on the street are not replaced and council are not encouraging tree planting in private homes. Helen Simpson, Curl Curl
It is hardly surprising to read that tree coverage is receding over much of Sydney when we have state-sanctioned lopping for motorways. Local councils’ authority has been taken away. How much longer can we allow this to happen? It is official vandalism on an immense scale and must be stopped. Nedra Orme, Neutral Bay
It comes as no surprise to read that “Sutherland Shire lost the highest amount of urban canopy”. The rate of tree clearing around here makes the deforestation of the Amazon look like an exercise in conservation. “Sutherland Shire tree protection order” now ranks alongside “Politician’s promise” as a measure of worthlessness. Ryszard Linkiewicz, Caringbah South
As a Sutherland Shire resident and Bushcare volunteer, it has been very disheartening to see the loss of mature native trees in recent years. As well as allowing too many mature trees to be removed for development, the council itself has removed too many street trees, and has not replanted enough to compensate. As councils are responsible for the land between private property boundaries and roads, there is plenty of public land to plant trees on. Sutherland Council needs a renewed focus to plant and protect trees, particularly street trees. Even then, it will take a long time for new plantings to actually provide the canopy, shade and habitat of all those mature trees lost. Rhonda Daniels, Sutherland
