Katie's Knits @katiesknits - Tumblr Blog

One of the Driest Deserts on Earth Blooms with Life and Color

The Atacama Desert in Chile is known as one of the driest and most barren places on Earth. Although the desert is usually dead land, this year El Nino’s staggering rainfall caused the bursting blooming of the seeds, which have been hibernating.

katiesknits

I feel bad I haven't figured out how to see this

stitcherywitchery

Conversationalist – a free knitting pattern by Plucky Knitter Design.

queerlove

me: *catches myself being judgmental* me to me: i did not raise u this way

queerlove

me: *catches myself being judgmental* me to me: i did not raise u this way

universalyarn

Ivano Vitali - Scultore e performer ecologista. Trasformazione della carta dei giornali in gomitoli e successivamente in abiti, arazzi, oggetti ...

“Italian artist / ecologist Ivano Vitali combines newspaper recycling and knitting to produce extraordinarily-woven clothing and objects.”

More in English on Ivano Vitali.

micdotcom

Watch: Obama points out the hypocrisy in the U.S. governors and politicians refusing Syrian refugees.

saveyoursucculents

blackbirdsandwhitefoxes-deactiv

gaffertapeandhope

@lemonlament

goodideaexchange

From our darkest night to our brightest day

In the aftermath of a terrible event, we always ask the question, “What can I do?” We tend to think of causes we can support, ways we can volunteer and people we can comfort.

Here’s my suggestion:

Be courageous today. If your eyes and heart tell you that there’s no hope for tomorrow, hope for tomorrow anyway. More than any other day, commit to reflecting the values you’ve spent your entire life believing are true. Don’t ask what you need; ask your neighbor what he/she needs and do your best to provide it. Step boldly, defiantly, confidently in the right way, no matter how unsafe you feel.

In times like these, we pay so much attention to the villains who created the smoke, reduced our shrines to ashes and strewn the bloodied bodies of loved ones across the cold pavement. But don’t avert your eyes, or you’ll miss seeing the heroes who will surely emerge from the ashes to rebuild our shrines, comfort the hurting and bravely show the way to restoration and triumph. The leaders always outnumber the villains, even if many of the leaders will never be as famous as the villains.

They want you to fear, so the way you defeat them is not to fear, even if every sense you have tells you that you should be afraid.

Be courageous today and pay attention to the many leaders who will emerge to lead us during these troubling times.

sosuperawesome

Mugs by MonsterMug on Etsy

• So Super Awesome is also on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest •

oliviacirce

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, Please come to the gate immediately. Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she Did this. I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, Sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used— She stopped crying. She thought our flight had been canceled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the Following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late, Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him. We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and Would ride next to her—Southwest. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and Found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours. She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering Questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered Sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag— And was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, The lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same Powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies. And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers— Non-alcoholic—and the two little girls for our flight, one African American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too. And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands— Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped —has seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), “Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal.” (via awelltraveledwoman)