Thoughts On What We Miss

 

Bumble Bee & Red Clover

Can you spot the bumble bee right away?

Walking along, do you notice that you will glance down sometimes and see something on the ground? 

In the wild, surveilling above and below is a safety measure because of snakes and animals that can launch a  surprise attack. On a sidewalk or park grassy area, holes, sprinkler heads, dog scat or other various objects can also surprise us in unpleasant ways.

Sometimes, we miss stepping on a bumble bee. 🐝  

Being aware of our surroundings is survival. But what about the places we allow our faces to encounter close up as we do with LCD screens? There can be the figurative snake ready to strike and mountain lions ready to pounce there as well.

That brings to mind a thing I notice more and more online. The split second sudden jump on the page, a disappearance, or appearance of something. There’s also the plain old looks like I hit the wrong button (when I didn’t).

The surroundings of 20 years ago are not the surroundings of today. Back in the day, deflecting or avoiding danger was mainly in the control of the individual. 

Methinks, AI now handles our online surroundings. And that presents to me a big question. 

What did we miss? How or why did we miss seeing that in our path? Experts warn us. Yet, companies continue to invest in using AI. 

To increase profits? For what?

This Is the Day

Telling myself that my small voice won’t change anything is a truth that I can rely on. 

Writing a controversial post is not easy when retaliation is a real fear. I usually delete or revert them to Draft. Fascism is real in America.

Observations, watching shorts on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook have left me feeling worse than I already do since January despite the  many positive uplifting videos. 

There are also an excessive amount making fun of people and guilt tripping boo hoo you videos. As funny and clever as the jokes are, I find myself too often asking for God’s forgiveness that I laughed. 

Fort St Frederic in August 2025

Moving on to August sunshine, I had an exceptionally good day yesterday visiting places that I’ve been neglecting because I have not wanted to go anywhere. Depression does that, bullies you into numbness, and staring out the window instead of doing healthy things like being outdoors. 

I have not painted or sketched outside at all this summer. No trip to Massachusetts and the Atlantic Ocean. No beach. No diner. Yesterday is my best day of the season so far.

I plan to visit the Shelburne Museum as my big summer excursion. I bought the ticket online to be scanned from my phone. The ticket is good for 2 consecutive days. For bad knees old ladies like myself, that is good. 😎

The weather up here in northwestern New England is cooling down a bit as it does in August. I have the feeling, however, that hot weather may return. It is good to rule the days mainly with happiness not weather. 

Fields at Dead Creek 
Rt 17 Addison Vermont

Osprey Over Lake Champlain
Upstate New York

Summer Photograph: Daylily