if you trust your rebel heart, ride it into battle

( books (Forrest, Aaronovitch, Aaronovitch, Hamaker-Zondag) )

dirt
goddamned thrips. Beyond that struggle, the spider plants are putting out babies, the baby thaumatophyllum is up to 3 leaves and needs potting up soon, the money tree is looking better, Grandma's thanksgiving cactus is looking pretty great, the rhaphidophora cutting finally put out some baby leaves, and the terrarium is overrun by red stem peperomia. I need to trim it, srsly.

meditation work
Yesterday I listened to/watched HealingVibrations' sound bath video on cutting old ties with crystal singing bowls and a windsinger instrument. It was surprisingly intense, or maybe it just hit me right at the time.

natural disaster
my heart hurts over the Hill Country floods. So many needless deaths, so many people claiming there were no warnings. Per Robert Reich's Substack: The San Angelo NWS office is missing a meteorologist, staff forecaster, and a senior hydrologist. The San Antonio NWS office is missing a warning coordination meteorologist (who left on April 30, thanks to DOGE-inflicted early retirement), and a science officer. These people are meant to notify local emergency managers to plan for floods. That said, warnings DID go out but weren't accessible or heeded by the people who needed them. (We don't have flood or tornado sirens or anything here, something the state gvt is saying will change. Though how they'll put flood sirens out in the middle of nowhere is kind of a mystery.) Regardless, it's a tragic loss. Hopefully the news blitz will help get weather warning systems put back into the 2026 fiscal budget for everyone. More personally, my parents' area had nearly all its bridges get washed out, so they're basically stranded until they can be fixed/replaced. They've got food and hopefully no need to go anywhere, so they're fine, but it's all just a completely harrowing situation. The morning of July 5, they had 10+ inches of rain in 12 hours, and that was AFTER the floods hit. I'm just glad they live on a ridge instead of down in the valley or in a floodplain, however hard it is to be stranded. There's so much destruction in their area. It's heartbreaking. Addendum: Dad texted last night that there are teams out on horseback searching for the missing/drowned. Thank gods it's ranch country so horses are locally available. Here's one place you can donate if you feel inclined: https://cftexashillcountry.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=4201

#resist
July 17: Good Trouble Lives On Protest/March

I hope all of y'all are safe and doing as well as can be. <333