For Orthodox, human nature is created by God and good. Salvation (healing) consists of being true to that nature. Rules can help or hinder. Nature may be fallen, yet what makes it fallen is AGAINST what God created.

📚💬 #bookskychat "Dwelling" by Emily Hunt Kivel It may be helpful for readers to know beforehand that this is not a novel. It is a fairytale.

I don't know if Mencius said this exactly, but it is certainly something he could have said.

📚💬 #bookskychat Distressing that by mid-January I've had more DNFs than in all of 2025

🗃 💬📚 #bookskychat Jack Weatherford, "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" I rarely recommend a book outright, but this is an exception. A beautifully written page turner, tracing the Mongol Empire from its founding by Genghis Khan to its demise in the wake of the Black Death. 1/6

For #GoodMemoryDay here's a picture of "Mnemosyne Genos" and "Kleio Play" with a detail from the Antioch mosaic depicting a funerary symposium attended by Mnemosyne and the personification of banqueting (AIOXIA) from the Worcester Museum (worcester.emuseum.com/objects/2763...)

I felt like making some art last night/today and could have made something beautiful and/or meaningful but I made this instead. It's a Barbie Yaga Malibu Dream Hut. No regrets. Can't defeat fascism without joy.

This below is re ICE on Bluesky Wld ALSO point out tho that some blocklists may have mistakes or cld even be malicious/weaponized by bad actors (I mistakenly posted AI slop once for about 15 minutes, apologized, took it down, have apparently been on somebody's block list ever since *chagrin*)

Crows in Winter - N.C. Wyeth, 1941

🗃 Why am I only now learning that the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258? Fascinating book 📚💬 "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford, In which I also learned that the Mongols invaded Europe as far as Vienna, 1/2

👣 Love this Bowl with Human Feet which is almost 6,000 years old! Egypt, Nile clay, ca. 3700–3450 B.C. The bowl which has a beautiful polished surface is very similar in form to the Egyptian hieroglyph meaning "to bring." 🏛️ Met 🏺 🗃️ #arthistory #skystorians #ancientbluesky #archaeology #Egypt

I followed a few accounts that post climate data. Now when I look at the Discover feed, there's usually an out-of-date daily weather forecast for a place where I don't live, like Ontario or Cambodia.

Check on people who don’t have a good relationship with their families; sometimes, they do not be doing ok.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it. — Albert Einstein (Letter to California student E. Holzapfel (March 1951) Einstein Archive 59-1013, p. 57 - Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979))

Sunrise

The caricature of French functionaries among those who inhabit the island of my birth is that they are petty and vindictive and silly. The reality, I am discovering, is that they are (in very large part) some of the nicest, most patient, most charming people you could hope to meet. YMMV

Excited and nervous about this event. Ah yes, 2026 is 2026-ing. 😊: brittlepaper.com/2026/01/nned...

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches & seizures, shall not be violated...."

📚💬 #bookskychat Burton Mack, "Who Wrote the New Testament?" The earliest -- well you can't call them Christians, yet; so Mack calls them the "The Jesus People" -- was a counter-cultural movement. They were looking for an alternative to the violent, fractured Roman society. 1/3

📚💬 #bookskychat Burton Mack, "Who Wrote the New Testament?" Peter, John, and James have an interesting career. Paul (circa 50 CE) cites the with respect, calling them "The Pillars." Mark derides them as fools who cannot understand what Jesus is about. 1/2

📚💬 #booksky Burton Mack, 'Who Wrote the New Testament" There were no apostles until Luke invented them somewhere between 80 and 90 CE. There was no apostolic succession until the second century when the bishops invented it to bolster their authority.

📚💬 @bookskychat Burton Mack, "Who Wrote the New Testament. Antisemitism and supercessionism weren't a thing until after the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) and the Gospel of Mark. 1/3

You aren't a failure, this is how this system is meant to work. They want woman to get pregnant. It's also meant to make you feel like you failed. Don't take on what's not yours! I know how hard that is, I never listened when ppl told me the same thing. You are doing all you can in a broken system ❤️‍🩹

Indeed, it is. A big one

Step toward the light 🏛️ ✨ ⬆️ 🔷 #ColorADay #BWFri #stairs

Despite what people say, we are not living in 1984. We are living in a mash-up of 1984 and Brave New World

📚💬 #bookskychat Burton L. Mack, "Who Wrote the New Testament?" (I'll try to write a fuller review when I've finished) What a wild ride. Almost nothing means what we think it means.

Wheelchair accessibility might be my latest hyperfixation. Please send me all your wheelchair related info

Merry Christmas (Olde Calendar)

Spending time at the library is honestly super therapeutic. Like, even if I'm not reading a book it's just a nice space to exist in for drawing or whatnot.

@clio2.bsky.social Maybe this would interest you?

Sunrise. December 29. Cascade foothills. 🩷🧡

It is Old Calendar Christmas Eve.

thoughts with a mood, the words disappear as the feelings swirl 🤍🕊️ . . (an older small painting) . #ArtistsOnBlueSky #BlueSkyArtShow #AbstractArt #AbstractExpressionism #Painter #Art #Artist #WomensArtBlueSky #AbstractArtist #BlueSkyArt  #OregonArtist #Oregon

Gothic ambitions . (1890 fashion plate from "The Season" magazine)

📚💬 ##bookskychat I keep seeing posts asking to support indie authors and publishers. I'm down with that. So, I created a list to keep track of them, but How the heck do I add people to that list

I do not understand complaining about something being humiliating and degrading and then reposting in full.

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Shakespeare 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' (Act 3, Scene 2)

#GVerse via @chariselee.bsky.social Incredible interpretation of popping, hip hop freestyle and art of ballet‼️ Yo-Yo Ma and Lil Buck - The Swan

One of the painful lessons I learned was that the big jobs were the ones most likely to go pear shaped

Really irritated by the use of "grandpa" as an insult and dismissal.

💬📚 🗃 🧵 #bookskychat Last read of 2025 The author's stated aim is to weave together three strands: 1) the history and ethnography of the Luo tribe -- beginning in the 15th century; 2) the history of the Obama lineage -- beginning in the 19th century; 1/6

I am the rare librarian who does not set reading goals. It creates anxiety & something "to do." It robs me of the joy of reading. My 2026 "reading goal" is to read what I want & to enjoy the act of reading. That may be 1 book. It may be 100. Doesn't matter. 1/

Quite right

'Saishoin Temple in Snow, Hirosaki' - Kawase Hasui, 1936. #JapaneseArt #shinhanga

I need help from other autistic folk to figure out how I can actually make advocacy happen

If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other. — Carl Schurz

Sergiu Ciochină (Moldavian Artist, born 2001) "Night in Paris", 2024. Oil on Board, 60 × 40 cm. Private Collection. #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt