The Sunshine State, and the Political Clouds

I've been away for a few days, in Florida visiting my mom on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

 

Her birthday was earlier in January but I think when it is your 90th you have good reason to celebrate for the whole month!  

We picked a neat restaurant that is in an old grocery store/railroad station/post office/telegraph office/trading post, circa 1894.  When  the post office closed, it was still the smallest post office in nation.  

 

 

We sat in this corner, the post office corner.  The only thing that has changed is a mural on the wall behind us depicting the postmaster.  Grant, Florida was just a tiny settlement of fishermen and trappers and their families.  Their mail went out from a bag hanging on a post that someone in the train reached out with a hook and grabbed as the train went by.  It was quickly replaced it with a bag of incoming mail.  

 

This photo is a painting from the restaurant as it was too dark to take a photo when we were there.  It was fun and lived up to its slogan -- The Best Pig Roast on the East Coast.  

📌 📌 📌 📌 📌 📌 

It was nice to have a small break from the news and concentrate on family for a few days.  But it is impossible to ignore what is happening for long and impossible not to be affected with the sadness and fear.  

The faces of the Syrian refugees on the news who have gone through so much to stand on the brink of immigration, now returned to limbo ... well, they are just heartbreaking.  

It brings to mind this quote that hangs in our National Holocaust Museum:

 

We can't stand back.  We have to speak out. What seems to be happening

 just can't happen in our country.

I was very involved in Minnesota with refugees, first the Hmong who came from Vietnam in the 80s when I taught them English at night, helped them fill out forms, set up bank accounts, apply for jobs, and anything else to help them understand the confusing culture they found themselves in.  In the early 2000s it was the Somali families sponsored by my church and town where I participated in the same kind of assistance.  

Then, for the most part, the families were welcome.  My heart goes out to those recent arrivals who will face the climate of America today where "foreigners" are suspicious, unwelcome, feared, even hated.  My grandsons go to school with little Muslim second graders and up until now a little girl in a headscarf was just another second grader to them.  The policies of the present government will only divide us, stir up more hatred toward America, and increase incidents of terrorism.  Ack.  

This morning we did what we always do when the things get too heavy -- walked the beach.  We were rewarded with sunshine and a pod of dolphins that swam with us, parallel to the beach, breaching so we could see their grace.  

And then when we got home, a Baltimore oriole appeared at our feeder, and this:

 

The first blossom ever on our lemon tree!  

The lime tree is also covered with buds. 

(They have both been moved into the sunroom as we have had some cold weather.)