Rebel and Be Joyfully Defiant
by Jaime Castle, HUUC Board President
It is too easy to succumb to the darkness it seems these days. If you’ve read my articles before, you know about my sister who has been almost completely paralyzed from MS (muscular dystrophy). Whenever I start to feel down about anything in my life, I think about her and how she would give anything to be able to do half of what I can. It is hard to feel sorry for myself anymore or to complain about anything. What is one to do; however, when it feels like the world is burning down around us? Feelings of sadness and anger, or folks feeling depressed or scared, are very real.
We, each and every one of us, have a differing capacity for how much we can take on – how much fight we have in us. That tank shifts in its fullness and emptiness as well. I think about the role a church has in a person’s life. There are many reasons why a person seeks out a church: for community, for enlightenment, to fill one’s bucket. That last reason mentioned gets to the notion that we can find energy and inspiration here. We can go back out into the world feeling a little bit stronger and hopeful, ideally. We can add a new piece of armor to ourselves as we take on the bigger issues around us.
I’ve made a conscientious decision to use my remaining months in this position in this space to be a little beacon of light. I’m going to dedicate these reflections and articles of mine to help you find more joy in the world around us. Each month I will explore different things that I would like to bring to your attention and perhaps you will pick up some helpful tidbits of fun and/or joy! Finding joy and being joyful can be a very real act of defiance in dark times!
This month, my dear rebel, I am going to share with you some really great apps that you may not know about. Whether you consider yourself a technological dunce or a top-level techie nerd, these suggestions are sure to bring delight, and you have the skills necessary to find them! The only skills that you need are the ability to open the app store on your phone and the ability to type in the apps’ names in your search bar.
Three nights ago, my oldest child and I were looking out a large front window of our home and he asked me, while pointing up, what star that was glowing and blinking so brightly. I shrugged and guessed it was probably the planet Venus. Then I remembered that I have an app that all you have to do is aim your phone to the night sky and the screen displays the sky, labeling the stars, the moon, the constellations, and the planets. It turns out that the star was Sirius, and we looked up fun facts about it. That free app is called Sky Guide. The sky is the limit with this app, and it will definitely put things into perspective in that we are truly so small in the grand scheme of things.
Another free app that I love is called Merlin Bird ID. This app you open up when you are outside and listening for birds. It listens and records what it hears and identifies what types of birds you are hearing. You can save your recordings and the coordinating list of the birds that you heard. Some really fun finds that I’ve heard are a barred owl, a red-shouldered hawk, a northern mockingbird, and an eastern bluebird. The most variety of birds that I’ve heard thus far was sixteen different kinds of birds in a fourteen-minute sampling. This is such a fun app that makes you truly stop and appreciate the nature around you!
The last free app that I’d like to mention is called Seek and where Merlin uses your microphone feature, this app uses your phone’s camera. Have you ever noticed a plant, a flower, or a tree, and wondered what it was? This app allows you to hover your camera over a plant and it will scan it and identify it. Like Merlin, it saves your observations, and you can keep a collection. It will tell you a little bit about each item and it crowd-sources these finds, mapping out the range of where things are found. Some fun things that I’ve come across are: a princess tree, Allegheny blackberry, white mulberry, and eastern poison ivy. I’ve only used this app for plant identification, but other living things can also be identified with it.
I’d love to hear about apps that you’ve discovered, and I encourage you to take some time to see what else is available. Maybe less time on social media apps and more time with nature apps will be a balm for your soul. This snow will melt away and soon we will be able to touch the grass. Soon enough spring flowers will emerge, and how great is it that we will know their names!
Image source: courtesy of Jaime Castle and https://tinyurl.com/29wpcxc9