(dawn watch, 2025 7commitments)

Faced with the removal of the Yuletide fire hazard from the house and its array of lights, i bought some LED candles.  These will join the branch i wrapped with LED lights last year as all year glowing cheer. The lengthening days are wonderful, but it's still very dark in the mornings. This morning i was greeted by a crescent moon low to the south and the big dipper overhead -- and probably a Starlink satellite from a new train of them zipping overhead.  There's still patches of icy snow on the back deck, around the house in the pines' shade, but much melted by the time i walked Carrie down the hill after work yesterday. The creek still has big areas of ice.

One of those seven commitments was to be aware of my creating power, with the prompt claiming that by creating we can see ourselves as actors and not passive consumers. In the last week i created

• scientific data with CoCoRhas contribution
• requirements at work which translates into keeping libraries effective.
• a sketch as part of emotional care at work (and possibly some other sketches)
• a lovely dinner on Sunday with orange butter sauce over seared bay scallops
• a loaf of my breakfast bread
• a meditation for motivation to try to help me get moving

(2025 7commitments)

My news consumption this week was caught up in a procrastination spiral and distraction spiral. I didn't do much a of a job dealing with either spiral.

I hope to be better in both managing distraction and procrastination this coming week. Being intentional is part of the challenge. On the other hand I do want substantial news that i can actually use, particularly to inform my understanding of NC politics. I've added https://carolinapublicpress.org/ as another statewide news source.

For US national news does anyone have an opinion to share about https://www.kenklippenstein.com/ as a news source? He appears to be about bringing forward whistle blower content, including many screen grabs of emails to government employees about fighting DEI efforts. I don't know if it's good for me to read or not: is this train-wreck curiosity?