If you’re coming to Minnesota, wears some flowers in your hair!
An English family, the Marsh Family, wrote a song for Minnesota. See them sing below. Thank you for the support. People living in Minnesota are being attacked by their own government. The number one job of government is to keep people safe. What is going on?
Watch the Marsh Family here:
A terrible situation in my city. Speak out for our democracy!
Lyrics to ‘Streets of Minneapolis’
Through the winter’s ice and cold
Down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
‘Neath an occupier’s boots
King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes
Against smoke and rubber bullets
By the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Trump’s federal thugs beat up on
His face and his chest
Then we heard the gunshots
And Alex Pretti lay in the snow, dead
Their claim was self defense, sir
Just don’t believe your eyes
It’s our blood and bones
And these whistles and phones
Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Crying through the bloody mist
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Now they say they’re here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights
If your skin is black or brown my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight
In chants of ICE out now
Our city’s heart and soul persists
Through broken glass and bloody tears
On the streets of Minneapolis
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Lyrics to ‘Streets of Minneapolis’
Through the winter’s ice and cold
Down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
‘Neath an occupier’s boots
King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes
Against smoke and rubber bullets
By the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Trump’s federal thugs beat up on
His face and his chest
Then we heard the gunshots
And Alex Pretti lay in the snow, dead
Their claim was self defense, sir
Just don’t believe your eyes
It’s our blood and bones
And these whistles and phones
Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Crying through the bloody mist
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Now they say they’re here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights
If your skin is black or brown my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight
In chants of ICE out now
Our city’s heart and soul persists
Through broken glass and bloody tears
On the streets of Minneapolis
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Federal Agents Not Allowed On This Property
Our American government has created chaos and fear in Minneapolis and some parts of greater Minnesota. People living in the United States of America are disappearing.
My city is under seige from our own federal government. Our immigrants and people and children that aren’t white have gone into hiding. Last week students at one Minneapolis high school were pepper sprayed. Safety mandated our children not attend school, walk on the street or go to playgrounds. Many helpers are delivering food to families confined to their homes. Many helpers are also monitoring minority business and neighborhoods. doing what they can to keep everyone safe.
Below link is from MinnPost
A city’s limit (From the New York Times)
Minneapolis is on a knife’s edge. One week after a federal agent shot and killed Renee Good, aggressive arrests have enraged residents. The Trump administration has redoubled its effort to deport illegal immigrants, sending officers into residential neighborhoods and the parking lots of big-box stores in search of people to grab. They’ve also detained — and roughed up — several U.S. citizens, and social media is awash in viral videos of the confrontations.
Meanwhile, activists have sought to observe, document or impede the agents, Julie Bosman reports. On WhatsApp, neighbors watch out for immigration officers and run from their homes to shout at them. “It feels like our community is under siege by our own federal government,” State Representative Michael Howard, a Democrat, told The Times.
The encounters can be terrifying. My colleagues verified images circulating this week that show agents tackling a man at a gas station and shoving Elliott Payne, the president of the City Council. Payne told my colleagues that there were federal agents equipped with assault rifles and combat gear patrolling the streets, repeatedly unholstering their handguns. “It feels like a military occupation,” he said.
Some of the stops go beyond ordinary law enforcement. In a few of the run-ins, you can feel the animosity building between federal officers and citizens they serve. One man The Times spoke to said he was glad that there were other people around to film his encounter with federal agents, which occurred after they rammed their car into his, forcing him to a stop.
He said he believed the presence of people with cameras had helped lead the agents to let him go. But as the crowd grew — the crowds always seem to grow now — and began to yell at the officers, he worried that the situation could tip over into something darker, something violent. “It makes them act different. NYT
Start the day with hope. Spring will come! Collective positive energy can make things better.
All people matter!
Embrace a new year and each new day with hope!
The road is before us!
It is a new day, a new beginning,
And it is filled with hope.” Walt Whitman
Start each day with hope!
2025 has been a hard year. Wars are raging, too many die from gun violence, democracy is threatened, ICE is threatening communities, climate change brings storms, fires, drought and flooding. But we must move forward toward a new world. Our mental health is so much better if we start each day with hope and positive energy to make things better.
Below is from the NYT today:
While optimism is the belief that the future will be better, hope is the belief “that we have the power to make it so,” said Chan Hellman, the director of The Hope Research Center at the University of Oklahoma. It is “one of the strongest predictors of well-being,” he said. It helps improve the immune system and aids recovery from illness. More hopeful people may actually grow taller than less hopeful people.
To cultivate hope, people need three things. They first need to be able to envision a better future, either personally or collectively. Second, they need the willpower or motivation to move toward that future. And third, they must be able to chart “a path from where they are to where they want to be,” he added.
How to be more hopeful
There are a few ways, experts say.
People can set specific goals and then “begin brainstorming the pathways or road maps” to achieve them, ideally by writing them down, Hellman said. That can start small. “It is much better to set and focus on short-term goals rather than long-term, abstract goals,” he added.
That can often mean speaking more positively about other people. People gossip three times as much about the selfish things others do than about the generous things they do. To address that, an expert suggested “positive observation.”
Share one story of something positive that you observed or did that day. The research finds that when you know you’re going to have to share something, you pay a lot more attention to it.
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and Heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as The list’ning skies,
let it resound loud as the Rolling sea
James Weldon Johnson, 1900
Sam Ssifton of the New York Times created this poem from six word phrases sent to him by readers reflecting on their gratitude.
The way my toddler says potstickers.
Did scary things. Didn’t die. Encouraging.
My backyard garden that feeds us.
The cold side of the pillow.
We celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary.
I’m grateful for being fired.
*
The joy of a wedding dance.
New beginnings and a playful Chihuahua.
The crow that brings me rubbish.
A July day at Wrigley Field.
My little orange cat, Cinnamon.
America’s compassion finding its voice.
*
Only momentarily a widow. Defibrillators rock!
Sun on snow, white diamonds glistening.
First house, fresh paint. Goodbye, gray!
Family, sobriety, heavy metal, Cheddar cheese.
Sun rising. Moon setting. Another day.
It won’t always be like this.
*
A man I melt into nightly.
I’m grateful for Spam. Comfort food.
Hummingbirds. Photocorynus. Clouds. Pula. Haiku. Sprites.
Sunny deck, soaring birds, hot coffee.
Love, enough money, health, moist turkey.
My one wild and precious life.
I hope you have a restorative and grateful holiday. Sam Sifton, NYT
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope they are native!
My yard is at peak. Unfortunately, it is also in a drought. Some places are challenged with flooding, but it is dry in my neighborhood. Native plants don’t need chemicals, and they adapt to wet and dry weather extremes
I don’t water, and hope for rain.
Native plants attract the bees’ birds and butterflies. The monarch butterflies and the hummingbirds are thrilled with these native flowers in my yard
Ideas for adding native plants https://wildones.org/
Bee balm (menardia) and purple cone flowers
Above are Culver’s root, milkweed, and lots of menardia. The bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies are thrilled.
Celebrating May, a great month to be outside.
Trillium in the woods
May Joy
The smell of lilacs permeates the air.
The chickadees cardinals and orioles sing at their hopeful best
My beautiful niece is married
A swallowtail butterfly lays eggs on the blooming golden Alexander.
Golden Alexander is a swallowtail host plant
Every tree shows its own personality,
The first hummingbirds in my yard,
The freedom of biking to events and just for fun.
A season of hope,
Columbine and wild geranium bloom,
The violets are radiant!
Hummingbirds follow the blooming Columbine.
Discussions about what to do with dandelions. And even the first dandelions bring joy!
Be mindful, pay attention, get outside and see our beautiful world!
“Dandelions are one of the earliest flowering plants in spring, dandelions provide food for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, rabbits, birds and deer, just to name a few. The dandelion also helps below the surface by feeding the soil with its deep root structure.” unknown source
Our environment is everyone’s duty to protect!
Tomorrow is Earth Day. It is 55th Earth day since the annual event was initiated in the United States on April 22, 1970.
Earth Day was started by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson because he saw such deterioration of our water and air quality. It was a call to take better care of our planet. The call is even more important today with the terrible effects of climate change and the production of so much plastic which no one could visualize in 1970.
On this Earth Day visualize the world you want to live in and decide what changes you need to make to create the beautiful world you wish for??? How can we insure clean air and clean water for everyone?
Each one of us needs to work to create the world we want to live in. I want a world of clean air, and clean water. I want a world of healthy birds, healthy butterflies and healthy people.
The sighting of the first butterfly is always exciting. Have you seen one yet?
Below is a beautiful essay on the Painted Lady butterfly. Like all birds butterflies and bees these butterflies are stressed by climate change, loss of habitat, and harmful chemicals. The theme of the essay is that these are very resilient butterflies that have been able to adapt for their survival. Unlike the Monarch butterfly Painted Ladies don’t need just a few flower species to lay their eggs, they adapt!
I have planted habitat in my yard for Painted Lady caterpillars.
Painted Lady
Painted Lady love pussy toes.
These pearly everlasting plants have eggs from the painted lady.
On this Earth Day, do everything you can to help these beautiful butterflies survive. Plant native plants in your yard, never use chemicals on your plants, avoid single-use plastic, and everyday work for clean air!
Happy spring, the sun has returned
It’s a beautiful world. Spring is a gift.
The world is always turning to the morning!
March 20 is the first day of spring, International Day of Happiness and Nowruz. Nature has given us the beauty of spring. Be sure you spend time outside every day to appreciate our beautiful Earth. Ancient people celebrated the first day of spring thousands of years ago!
For the Northern Hemisphere, March 20 is the first day of spring. But for 300 million people around the world, it’s the beginning of a new year, too. Nowruz—which means “new day”—is a holiday marking the arrival of spring and the first day of the year in Iran, whose solar calendar begins with the vernal equinox. Nowruz has been celebrated in Iran and the Persian diaspora for more than 3,000 years. Its roots are as a feast day in Zoroastrianism, a religion practiced in ancient Persia that viewed the arrival of spring as a victory over darkness. The holiday survived the Islamic conquest of Persia in the seventh century and the decline of Zoroastrianism’s popularity, and it spread across the globe through the diaspora of Persian people throughout history. (Here’s how Persia became the world’s first true empire.
It is hard to celebrate much happiness with such chaos in the world. Try to spring clean your brain and think about mental health for yourself and those you love. Be good to yourself and be good to the entire world.
How can you spring clean your brain?
5 Ways to Calm Your Anxious Brain – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
If you are spring cleaning your brain you need to reduce it’s exposure to plastic https://health4earth.com/2025/02/08/plastic-in-our-brains/
This year’s theme is caring and sharing. Make your own happiness special! Go for quiet walks and watch for changes around you as we transition into spring. The birds are returning and the lake near my home is almost losing its winter ice! Soon new buds will be on the trees.
Today also sees the launch of the new World Happiness Report 2025, which explores the variations in happiness around the world. The United States falls to a record low in happiness.. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-drops-to-record-low-in-2025-world-happiness-report-see-global-rankings/ar-AA1BgYsy?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Work for peace. Peace for Ukraine, the Middle East and conflicts in Africa.
Health4earth 