Barb Terao

You've heard of small acts of cruelty and disdain called micro-aggressions? They can hurt and undermine a person. 😔 What about micro-kindnesses? (New word!) We can dispense even a small unit of beneficence or encouragement- and uplift a person's heart and soul. 🌼

Time to smell the flowers and shear the sheep! Spring.

National Parks Had a Record Year. Trump Officials Appear to Want It Kept Quiet. As the administration fires rangers and other workers, an internal memo is directing the National Park Service not to publicize visitors numbers.

The silence is deafening: National parks' popularity is typically celebrated by administrations. Yet this administration, with all the damage they've inflicted on parks & staff, ordered no public announcement of this year's record-breaking visitation data. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/c...

Books by Indigenous femme-of-centre folks ✨🍓🌈🪶🌊🌾📚🦔
Happy International Women’s Day!
MIIGWETCH to all these amaaaazing women for using their voices, sharing their stories and connecting us to different cultures🙏 y’all are brave warriors🦬 #booksky

Yum! Migwech.

if you ever feel like fiction doesn't make a difference, remember that Star Trek is the reason why Mae Jemisin went on to be an actual astronaut. hopeful stories can change the world.

Hi, bodhisattva friend!

Jan. 29th - THE PATH TO INNER FREEDOM

Inner freedom arises from transforming within. Chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo awakens our potential, freeing us from delusion and suffering.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo

#freedom #buddhism #nammyohorengekyo

Words just now from my teacher, #jackkornfield. I believe everyone longs for #peace in their heart of hearts, but so few have the tools or capacity needed to achieve it. IMO, outer peace starts with making peace with oneself! #meditation #mindfulness #buddhism ##insightmeditation #bskysangha

It may sound daunting, but I find it empowering to polish my life from within. Though not the only work we do, it's a good start.

BUDDHIST REASON, Part Six is up on my Substack. Did you know Buddhists can be excommunicated? Neither did I, till it happened to me. #Buddhism #Writing #peace

Here’s the hidden obstacle sabotaging every decision you make

interesting article illustrating overconfidence and bias from people effectively living in echo chambers where they are only exposed to viewpoints and information agreeing with their beliefs,

www.sciencefocus.com/news/hidden-...

Art Institute Chicago. Barbara L McBee photography

A place we visited often.

My memory of walking in the wrong house, "Glorious Awkwardness," is now posted on Story Circle Networks' Substack. Enjoy.

Not sure how to adapt to this new year, but I like this old dish towel we got from family in Japan, reminding us to sway like bamboo and live long like the pine tree (matsu).

It all started with Reagan many years ago. When he deregulated the media, he gave the purveyors of lies, conspiracies, and misinformation the freedom to do and say whatever they wanted.

This new image of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” shows the shape of a cosmic tree with the glow of stellar lights. NGC 2264 is, in fact, a cluster of young stars — with ages between about one and five million years old — in our Milky Way about 2,500 light-years away from Earth. The stars in NGC 2264 are both smaller and larger than the Sun, ranging from some with less than a tenth the mass of the Sun to others containing about seven solar masses. X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) and B.A. Wolpa (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA); Infrared: NASA/NSF/IPAC/CalTech/Univ. of Massachusetts; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & J.Major

Sprightly Stars Illuminate ‘Christmas Tree Cluster’|NASA|

Bookshop has erroneously marked my memoir out of stock, which is not true. Some of us SWP authors have been waiting a long time to have that fixed.

Reconfigured: A Memoir

Count me in! I write memoir and research-based nonfiction.

“Be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ~Plato #Kindness

We have this image above our bed! Because my husband gives me floral roses. I gave him this stellar ✨️ one.

In celebration of the twenty-first anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s deployment in April 2011, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute pointed Hubble’s eye to an especially photogenic group of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is tidally distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. A swath of blue jewels across the top is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot young blue stars. These massive stars glow fiercely in ultraviolet light. The smaller, nearly edge-on companion shows distinct signs of intense star formation at its nucleus, perhaps triggered by the encounter with the companion galaxy.

A ‘Rose’ Made of Galaxies

Happy to meet you! As an introductory note, I'd like you to know you can read my writing in my memoir, Reconfigured, in The Seattle Times, and on my "Quote & Tote" Substack. As for the "Quotes," they're there as courage to carry with you.

Happy end of November, otherwise known as the days of endless leftovers! 😋 Good luck on finding room in the frig.

Good priorities! Happy end of November, otherwise known as leftovers for days and no room in the frig.

Hi, Bluesky and Donna! I find James Baldwin's observation particularly poignant. Thank you for finding and sharing these quotes.

Good point! Even as an extrovert, I have yet to hone my "elevator pitch."