Everything looks a little alien before dawn.

Body's all creaky today, but at least I'm up and out. 👍🏻

#Nature

I would never submit my own data to a genetic test, but my sister did years ago (thus covering all of us), so every now and then I get to chuckle at the fact that I am White As Fuck... while also wondering about the Spanish/Portuguese on my mother's French heritage side.

Would they be chuckling to see me in one of Spain's old colonies now? (Sometimes locals assume I'm from Spain or Portugal.)

We humans get around, don't we?
Especially while colonizing, or driven by colonizers out of our homes.

There's nothing like *leaving* the park as the sun comes up. :) Time to work. 👍🏻

As per usual, my news brief isn't *that* brief--but only because it's important to read the news in context.

So if you're curious about Modi being present at a Hindu temple opening on the site of a razed mosque, I've got more details: history not just of the mosque razing, but also other recent events in India that worsen current ethnic tensions & heighten the risk of sectarian violence breaking out under an emboldened Hindu nationalism in an election year. Rough times.

https://onlysky.media/mclark/modis-campaign-opener-a-hindu-temple-on-a-razed-mosque-site/

Who needs baby #MooCows today? 👀

#Nature #ThatGrazingLife

And it wouldn't be a proper afternoon in #Colombia if people weren't out singing and dancing. 💛 If you have a body, you have everything you need to have fun.

P.S. Feel free to smack me upside the head sometimes. You all have open-hand privileges with me. 👍🏻💛

And a few more, because I like you rotters. 😘 (You know I don't like looking like a tourist, snapping photos all the time.)

Regarding the first: copyright infringement isn't taken as seriously here. Knock-off brand name clothes flood the streets, and Simpsons characters, Super Mario Bros, and even this fine fellow are repurposed by tons of local restaurants.

Further on, rich local history and economic degradation go hand in hand, with plaques stolen for the metal in them.

#Graffiti #Colombia

Taking a friend out this afternoon, and the walk across town is so invigorating and grounding. I get into a "performative busy" mode if I'm anxious, especially with no one around to smack me upside the head, but touching grass or reconnecting with people doing their best to make homes and communities with what little they have is always such a wonderful reminder that everything takes the time it takes, and to practise gratitude.

My brain is always my worst enemy. 🙃 Thank goodness for the world.

I'm driving myself nuts waiting for medication to kick in. What're you reading / watching right now?

If I finish tonight's work in time, I'm going to put on 1966's The Idol. How about you?

#CoSoFilms

I meant to share this chuckle earlier.

Today's El Colombiano had photos of snow from Europe. Everyone who passed by ooh'd and aah'd from today's sunny 30°C. ¡Muy bacano! Qué rico! Quiero ir a Europa!

😁 So just remember, folks snowed in and aching for sun: you are currently the envy of people in the city of eternal spring, who have maybe never experienced the thrill of even your nose hairs freezing in a bracing wind, or of shovelling the walk for the third time today. LIVING THE DREAM, BABY! 💫

Morning folks! 🌎

Today for OnlySky, I contrast three recent migrant crises in the news - in Canada, in the UK, and in Texas - to reflect on the economic and environmental factors that keep getting lost in the panic around rising immigration.

Immigration *is* a serious issue, which is why we cannot afford to let xenophobes and political stunts dominate the conversation. We need to grapple with our countries' underlying failure to invest in better societies all around.
https://onlysky.media/mclark/whats-behind-the-migrant-crises-in-canada-the-uk-and-texas/

My phone can't capture this time of day well, but it's like the whole sky is mineralized, all the moisture in the air catching and refracting light as if the full vista is made up of tiny crystals, each one refracting a hazy gold, warm and wonderful, whichever way you look.

So--just passing on lovely vibes for all my friends in winter. 💛 Walkies before more write-ies now. As always, I'll tell a tree or bee about you. 🤗

Just wrapping up a news brief on three migration crises, but since I'm not covering Davos I want to celebrate this perfect opener to a CNN article about that awful convention, which could use a little KSR treatment (from Ministry for the Future).

*chef's kiss*

I'm not sharing to boast, but to reflect.

The commenter is correct: I have *very* few comments on my most thorough pieces.

And this makes me a liability in media.

Writers become popular by creating content that can be sensationally reposted. It should take a simple, ideally incendiary position so that commenters can easily counter or fill in the gaps.

I'm no use to advertisers.

Which is why I'm thankful to be growing the newsletter: because our clickbait economy just makes everything worse.

🙃 Some people, when they revise a novel, find that it shrinks.

Not I, mi gente. Not I.

This one apparently had swole goals, and gained a full 10,000 words in revisions.

Anyone who ever tries to tell you that there's one "right" way to write a novel is this close to selling you a bridge in San Francisco, or a time share. Run away!

I'm going to let this bulked up weirdo sit for a couple of days before sending it off to my beta reader, but... almost ready now. I'll hit that "send" button soon.

🧐 I see no other #Wholesome memes and I have another writing sprint to start, so I shall simply sic Keanu and puppies on you all and begone. Better luck next time!

#Wholesome meme o'clock.

What's the best you've got? 👀

😂 If anyone needs mental eyewash for the hard, messy agony of real news...

May I recommend this (slightly adult) story from Reddit, about a kind of first-world crisis some of us are apparently dealing with while the world is on fire? 🙃

I can't tell if I laughed as hard as I did because of the awful global news I'd just read prior to it, but either way, maybe it'll lighten your day, too.

@NiveusLepus

🤗 The day after a hard one greets you, dear bun - and so do I.

I hope you find such gentleness in the world as you return to it today, at your own pace and in your own way.

Be kind to yourself always. Humans set the strangest, silliest timelines on healing - when we should definitely take after all the critters in the field, who know that to be here at all is a gift.

(As are you. 💜)