Topic: Illinois ladies facing bc

Sep 12, 2020 08:07AM IllinoisLady wrote:

Success is getting and achieving what you want.
Happiness is wanting and being content with what you get.
- Bernard Meltzer

Sep 14, 2020 07:53AM IllinoisLady wrote:

Thank someone for something. Go out of your way today to acknowledge the generosity of a person you know. It doesn't matter if you have known this man or woman your entire life, or have just met him or her and don't know if you will ever see the person again. Thanking them for a service rendered, or a favor given, or for help of some kind will enlarge your personal community to include yet another person. Thanking someone builds community as well as friendship. It makes even the most insignificant encounters, like a stranger holding the door for you at the deli, all the more meaningful. It's a way for two people who will probably never know each other's names to connect, even for a moment. -Alan Epstein

Sep 16, 2020 08:28AM IllinoisLady wrote:

Over the years I have come to believe that life is full of unchosen circumstances, that being human has to do with the evolution of our individual consciousness and with it, responsibilities for choice. Pain and joy both come with life. I believe that how we respond to what happens to us and around us shapes who we become and has to do with the psyche or the soul's growth.

Sep 18, 2020 08:27AM IllinoisLady wrote:

I have always disliked the idea that we are being "tested" by God when something awful happens to us. Bad things happen, and none of us are exempt from the possibility that they will come to us as well. I have pondered a different possibility inherent in crisis that in no way changes the fact that it is a genuine disaster: perhaps the events that devastate us carry within them seeds of spiritual "initiation" into a level of knowing we would not otherwise achieve. -Sallirae Henderson

Sep 20, 2020 12:23PM IllinoisLady wrote:

There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery
that enters into the soul and delights and elevates it,
and fills it with noble inclinations.
- Washington Irving

Sep 21, 2020 07:14PM - edited Sep 21, 2020 08:39PM by ChiSandy

Jackie, thank you so much for those inspirational quotes! Just when I begin to despair, they put things back into perspective.

And now a little levity for all my IL BCO sisters. You know how Los Angeles newscasts are obsessed with police vs. car chases? Well ABC7 Chicago broke into its newscast to show a guy on a horse trotting down the southbound (non-express) lanes of I-94, the Dan Ryan Expwy, during rush hour. He was flanked by a motorcycle escort in all lanes & shoulders to prevent cars from going around him. Police cars (city & state) were no match for him as he was able to weave in & out of several lanes. At one point, traffic was backed up almost 5 miles. Nobody knew what the heck this was about, until the equestrian live-Tweeted (using his phone, pointed at the road ahead of him) that he is (as I suspected) Chicago's famed and beloved "Dreadhead Cowboy" (who lives on the S. Side, keeps several horses at a suburban stable, and has one in his yard at any given time. He is a fixture at both peaceful demonstrations (especially against gang gun violence), parades, fests, large church picnics, etc. He gives neighborhood kids rides, and has even gone to parking lots of children's hospitals so that the ambulatory patients could get to see and even pet a horse/

He Tweeted that his ride was for "Kids' Lives Matter," the movement protesting the murders of children caught in the crossfire of gang warfare; as well as to call attention to the paucity of city services for kids in low-income neighborhoods. The bikers later said they flanked him to protect him and the horse from being mowed down by cars, and that they weren't necessarily protestors themselves at first. At several points, he brought the horse to a gallop as fast as 17mph, but finally ran out of steam at the 91st St exit to the service road along S. Lafayette Ave., and rode onto the grass, where he stopped, stood on the saddle, and then climbed down and put his hands behind his back for the state troopers to arrest him. People were petting the horse and leading it to a safer place away from traffic. We'll probably learn more--especially if the horse was returned to its stable or his backyard--on the 10pm news. His ride was over 7 miles long. Glad nobody (man or beast*) was hurt. It was mesmerizing to watch--for over 1/2 hr!

*Unfortunate update: the horse ("NuNu") was taken to Chi. Animal Control's facility, where vet techs discovered it had a hoof injury. Poor thing wasn't built to ride long distances on hard concrete.

Sep 22, 2020 01:06AM ChiSandy wrote:

Update: Adam Hollingsworth ("Dreadhead Cowboy") has been charged with creating a public nuisance, disobeying a police officer and state trooper, and trespass to state property. Another man who attempted to walk away with NuNu has been charged with attempted animal theft and disobeying an officer. NuNu has two injured hooves and saddle sores, for which she's being treated. Surprising that a guy who loves horses (and is a sort of urban ambassador for them) would allow this to happen. Mayor Lightfoot appeared with him earlier in the summer, dubbing him the Census Cowboy as they went into several low-income neighborhoods urging residents to fill out the census; but she condemned his freeway ride today as a dangerous stunt.

Sep 23, 2020 08:25AM IllinoisLady wrote:

Letting go can be a gentle process. Our trust in our Higher Power and our faith that good will prevail, in spite of appearances, eases the process. And we must let each experience end, as its moment passes, whether it is good or bad, love or sorrow. It helps to remember that all experiences contribute to our growth and wholeness. -unattributed

14 hours ago IllinoisLady wrote:

We humans think we are smart, but an orchid, for example, knows how to produce noble, symmetrical flowers, and a snail knows how to make a beautiful, well-proportioned shell. Compared with their knowledge, ours is not worth much at all. We should bow deeply before the orchid and the snail and join our palms reverently before the monarch butterfly and the magnolia tree. The feeling of respect for all species will help us to recognize the noblest nature in ourselves. -Thich Nhat Hanh