Some more photos tonight from my time in the French Quarter at Mardi Gras, 2016, enjoy and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane
Mardi Gras 2016: Street Musicians & Bead Tosses
Another set of shots from Mardi Gras 2016, have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane
Mardi Gras 2016: Street Musicians & Bead Tosses
Our weekly tour to bring you some positive and happy news, have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane
The Kentucky State House has just approved a fee community college plan
People are Hard Wired to be Kind and Generous
30 Powerful Truths that Will Change Your Life
Happy News – February 29, 2016
Happy News – February 22, 2016
Tonight the first batch of shots of street folks from Mardi Gras 2016 in New Orleans. Mostly daytime shots from the French Quarter, enjoy ~ Rev Kane
A shot I really like, a street poet set up near St. Louis Cathedral on Chartres.
Mardi Gras 2016: Street Musicians & Bead Tosses
Spring in the Mojave, flowers and snow in the Desert
From the end spring new beginnings ~ Pliny the Elder
So much on my mind tonight as I sit down for my weekly post, but first things first. Happy International Day of Happiness, and a really nice bit of synergy happy Spring Solstice as well. The following is a really amazing piece of writing by Deng Ming-Dao about the solstice.
It is the time of the equinox, when day and night are briefly equal. This day signals the beginning of spring, the increasing of light, and the return of life to the frozen earth.
Of course, this day only represents a moment in time, spring has been long since returning and we know that summer will soon follow. The cycle of the seasons will continue in succession. There is no such thing as a true stopping in time, for all is a continuum. Nature makes its own concordances a mere outgrowth to its movement; it is we who see structure and give names to patterns.
But who can begrudge temporary pleasures to a solitary traveler? Let us go out and enjoy the day, revel in the coming of spring, rejoice in the warming of the earth. For though the ground may be covered with frost, movement and growth are taking place all around us. Beauty bared fills our eyes and makes us drunk. As we wander the endless mountains and streams, filling our lungs with the breath of the forests, let us take comfort in being part of nature. For life has enough misery and misfortune. Philosophy reminds us enough of the transience of life. Give us the charm of the ephemeral, and let it silence all who would object.
I took this advice yesterday, I knew that today would be grey and rainy and so in the afternoon I took a stroll. It was a gorgeous day, warm, sunny along my path the rosemary and lavender bushes were in bloom and I took sprigs from each and rolled them in my had. The smells of spring surrounded me.
I had a lot on my mind on my walk, my Granny’s memorial service is coming up and it will be both a hard and wonderful day. Hard for the obvious reasons, wonderful for the people I’ll get to see. Family I don’t often see will be there, including my brother who I see far too infrequently. We’ll get to share a pizza, a joy for both of us living outside of New York.
I’m also trying to work out one last little adventure before I go back into the working world in June. Belize, Cuba, Key West and Hawaii have all been rolling through my mind and I need to make a decision tomorrow. Picking any of them is not hard, what’s hard is the realization that I’m back to a time when I can’t do all of them.
I’m also starting to get into moving mode, I have a start date, June 1st and now I have to do all of the things it takes to get me and all of my possessions 400 miles south and into a new living situation. I’ll be busy but happy, I’m looking forward to my newest beginning, the job sounds exciting and I get to explore the Mojave Desert and am close to adventures in Utah and Nevada.
So right now, my head is swimming with so much going on inside. It’s ground me to a halt physically and I’ve been a bit lazy this last week. My last hurrah for sleeping in and being a night owl, time to start adjusting back to more “normal” default world schedules.
We all go through this my friends, the wheel never stops turning. Each ending is but a new beginning, it’s spring again, the world is waking and growing and so should we. Take some time to get some sun on your nose and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
This night felt like a last hurrah, like we could blaze our brightest, at the apex of our insane adolescence. This was our Mardi Gras before the dark days of Lent. ~ Heather Demetrios
Tonight some more shots from Mardi Gras in New Orleans. First the anatomy of a bead toss.
First you beg for attention
Then they notice your friend
Then they throw her the beads
Some more bead tosses
Some shots of street musicians
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!NOLA: Krewe of the Bossom Buddies
Thank you readers, we have reached the 6000 follower mark at the Ministry of Happiness!
Rev Kane relaxing in the arctic snow flurries
I greatly appreciate your support, readership, likes and shares, hopefully we’re all having happier days because of what we do here my friends, thank you, thank you, thank you ~ Rev Kane
Appalachian Trail Happiness: What A Difference A Year Makes
Our weekly tour around the web to provide you with some positive news, enjoy.
Five headlines that will return your faith in humanity
Revolutionary stem cell surgery allows children to see!
Penguin swims 5,000 miles every year to visit man who saved it’s life
Happy News – February 29, 2016
Happy News – February 22, 2016
Happy News – February 15, 2016
Given our wacky elections system, a few Trump memes, enjoy.
Rev Kane (the hairy one) and my friend Jim Cooper who met me at the Hike Inn and hiked me into the AT on my first day last year.
Arriving at one goal is the starting to another ~ John Dewey
So last year at this time I was in my first week on the Appalachian Trail. It was an amazing time, here are my journal notes from that first day on the trail.
March 4th – My first day on the Appalachian Trail, pre-Springer non-counting miles. The most beautiful thing that I saw was an absolutely Tolkeinesque spot on the trail. I came around a corner and over a small rise to encounter a set of stone steps that were surrounded by bright green moss and ferns. Like a small piece of Middle Earth in the fog. It brought about an amazing feeling of satisfaction and calm. I learned that day that five miles on the Appalachian Trail with a forty plus pound pack is possible. What made me happy was just finally being on the trail, after months of preparation and thinking about it, after quitting my job, traveling across the country and making my way to Georgia I was finally doing it. That and the presence of my good friend Jim Cooper who had met me at the Len Foote, Hike Inn and hiked me in on my first day. All in all a fantastic day!
A little Middle-Earth in Georgia
You’ll have to wait for my book to come out in a couple of months to see the rest of my journey but it was one of the most wonderful and amazing times of my life. I am really missing the trail this week, my trail family and the overall trail community. I’ve seen a lot of posts from trail folks saying the same thing.
I wish the folks just heading out the best of weather, the best of luck and the best of times!
Me and Backtrack at camp the first week in Georgia
How the world has changed a year later.
Me and Backtrack in Texas, a month ago
Not exactly trail gear
So here we are in 2016 and fifteen months into my journey I’m looking for a job. I did a 1000 miles on the Appalachian Trail, photographed Polar Bears and watched the Northern Lights in the Arctic, Swam with Whale Sharks at the Georgia Aquarium and have finished the first draft of my AT book. Now I need to get back to work and I had my first interview this week. It was funny, on Monday, the day I interviewed, the temperature dropped in the desert, the wind came up, the clouds came in and I have to say it was almost the exact same weather I had that first day heading into the Hike Inn. I was homesick for the forest and feeling really great remembering those first few nervous days on the trail. I smiled all day at my interview.
I would get a special treat on the way out of the desert, a rainy winter has turned the floor of the Mojave into a carpet of flowers and that night we’d gotten snow in the mountains. So as I drove through the desert, paralleling a piece of the Pacific Crest Trail, I took this photo with my phone.
It was a good day of driving and if it wasn’t going to piss buckets in the valley and dump snow in the Sierras for the next 5 days, I would have found my way out onto a trail this weekend. Instead I’ll be content to keep editing the book and fondly remembering Georgia.
Have a happy day my friends and happy trails ~ Rev Kane
Appalachian Trail Happiness: Precious Moments
Quitting the Appalachian Trail
