The Passing of a Generation

On September 25, 2018September 26, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Diary

This has been a difficult couple of weeks. About ten days ago, I found out that my Great Aunt Inga in Sweden passed on at the age of 98. Last week, one of our cats, Naomi, who was about 15 years old, had a sudden seizure. There was nothing for the vet to do but to end her misery. From the way her eyes moved, the vet said that it was likely a brain tumor. Just four days before that, I had written an article here featuring her. A few days ago, we found out that a great uncle of my spouse through marriage also passed. I only met him once, but he is the last of that generation to go in both of our families. My Great Uncle Bengt in Sweden passed a few months ago at the age of 84, and my spouse’s Great Aunt Gerry passed earlier this year as well.

As anyone who has read this blog would probably know, I was very close to my grandmother, who passed about three years ago. Mormor was the fourth of five children, but Inga and Bengt were her closest siblings in age and in her heart. Inga was five years older than her, and Bengt was nine years younger. They both visited us in the United States several times. I also got to see them in Sweden when my grandmother took me there at the age of 17 to celebrate my great-grandmother’s 95th birthday. To be honest, though, I knew them the best through my grandmother’s stories.

Young Inga and Bengt — Big Sister Inga and Lilla Bengt

Mormor would talk about her childhood all of the time, and Inga and Bengt were frequent characters in her stories. Apparently, Inga more well behaved than Mormor was. Mormor would talk about how her father liked Inga better because Inga was always so good, but her mother liked Mormor better because she was mischievous like her. When Mormor was growing up in a little rural town in Skåne, the southernmost part of Sweden, she attended a one room schoolhouse with one teacher. According to Mormor, their teacher always asked her why couldn’t she be more like Inga.

Mormor, Gamla Mormor, and Inga.jpg — Mormor, my Great Grandmother, and Great Aunt Inga

She had many, many more stories of her rivalry with her older sister, but you could tell how much she loved her. She would talk on the phone with Inga frequently, even when international long distance calls were very expensive. She would tell her sister about her problems and would seek her advice. Inga was one of the few people she would actually listen to.

Mormor and Bengt.jpg — Mormor and Great Uncle Bengt

My Great Uncle Bengt was Mormor’s baby brother. Up until the day she died, she called him Lilla (Little) Bengt with a big smile on her face. I always enjoyed when he would come to visit us. He was a lot of fun. One time he visited my grandmother when he was in his 60’s, while she was still living on the North Side of Chicago. He took the bus to the Museum of Science and Industry, which was about 15 miles away on the South Side of the city. Going back, he decided to take a stroll along Lake Michigan. It was a nice day, apparently. This stroll ended up with him walking all the way back to Mormor’s house!

Mormor's first visit home.jpg — Mormor with her parents and all of her siblings

There was something sure and solid about that generation. I always seemed to connect better with them than I did with my parent’s generation or even my own. They lived through a world with many changes. Whenever a new invention would come out, Mormor would talk about how she remembered when they invented toilet paper and Scotch tape. With the last of them gone in my family, it feels like a dependable rock or pillar has been shaken loose. A firm foundation has cracked, and the world has become more precarious and uncertain without them.

Tabby Time

On September 14, 2018September 18, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Cats, Diary

In my last article on this site, I talked a great deal about our black and white cats, our oldest, Allie, and our youngest, Cookie. We have two other cats, and it occurred to me that they might be jealous, so I will feature them now in this article.

Our second oldest cat is Naomi. She is now about 15 years old.

20180914_134222 — Naomi, helping me to write this article right now

She is a shy, sweet girl. She came to us when she was about 10 months old. Our oldest cat at the time, Sassy, had to go to the vet on a regular basis for a chronic health condition.

2007-08-18 22.08.52 — Sassy, near the end of his life. He was a good boy.

Naomi was living at the vet at the time, looking for a forever home. She was always hiding in the litter box. Every time, my spouse would want to say hello to her, which I thought was dangerous. Eventually, I gave in and said that we could meet her and see what she was like. She sat in my arms with her head snuggled in my elbow. She came home with us that day.

2007-08-18 22.28.40 — Naomi, at about 4 years of age

When she was younger, she and Allie had a difficult time getting along with each other for quite a long time. It seems that they have come to an understanding recently. It seems that for cats as well as for people, differences seem less important the older they get.

20171130_155939 — The whole family together last December

The large orange cat in the lower left hand corner of the bed is our second youngest cat, Sunshine. He is now about 10 years old.

20180914_143611 — Sunshine, posing for the camera right now

He was actually the only cat who came to us when we were intentionally trying to increase our furry family. For a time Allie and Naomi were our only cats, and as I said, at that time, they did not like each other very much. Allie is quite the extrovert, while Naomi is very much an introvert. We thought if Allie had another companion, she would bother Naomi less.

2009-05-18 22.10.46-2 — Sunshine, around 6 months after he arrived at our house

We went to PetSmart, which was having an adoption weekend, and we did not find anyone. As we were about to leave, we saw a corner in which we had not yet looked. Far in that corner was a young, orange cat who reached out his paw and touched me. When we brought him home, he came in like he owned the place, and both Allie and Naomi acted almost as if they knew him. We think he might be a reincarnation of Sassy.

2009-05-02 22.51.19-2 — Poor Naomi. Siblings can be a bit of a bother.

This past summer, another orange tabby started coming around. We named him Romeo, because he would meet our youngest girl, Cookie on our balcony through the window. Eventually we started feeding him, and he became quite friendly.

We were quite worried as to what to do with him. We would have loved to bring him in, but our house is already filled to capacity with kitties. As it turned out, a friend of a friend who had a farm needed another cat to work in the barn keeping mice away. He now lives with 3 girl cats and as of last report, he has adjusted and is doing well.

UPDATE

9/18/18

Our little Naomi had a seizure earlier today, and when we took her to the vet, all they could do was to end her misery. For such a little cat, she has left a big empty space in our home and in our hearts.

Rest in Peace, Naomi

Reflections on Time

On September 7, 2018September 7, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Cats, Diary, Philosophy/Metaphysics, Ponderings and Reflections, Time

Time is an interesting thing. I have been thinking a lot about time recently. In the Filianic calender, we have just entered Autumn, and the Autumnal Equinox is just around the corner. Traditionally, this is when we reflect on our lives and where we are going.

This has been a strange year for me. Spring started late, and the summer has been very hot. I have been busy working on building my blogs and trying to develop my astrology practice, so I have not really been able to keep up with the garden. As a result, there is not much in the way of a harvest this year. It has been over 5 years since I closed my former business and almost 3 years since my grandmother passed away. I have spent much of that time heavily immersed in studying Japanese, and this year seems to be a slow reentry into the outside world.

It is easy to become filled with regret over things that might have been, if only… If only I had done this. If only I had not done that. Of course, there is nothing that can be done about the past. To the extent that we have Free Will, it is limited to the present moment, as least as far as we can tell.

The Arrow of Time

I think that one of the most interesting things about time is that it flows in only one direction. This is why we can only make choices about the present. For us, the past is settled. There is nothing we can do to change it in the present. The future is not yet. The choices we made in the past impact our present. The choices we make now will impact the future. Even so, we do not have the ability to know our future choices.

Time flows from the past, goes through the present, and continues on into the future. This is probably one of the very few things in this world about which everyone, everywhere would agree. Actually, if we met aliens from far away in a distant galaxy, it is almost certain that they would also agree. It is pretty amazing I think.

On an astrological and metaphysical level, time is governed by the Saturnian principle, and it is deeply intertwined with manifestation. On a scientific level, it is said that the reason time flows they way it does has something to do with the Big Bang at the beginning of this universe.

All of this supposedly relates to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, which states that in a closed system, entropy always remains the same or increases. It never decreases on its own. Entropy is a fancy word for disorder. This is why rooms do not clean themselves, it seems. The natural state of a room will be either to remain the same or to become disordered. It takes an outside force, i.e., someone cleaning the room, to create order again.

Speaking of Disorder

If entropy is the disorder of the universe, then cats seem to be furry bundles of entropy. I guess humans are too, although they are not so furry. My cats have been reminding me of the passage of time recently. It has been a year since our youngest cat, Cookie, came to us, and she was about 4 months old at the time.

20170925_171748 — Cookie, when she first came to live with us

It is hard to believe that there was a time, not so long in the past, in which she did not exist in this world as herself. At the time she came to us, she was so little that our other three cats looked huge next to her.

20171023_170421 — Cookie with our oldest cat, Allie

It has been about 20 years since our oldest cat came to live with us. At the time, my spouse was in seminary and studying Koine Greek. She had learned the word, Aletheia, which means Truth. I thought that word was so pretty that I had wanted to name someone that. Shortly after I had that thought, a 10 month old kitten came up to us on the street with an infected sore on her face. My spouse picked her up and brought her to the vet. She has lived with us ever since. As it happened, she is the one who got the name Aletheia, or Allie, for short.

20171120_083757 — Allie and her protegee

Allie has been a mischievous, but wonderful, companion for such a long time. Recently, her health has been declining, though. I know that I will have to face the time in the not so distant future when she will no longer be with us.

20180425_135238 — Allie and Cookie in the Spring of this year

In the Buddhist tradition, it is said that all is suffering, and one of the forms of suffering is due to the temporary nature of the material world. Eventually, we will be separated from everyone we love, at least in this world. There are so many who are not here with me now in the present, my grandmother, my grandfather, human friends, kitty and doggy friends, and so on.

20180906_234008 — Cookie, just last night

My little nephew is now all grown up and has left home; our adorable little kitten is now a full grown cat. She still acts a lot like a kitten, though, and I have to say it is nice that she is no longer quite as active as she was when she first came to live with us. Time marches on, I suppose.

The Summer – Weeding and Watering

On August 14, 2018August 14, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Diary, Gardening, Seasons, Summer

Gardening is a lot of fun in the Spring. Everything is new, and we are making plans for the coming season. Seedlings are quite adorable, I think. All is lovely, happy, and hopeful. Then the problems start. Weeds grow, animals come and eat the plants, bugs come and eat the plants, the plants get diseases, there is too much rain, there is too little rain, and the list goes on and on.

This year, I got a late start on the garden. This was in part because of the weather and in part because I was incredibly busy. I continued to be busy through the Summer, and this year was unusually hot. I have been having trouble getting up early enough in the morning to avoid the heat, so my gardening has been limited to the evening when I can get to it.

Needless to say, I have not had much of a garden this year. The weeds are doing very well, though.

Weeds are an interesting dilemma, aren’t they? There are some plants that are considered weeds that are really quite useful, such as dandelions and violets. Usually, weeds are just plants that naturally grow in the area. Some weeds are quite lovely. There are some people who like and appreciate weeds for these reasons.

All that being said, if you want to have a garden, you really do need to decide the plants you want and the plants that you do not. It is a sad, cruel fact of life that there are limited resources. Most of the work of the summer is watering and caring for the plants you want and weeding out the plants that you do not.

In the Filianic Tradition, the Summer Solstice celebration is Rosa Mundi, or the Rose of the World. This is a fire festival, and in particular a festival for outside bonfires. One tradition of this holiday is to write down a trait or a fault that you wish to free yourself of and throw it into the fire. In a sense, this seems to me to be a weeding of one’s own heart.

The first year that I tried gardening, I weeded a little bit here and a little bit there, but I never seemed to accomplish anything. Last year, I realized that it was better to take a section at a time, no matter how small, and weed that area as completely as possible. With that in mind, I took on Maria-sama’s garden this evening, once it had cooled down a bit.

It is not perfect, but a whole lot better, I think. It actually did not take that long, and I have a nice sense of accomplishment.

Maybe that will inspire me to do another section tomorrow.

Garden Update

On May 28, 2018May 28, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Diary, Gardening, Seasons, Spring

日本語版　 Svensk version

This year, the spring was cold and so I got a late start with the garden. The garden will probably be small, but some things are growing. Most importantly, Ulla’s rose is doing well.

The little rose is also doing well.

The little apple tree we moved last year is growing big and strong.

There are baby apples on the big apple tree.

Potatoes and cucumbers are also growing.

We seem to have a new friend. His name is Romeo.

Fairy Tea – Tasty Springtime Allergy Relief

On May 9, 2018May 10, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Diary, Gardening, Herbal Remedies, Recipes4 Comments

I have an extremely cold and wet temperament, and every year around this time, early to mid May through late June, early July, I suffer from severe springtime allergies. The only over-the-counter medicine that ever really worked for me was Claritin. Actually, Benadryl also works, but it puts me right to sleep, so I can only take it at night. Last year, I discovered an interesting use for the wild violets that grow like weeds in the yard….well, I guess technically they are weeds.

It seems that violets can be used an expectorant and is often useful for congestion due to allergies. According to Culpepper’s Complete Herbal, they are cold and moist and of the nature of Venus. According Hildegard of Bingen’s Physica, as translated by Priscilla Throop, they are between hot and cold, or more specifically, “Although, [they are] cold, [they grow] from the [mild, gentle] air which after winter is beginning to warm up.”

I tried them last year along with Claritin, and they seemed to help. Last year, I did not learn of it until the violets were almost through flowering, so I mostly used the leaves. There are several poisonous lookalikes to violets, so to be safe, it is probably best to only harvest violets when they are in flower. I had seen the violets flowering, and I had been weeding them all along, so I was fairly confident I was using the right plant. I was also using the violets from my own garden, so I knew they had not been sprayed with insecticide or herbicide.

I used the violet leaves in an infusion, but I did not care for the flavor, I have to admit. It did not have a bad flavor, but to me, the violet leaf infusion tasted a little grassy by itself. So, I started to experiment with other plants and flowers, and every day it would be a little different, based on what was available when I was doing my gardening. When I told a friend about this, she said that it sounded like my ingredients came from fairies, and I agreed, so I began to call it my fairy tea.

Between my fairy tea and Claritin, I had little to no breakthrough allergy symptoms last year. So, this year, as my annual spring allergies have begun, I am trying it again. I have not started taking Claritin yet, so we will see how it goes over the next couple of weeks. Even if it does not completely control my allergies, it is nice cooling substitute for my second cup of coffee in the morning as the weather is getting warmer.

This year, I have developed a recipe of a sort. Raspberry leaves have a nice flavor, a bit like black tea, but without the caffeine. The flavor of the raspberry leaves blends very nicely with the violet leaves, moderating the grassy flavor. They are best when they are bright green with a reddish tinge, before the plants begin to bloom. Early spring was quite cold here this year, so everything is blooming a little later, including the violets, and there are violet flowers available now, which have a lovely sweet flavor to them. Violet flowers also freeze nicely. A trick I have learned is to freeze them first separately on a flat surface before putting them together in a container. That makes it easy to take just a few from the container.

I also add a little peppermint for flavor. I planted some peppermint last year, and this year it is coming back and growing like a weed. Luckily I like the flavor of peppermint, so I hope I can keep up with it. Violets also have a bit of a laxative effect, and peppermint seems to moderate that.

Lastly, I add a few rose petals. Rose has a nice flavor, and according to St. Hildegard, increases the effectiveness of all plants used for medicinal purposes. From a metaphysical perspective, this makes a lot of sense, as roses are the archetypal flower, or the Queen of Flowers. The roses in my garden have not bloomed yet, but I still have some dried rose petals left over from last year.

Last year, I had planted a few chamomile plants, and chamomile is also a nice addition if you have it. I find that a little chamomile smooths and blends the flavors. I thought that chamomile was a perennial, but so far, I do not see any signs of it coming back this year. I have a little dried chamomile from last year, but it is almost gone.

So, we will see how my little experiment goes this year. I really do hope to avoid Claritin and Benedryl if I can. They always make me feel a little funny.

Mormor’s Backporch

On April 30, 2018April 16, 2019 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Diary

My grandmother, or Mormor, in Swedish, was one of the most important people in my life for many reasons, not the least of which was that she was able to solve any problem one might have. She could find creative solutions for everything. When I was growing up, she had a house in Chicago with the most amazing backporch. When I used to play Dungeons & Dragons in college, one of the magical items was a Bag of Many Things. This was a magical bag that held a seemingly infinite amount of items. Mormor’s backporch was like that.

I have had several careers over my lifetime before I made the decision to do what I love and become an astrologer. One of those careers was as a teacher. When I was a student teacher, I lived with Mormor. Whenever I needed something for a class, all I had to do was to ask her, and she would go to her backporch, bring out various items and contrive them together into the exact thing that I needed. It was truly magical and amazing. When I moved out into my own apartment, I was able to leave with many things I needed, including a dining room table, from the treasures on her backporch.

When Mormor moved from her house in Chicago, she got rid of many of her belongings, so her new backporch no longer had the same sorts of material treasures. She still had a back porch, however, and the new back porch held treasures of a different sort. Mormor would often sit on her backporch, and it was there that her and I had some of our best conversations, about all sorts of things.

I started the site which is now called, The Wisdom of our Grandmothers, which was intended as an all purpose blog for my astrology business as well as all of my other interests. I then gathered my writings from various blogs through the years, and as it so happened, there was quite a varied assortment. Thinking that for an astrology practice, I ought to have a site that was much more focused, I started the site, The Stars Within Their Courses. Yet, even after that, I thought that the Wisdom site might a little too scattered and unfocused for readers, particularly as on that site, I want to explore deep issues with respect to feminine tradition and question some underlying assumptions in astrology.

So, I started this site for articles about all of my varied interests, from Anime, to knitting and crocheting, to gardening, to language studies and so forth and so forth. At times, if I am feeling brave, I may write in Japanese, and if I am feeling exceptionally brave, I may write in Swedish.

I hope you enjoy this blog.

よろしくお願いします。

Spring is Finally Here…I Hope

On April 11, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Diary, Gardening, Seasons2 Comments

Spring has been slow in starting this year in Northern Illinois. It has been quite cold these last several weeks, and a few days ago, we even had a little snow.

But, today, at last, we are having a warm, sunny and beautiful day, and the weather forecast looks like it will be relatively nice all week. I was finally able to do a little work in the garden this afternoon.

But despite the difficult weather, the show must go on, and the early spring flowers and plants have been doing their job in the first act of the yearly performance.

The crocuses dutifully announced it was Spring, and they were quickly followed by the daffodils.

The new rose we planted last year does not look like much now.

But it looks like she has survived the winter and is starting to come back to life.

My aunt bought another rose for the other side of the front yard, but she does not look like much either yet. She is starting to come to life as well though.

However, the miniature rose that my grandmother left behind is starting to take off.

It looks like we will have rhubarb again this year.

As the perennial flowers and plants have been busy doing their jobs, I thought I ought to do mine. I have started the tomatoes and peppers indoors, and they are starting to sprout. Most of the sprouts are too small for a photo….except for this little precocious one, who started to sprout within a day or so of my planting the seeds.

Now, let’s hope the weather stays nice for a little longer.

Anki Woes

On April 8, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Diary, Language Learning, Learning Japanese, Learning Latin, Learning Swedish, SRS/Anki

I have spent the last several days working feverishly on this blog. I have had a sudden burst of creativity, and I have learned the hard way that I need to act on those bursts when they come, even if they seem to come at inconvenient times. If I hold them off while I do other things that seem more important at the time, when I try to sit down and write later, I no longer have anything to say. Articles come when they come, and if I do not seize the opportunity when it comes, it is usually lost. So, this time when inspiration came, I followed its lead.

2018-04-08 13.03.57 The problem is that in doing so, I fell behind in my Anki. For those of you who are not familiar with Anki, it is a Spaced Repetition Software (SRS) program to help a person memorize information. In other words, it is a fancy, electronic version of old-school flashcards. I believe that Anki was one of the first SRS programs developed for large scale use. The name Anki is a Japanese word, 暗記 (あんき), which literally means, rote memoriziation. It is extremely useful for language learning. I have used it for years to learn Japanese, and I am now using it to learn Latin. I also use it a little for Swedish, although for Swedish, I primarily use Duolingo. These type of programs are called Spaced Repetition Software because they repeat the cards at various intervals based on how well you do on the card. These intervals are supposedly set using algorithms based on scientific studies of how the brain remembers things. I honestly have no idea how these algorithms work, but it is nice to have the software decide how often I should see a card, and electronic flashcards do not make a mess in my house like paper ones do.

This is all well and good, and I know that Anki is useful. I do not think I would have learned Japanese without it. I certainly would not have learned to write kanji without it. It is also the only way I am able to learn all of the ridiculously complicated endings in Latin. By the way, learning Latin is making me appreciate Japanese more than ever. Still, despite its usefulness, I find Anki incredibly boring. What is worse, due to the nature of Spaced Repetition Software, if you fall behind on Anki, your reviews start building up, just like laundry and dishes. In just a few days of neglecting my Anki, I woke up this morning with about 380 cards due. Sigh.

I have considered abandoning Anki altogether in order to free up more time for immersion. That is actually a constant temptation, but I have found that my Anki repetitions do make my immersion more effective and useful, because I do better at recognizing vocabulary in my immersion if I have reviewed the words in Anki. Just like exercise, I would love for Anki to be ineffective, but sigh, I know it works. So, as I would say in Japanese, しょうがない, shou ga nai (it can’t be helped).

I have also tried breaking up my Anki in smaller chunks throughout the day rather than doing it all at once. That is actually what I am doing today. That does work to a certain extent, and even if I do not get them all done during the day, it still helps with the problem of build-up.

2018-04-08 14.24.43 I have tried making my cards pretty by changing the background to pink, and I have added pictures, particularly to words that I have found hard. I am currently ruthlessly deleting “leeches,” to cut down my number of daily reviews. A friend of mine had the best definition for “leeches” that I have heard, which are “cards that you get wrong so many times, the program takes them away before you hurt yourself.” I used to revive and reschedule them, but now I am deleting most of them, and I am only reviving the ones that are truly important.

I considered trying different software. Anki was one of the first programs, but there are now many others that supposedly have more bells and whistles, like Quizlet and TinyCards. In consulting with another friend of mine about switching software, she responded “SRS is boring period.” She has a point. I use Duolingo for Swedish, and it has lots of bells and whistles to make it as game-like as possible, but I have to admit, I still find it boring. So, I doubt that switching programs would really help, and I dread the idea of trying to move years of progress to a new program.

So, here we are. I do not really have any solution. Today, I am coping by complaining here on my blog.

So, how about you? Do you use Anki? Do you find it boring? Has anyone found a way to make it more interesting?

Mormor’s Rose

On April 5, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Diary

日本語版 Svensk version

Three years ago, my grandmother planted a rose in the spring.

SAMSUNG

She carefully tended it through the summer.

Mormor's Rose

This picture was taken that fall at her 90th birthday. The rose seemed to be saying “Happy Birthday!”

Mormor passed away about a month after her birthday. I miss her terribly, but I am very lucky to have had such an amazing grandmother.

Mormor's Backporch

Category: Diary