Her Doing

Lovely Peeps! Your cool #history for the day! 🚀 (You might want to watch with sound off. The music has words & I found it difficult to hear the music, read the text, AND focus on the signing.) If you want to just enjoy the signing, the full text is within this post. 😊 "Everyone’s talking about Artemis II. The first humans to travel to the moon in 50 years. Historic mission. But nobody’s talking about the #Deaf men who made it possible. In the late 1950s, #NASA had a problem. They needed to understand what weightlessness does to the human body. But every test subject kept getting violently motion sick. So they came to #Gallaudet. Eleven Deaf men. Most of them had lost their hearing to spinal meningitis as children, which also damaged their vestibular system. Their inner ears couldn’t be overwhelmed. They were immune to motion sickness. NASA put them in centrifuges. Zero-gravity flights. A rotating room for twelve straight days. One experiment on a ferry in choppy Nova Scotia waters. The researchers got so seasick they had to cancel it. The Gallaudet Eleven? They were playing cards. Their bodies gave NASA the data it needed to send humans into space. No #Gallaudet_Eleven — no Mercury. No Mercury — no Apollo. No Apollo — no Artemis II. Sixty years later, four astronauts just flew 252,000 miles from Earth & came home safely. They stood on the shoulders of eleven Deaf men most people have never heard of. Now you know!" #Artemis2 #ASL #History #TIL #Nyle_di_Marco

Hello Lovely Peeps!

The last two days have been grand, but #today it is time to incorporate it all into my ordinary life and keep going - rearranging the pantry for the new supplies, catching up on housework, 😄 & just generally getting back to my ordinary life.

And all that feels possible *because* the last two days have been so good; it has given me a boost to be able to keep going under my own power.

I am so thankful for so much, Lovely Peeps. I know the last two days have *not* been good for a lot of people, just because of sheer anxiety, if nothing else.

(It happens here too, I just don't talk about it in public.)

But in the past couple of days, small & big anxieties were relieved, connections were made and strengthened, encouragement exchanged, and very much 'Ooh, this is excellent, how can I pass this on?'

It is easier to 'chop wood, carry water' when you have a good day every so often. 🙏

AND it is a sunny day here, which is just the icing on the cake. 🌞

I do have IRL heavy-duty stuff I must do this week, so I won't be around much until the weekend - but I will check in as often as I can!

May you all have a good day, Lovelies - filled with people and small things that encourage you and bring you joy. 💛

RE: @Impossible_PhD@hachyderm.io

As she says elsewhere: "Today is #TransDayOfVisibility, & I fight to be as visible as I can every day, b/c other people's visibility saved my ... life, but more importantly because being trans is ... beautiful.

Let me repeat that.

Being trans is ... beautiful.

I wouldn't want to be any other way.

I hope your Trans Day of Visibility today is fierce and joyful.

When we're visible, we win. Always."

#TDOV

Alt-text:

"Selfie photo of a woman, body directed left, but facing the camera. She has red hair in a short, asymmetrical cut, & is wearing a form-fitting red top almost the same colour as her hair, but a little darker.

She is also wearing long, dangling earrings of five hearts joined together in the trans colours of blue, pink, white, pink, blue, & a pin of small white dragon (I think) with wings in the trans colours as well.

She mostly fills the frame, but you can tell she is standing at the top of stairs inside a home, because we can see a bit of the foyer with the front door & light brightly shining in from side windows.

She has simple-looking, but excellent makeup, her lipstick matching her top, and a smile that reads as settled in herself & well-contented.

Although probably not planned, the juxtaposition of her very prominently in the foreground, & the door clearly seen 'behind' her in the far background seems to say "If you are thinking you are trans, wondering about coming out and if things could be better, follow me & you, too, could have this life".

Dear Lovely Peeps, for anyone who might appreciate this #Today

Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.

But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m travelling
a terrific distance.

Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.

From A Thousand Mornings, #Poems by #MaryOliver, p. 23
Published by Penguin Books 2013
© 2012 by NW Orchard LLC #Poetry

From @joannechocolat@mastodon.online

Rani Lakshmibai was a leading figure of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British rule.

Born in 1828, she became the queen of #Jhansi after marrying the king, was widowed at a young age and refused to surrender to the British, leading her own army in the rebellion.

#CelebratingWomen #Rani_Lakshmibai #India

From @joannechocolat@mastodon.online

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 7:
If you find it hard to get into the zone, you may need a sensory trigger.

A “getting ready” song on your phone; a square of dark chocolate; a special scent; a series of movements.

See which one works best, and keep using it. It will work faster every time you do.

#UnsolicitedWritingAdviceByJoanneHarris

Hello, Lovely Peeps! I saw this last night & thought it was brilliant - am posting in case it can help anyone! 😃

During the last year of Najma Omar’s doctoral program in occupational therapy, her prof asked them to think about tools that hadn’t yet been invented to help people — but should exist.

She thought about her sister, who struggled with finding a hijab that could help with her noise sensitivity without adding a lot of weight or increasing pressure around her ears, which headphones or earmuffs did, and developed the 'SereniHijab' (Serenity Hijab), made of lightweight fabric, and padding inserted into the hijab covers the ears just enough that loud sounds aren’t as overwhelming.

'For Najma, the SereniHijab isn’t just a business. It’s a mission.

“Islam teaches ease, compassion, accommodation and meeting people where they are at. Designing a hijab that considers sensory needs is an extension of that. It’s honoring faith while also honoring someone’s sensory needs and neurology,” she said.

“It’s making sure that all women like my sister don’t have to choose between their comfort and then their identity.” '

Expected to launch in May, the first drop ... 'will have 100 pieces, including 50 pull-on hijabs & 50 headcap and scarf sets. After that, the Sereni team will offer pre-order availability.'

https://sahanjournal.com/business-work/sensory-friendly-sereni-hijab/

#ActuallyAutistic #Muslim #Sensory #SensoryFriendly #SensoryIssues #Hijab #SereniHijab #NoiseSensitivity