Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Photo Challenge – Change

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Change.”

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower”

Albert Camus

National GOLD STAR MOTHER’S DAY

Each year on the last Sunday in September, America celebrates National Gold Star Mother’s Day, also known as National Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day.

National Gold Star Mother’s Day is a day that was created to recognize and honor those that have lost their son or daughter while serving our country in the United States Armed Forces.

A gold star symbolizes a family member who died in the line of duty while serving the United States Armed Forces.

2013 – President Issues Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day Proclamation

“In our city centers and our bustling parks, monuments stand dedicated to visionary leaders and singular moments in the life of our Republic. But in empty seats at family dinners and folded flags above the mantle, we find the constant thread of our Nation’s character — the truth that America endures because it is home to an unbroken line of patriots willing to lay down their lives for the land they love. As we honor the men and women who gave their last full measure of devotion, we hold close the families left behind.” http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=120864

For more information on American Gold Star Mothers and National Gold Star Mother’s  Day, see:

http://www.goldstarmoms.com/

CELEBRATE

Use #GoldStarMother’sDay to post on social media.

HISTORY

The American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. was incorporated in 1929 and obtained a federal charter from the United States Congress.  It began in the Washington DC area and soon expanded to include affiliated groups throughout the United States.

On June 23, 1936, a joint congressional resolution designated the last Sunday in September as Gold Star Mother’s Day and this holiday has been observed each year by a presidential proclamation.

DATES
September 27, 2015
September 25, 2016
September 24, 2017
September 30, 2018

NATIONAL COMIC BOOK DAY – I saw this and had to post I just love The Big Bang Theory Show

Every year on September 25, comic book readers, collectors, lovers and fans celebrate National Comic Book Day.

Also called a comic magazine, a comic book is a publication, first popularized in the United States, of comic art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes.  The panels are often accompanied by a descriptive prose and written narrative, usually dialog contained in word balloons emblematic of the comics art form.

In 1933, a comic book, Famous Funnies, appeared in the United States and is believed to be the first real comic book.  It was a reprinting of earlier newspaper comic strips which had established many of the story telling devices used in comics.

The term “comic book” got its name as the first book sold as a book reprinted of humor comic strips.  

Despite their name, comic books are not all humorous in tone and actually feature stories in all genres.

Comics as a print medium have actually existed in America since the printing of The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck in 1842 in hardcover, making it the first known American comic book.

In 1896, a comic-book magazine was published in the United States featuring The Yellow Kid in a sequence titled “McFadden’s Row of Flats”.  The 196 page book, which was a black and white publication, measured 5 x 7 inches and sold for 50 cents.

People who collect comic books are known as pannapictagraphists.

OBSERVE

Pick up a comic book to read and use #NationalComicBookDay to post on social media.

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Weekly Photo Challenge – Grid

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Grid.”

We often superimpose a mental grid over things we photograph to help with composition. This week, let’s go literal.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Connected

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Connected.”

This week, show us how two (or more) things — people, objects, places — come together.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Monochromatic

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Monochromatic.”

This week, share with us your monochromatic images. Be calculating and creative in choosing your subject and focal point; resist the urge to simply take a photo of something with a single color range.

My Pic of the Week

I have started coloring for stress and relaxation. It is the new thing adults are doing.

Coloring is an activity that we tend to associate with children. As we grow older, we put aside our crayons and colored pencils in favor of more respectable writing utensils like pens and highlighters. However, it turns out coloring can be beneficial for adults — namely for its de-stressing power.

The practice generates wellness, quietness and also stimulates brain areas related to motor skills, the senses and creativity. In fact, publishers have lately been launching coloring books specifically for adults. The trend is alive and well in countries in Europe and North America.

Does Coloring Really De-stress?

One of the first psychologists to apply coloring as a relaxation technique was Carl G. Jüng in the early 20th century. He did this through mandalas: circular designs with concentric shapes similar to the Gothic churches’ rose windows. They have their origin in India.

When coloring, we activate different areas of our two cerebral hemispheres, says psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala. “The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination necessary to make small, precise movements]. The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress.”

In simplest terms, coloring has a de-stressing effect because when we focus on a particular activity, we focus on it and not on our worries. But it also “brings out our imagination and takes us back to our childhood, a period in which we most certainly had a lot less stress.” This leads us immediately and unconsciously to welfare, exposes the specialist.

“I recommend it as a relaxation technique,” says psychologist Antoni Martínez. “We can use it to enter into a more creative, freer state,” he assures. We can also use it to connect with how we feel, since depending on our mood we choose different colors or intensity. “I myself have practiced that. I recommend it in a quiet environment, even with chill music. Let the color and the lines flow.”

For more information about adult coloring..

Wordless Wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday