Thank you for yet another wonderful beginning to Saturday. Raining here again after a few days of sun. Love looking through the leaves when they sparkle with prisms.

The sun will come out again.

Be well, be safe and be of good cheer.

(watched Bernie’s chat yesterday - still holding out for a sea change)

...a new world indeed. The changes are odd, but will become a new normal. No music session last night. No trade day this morning. Been doing all those housekeeping tasks that are always put off...like window washing, reorganizing cabinets, and so on. The garden grows and the seasonal wheel continues to turn with lovely blooms reminding us of the true beauty of the natural world. Couldn't ask for a better gardening season with rains almost daily and mild temps.

Spring festivals have been canceled. A gig-less spring is something new. Jimmy Dore's tag has changed, explaining he has no live gigs.

This is a time to breathe and reflect on what is important...be at peace friends.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

The Silence is Deafening
Looking outside
I see no cars
racing to and fro
taking kids to soccer
taking baby to the doctor
stopping to chat with friends
the silence is deafening.

Sitting in isolation
wondering about my world
how different it has become.
Looking out to the west
no one looking back, at best
I can visit online
but that human connection
is gone and never
will be the same
the silence is deafening.

The crashing is all around
stocks fall
systems fail
people die
the silence is deafening.

Thank you for formatting The Dawn of a New World so beautifully. You inspire me, smiley. Thank you for Spring by Vivaldi this morning. It is going to be a beautiful spring day here in the Land of Enchantment. We got rain the last two days. Leaves are out along the Rio Grande - we're two-three weeks behind them, but it's coming as the trees have swelled with their sap running up and forming their beautiful buds.

Stay safe and be well, dear friends. Enjoy your Saturday!

poetry fest, nothing has emerged from my subunconscious and it is not a thing i can will and then sit and do. I envy those of you with the gift. As of last night we had planned to sneak out today to the farmers' market for a few necessaries and maybe also a regular grocery for a few more. It is a risk, especially if we both go, for if we both get ill, then neither one of us will be a fit caregiver. All the same, it is a chance to score some nice fresh salmon, and we are horribly low on onions, spuds, and a few other fresh items and could stand to hit the meat counter for some roasts and chickens and such, the types of things that one can cook once and then eat from for many days. We can also hit the water dispenser for a gallon of purified water, out tap water isn't good for our sourdough starters due to the chloramines and other stuff therein.

No rain today, unlike magi, so we can maybe get out into the garden again. The bird feeders need attention again too.

take care of yourself and have a good one.

EDITED to fix typos 08:08

A most welcome selection for this weary soul. Saw most of his work at the Musee d'Orsay years ago but cannot recall this one. Interesting how different works of art strike us at different times. I remember looking at one of his pieces, a very simple painting of a chair, and I cried. Who knows why art touches us the way it does. A good thing, no? Thank you for the quiet moment, the Van Gogh, and the reminder of the beauty around us. You couldn't have chosen a more perfect piece of art to fit the mood. Be well, my dear Smiley.

slept very late this morning, the coffee was good, the call from my friend to just ask if I needed anything.
I have this small network of a dozen or so friends. We support each other every which way but loose.
That is the perfect way to start a day.
It is in the low 50's, raining, and I have to rifle through the closet to find a heavy sweater.
I have a couple of errands, then will come home and not go to work.
That is so strange!
I will attempt to put some seeds in my potting plant tray. It will be flowers. I will feed the birds and the bees.
Stay in, stay well!

regarding plan structure.

We're pushed today, since we're getting ready for an online meeting (regarding our upcoming healthcare workshops/forums--unless, of course, they have to be cancelled. We're hoping that by late May, this awful threat will have blown over, and we can proceed as planned. Time will tell.)

Anyhoo, this'll be very brief, but, will drop by later this weekend, or next Saturday, to share the "overview" I've found regarding Denmark's healthcare system.

In a nutshell, in Denmark, they have two types of "insurance groups" that citizens can enroll in.

One insurance group is equivalent of our MA (Medicare Advantage)--there's a "gatekeeper" if you want to see a specialist, since a referral is necessary.

Second choice of insurance group - equivalent of our Original Medicare, but, without a Medicare supplement to pick up the co-pays, etc.

IOW, in the second group, a beneficiary is free to see a Primary Physician in Group One (with no co-pays), and, is free to see a specialists without a referral. Again, co-pays may be required. (Since the paper made no mention of the availability of a Medigap-like insurance product to pick up the extra cost, I'm assuming, for now, that there is no provision for such a policy to offset the additional cost.)

Obviously, very few folks are enrolled in the second option--I'm guessing, because of having to pay the additional co-pays, or, out-of-pocket costs.

So, basically, there's is a 'managed care' healthcare system. Will elaborate with excerpts and link next time.

(Of course, the financing is tax-based. Everyone has coverage. But, there's no reason we couldn't do something similar with our Original/Traditional/FFS Medicare, so that it's not necessary to deny folks needed medical services/referrals to specialists.)

Apparently, in both systems, specialists are in private practice.

Hey, hope you're still doing well. Take good care, until I check in with you again.

My best to Everyone, especially, our friends in states of WA, CA, NY, and all other states with high numbers of contagion. Hope the Feds get the services you need!

Mollie

Special Health Care for Congress: Lawmakers' Health Care Perks
A little known office on Capitol Hill provides quality care at a low price.

Excerpt:

Sept. 30, 2009— -- This fall while members of Congress toil in the U.S. Capitol, working to decide how or even whether to reform the country's health care system, one floor below them an elaborate Navy medical clinic -- described by those who have seen it as something akin to a modern community hospital -- will be standing by, on-call and ready to provide Congress with some of the country's best and most efficient government-run health care.

Sources said when specialists are needed, they are brought to the Capitol, often at no charge to members of Congress.

"If you had, for example, prostate cancer, you would go to one of the centers of excellence for the country, which would be Johns Hopkins. If you had coronary artery disease, we would engage specialists at the Cleveland Clinic. You would go to the best care in the country. And, for the most part, nobody asked what your insurance was," Balbona said. (Balbona was a former OAP Staff Physician.)

In addition to Balbona, several former staff members and private physicians who have consulted at the OAP as recently as last year agreed to talk to ABC News on background. They described a culture centered on meeting the needs and whims of members of Congress, with almost no concern for cost.

smiley. I'm a day late and a dollar short. Actually I'm two days late and two dollars short. Story of my life
Hope you see my comment, I don't expect you will so I will have to PM you, I hope you don't mind. I just wanted you to know I appreciated your Saturday column. The Tolkien brought me to tears, can't explain that except to say that these times contribute to an unusually high degree of emotional lability and besides, I do love Tolkien.
Initially I thought that Munch painting was called Spring Power but after I put my glasses on I saw better. Spring power is apt though, what an awesome painting.

Anyway, my stress level is high, as is no doubt true for most, and I'm finding that I'm attending to essentials and have lost the capacity to engage in what is non-essential like reading a really long work of fiction, or watching a movie, or going to an over-the-top but incredible opera. So, that avenue of respite is not open for me right now but what I can do is go outside. Someone posted a poem by Wendell Berry that describes that dilemma to the 'T'. I know the poem and it works for me.

I think many people are in this same boat. We are finding ourselves thrown further down on that ladder that Maslow described as our hierarchy of needs. The things that I consider the best of humanity are becoming increasingly out of reach. I hope we collectively find ways to maintain a sliver of engagement in those things. You do that every Saturday so many thanks. I will just have to catch as catch can.

Take good care of yourself, I know you are. As things unfold I hope we can all touch base on this site to exchange information as well as inspire our best qualities.

Be well, be safe.