Stalk River

these are images from a 1930s pamphlet that endorsed kudzu, entitled "stop gullies: save your farm"

Literally the only way you will find "meaning" in nature sightings IS by understanding and observing the natural world you live in! Animals and birds and plants change their location and habits and calls and behavior based on many factors: the time of year, weather, mating cycles, disruptions, other animals, etc etc. These things, im turn, effect YOU as you are also an animal in thr same habitat!

More than once I've seen baby paganists/polythetists ask what it means that they are "suddenly" seeing crows everywhere, and being an Apollo worshipper and crow lover i always have an answer:

Its fledgling season. Its early summer and fledglings are venturing from the nest and being supervised and protected by their parents as they learn how to be crows.

And every time, they ignored my response and instead took a stock response of "crows are sacred to Apollo". And every time its pissed me off.

On one hand - nature does not exist to give you divine messages. It is crazy behavior to center yourself as a reciever of the natural world and not a part of it. As one of my fave posts once said- rejoice for you share this world with all sorts of animals and living beings. They aren't here for you, they are simply here as well.

Secondly - there ARE messages you can take from nature but only IF you can understand that you are part of nature too. Sightings of animals, bugs, birds, plants, and their location and behavior holds so many messages, as much as a lack can as well. What does it mean when we see fledgling crows with their parents? It means its summer, it means the space supports crows having offspring, it means its the time of year that we can also venture out and experience the world, it means the world turns and things renew, it means to be conscious and aware that there are Young around and their parents will be on alert.

The more effort you make to understand and connect with the natural world the more the web of knowledge strengthens for you. If you become familiar with the nature around you you will understand the messages it can share, bc you are part of it and those messages are for you too - but NOT exclusively for You or from your gods.

As an Apollo worshipper I give crows a large amount of respect and fondness. I have worked over the years to gain a friendship with the ones in my city, and they have given me so much. I have had crows alert me when there are predators, I've had crows stand watch over me when I relax in the yard, I've had crows allow me to be near their fledglings and get to experience that. But its earned, its respect, its learning about them as they are and the material world we share.

but it's an entirely new level of tragic when somebody you've actually spoken to gets turned into a bot account. it's like peeking at a zombie apocalypse through the window and realizing one of the shambling corpses was your friend.

and then the zombie catches sight of you, lurches up to your window, and shouts through the glass that they accidentally reported your account to tumblr and you'll be deactivated unless you click this link.

if you get something like this ↑ they're gonna follow up by instructing you to contact tumblr support on discord and give you contact info; or they're gonna link a website that looks sort of like tumblr support and say you have to email them; or any variety of "you must now contact tumblr, here is how you contact tumblr."

whatever they send you, it Does Not lead to tumblr. it leads to the master zombie that bit them and inducted them into the ranks of the undead, and will bite you the second they have your email and password. i might be confusing zombies and vampires. anyway,

it's easier to fall for these messages because the blog doesn't LOOK like a bot blog, because it ISN'T a bot blog. it's a normal person's blog that got accessed by a bot, meaning the blog's content CLEARLY looks like a real active user when you click on it. and yes—it might even be a blog you already know. sometimes bots like this go down a blog's DMs or reblogs and message people they've previously interacted with.

The number wasn’t in service and I immediately contacted tumblr directly to try to remediate the issue.

Watching the 2026 Tumblr Sexy Man Contest

If you are getting gender affirming surgery, especially if it’s your first major surgery, PLEASE be aware that you can become SEVERELY depressed afterwards ESPECIALLY if you have a history of depression or suicidal ideation.

Post op depression is a natural reaction to the crazy mix of hormones your body goes through after major surgery as well as the stress and anxiety of recovery. Think of it like an adrenaline crash, but dragged out longer.

For me it kicked in about 6 weeks after top surgery and the worst of it lasted until about 10 weeks post op. EVERYTHING felt IMPOSSIBLE. None of the skills I’d been practicing worked. I thought everything was going to be bad forever. I didn’t attempt, but I was in the hospital. If it wasn’t for my support system I probably would have attempted.

This is not regret, but it can feel like it. I remain happy about my results to this day (going on six years later).

This is not you failing to maintain your mental health, but it can make you feel like a failure.

Things are not hopeless, but through the haze of this depression they can feel hopeless.

It can be terrifyingly sudden or it can sneak up on you. I didn’t even realize what was going on until after the depression finally passed and my mental health went back to normal.

I am writing this post because nobody told me about this before my top surgery. I was caught completely off guard. For my subsequent surgeries being aware has made all the difference. Being able to treat those symptoms as an expected and normal part of the healing journey has made them far easier to deal with. Because even when my emotions go to dark places I *know* they will pass. I have been able to tell the bad thoughts to take a bad seat and focus on healing.