#identifications

Got given these rough-sawn lapidary slabs recently. Only a couple were labeled, and I have identified a few of them (some only tentatively), and others have eluded my research abilities completely. 

The slabs are between 1/8-inch (3mm) and 1/4-inch (6mm) thick.

Most of them will be cut-up with diamond saws, polished and used as inlay pieces in my sculpture.

from the top: unidentified — black nodule layer on brown underlying matrix (now known as Hematite since I cut into it - May, 2020)

                                             Rhodonite (this was labeled)

                                             Chrysocalla (softer and more friable than others)

                                             Epidote  (this was labeled, from North Carolina)

                                             green agate geode slice maybe?

                                             Red Jasper

                                             petrified wood perhaps?

                                             clear agate with inclusions?

                                             translucent lavender agate?

                                             Sodalite                                                                      

Any help identifying would be appreciated — Don

Relationships – A miracle

“Life is experience and experience is the relationship we make.”  We are in relation to a person, object or thing because we feel gratified.

We feel a sense of pleasure, satisfaction and accomplishments in being with some other person. Our goals, attitudes and beliefs change for the relations we are serious about.

We value a person more who is in a long term relationship with us. Here, when I am…

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Dalai Lama: “Compassion is a necessity and not a Luxury.”

Here we are going to discover the origination and advancement of ‘compassion’ from a simple ‘sensations’. We need to know the importance of ‘compassion’ in our life, so as to adopt it as one of the important values from the humanistic perspectives. The fruit of happiness could ever be obtained when one involves in a self-transforming…

@midnight-mod submitted:

Hey! Could I get some help IDing these little fellas? My mom found them in a lake in Texas, they’re about 5-6cm long. She’s a flyfisherman so she’s always really excited about learning about aquatic larvae in areas she fishes! I’ve been digging through lists and guides of aquatic invertebrates/larvae and haven’t found anything quite like them, care to help me out?

These fat babies are water scavenger beetle larvae. I’ve never been blessed with seeing them in person, but I have seen the adults. They can be small, but they can also get very large! Here are a couple from Austin:

Tropisternus sp.

Hydrophilus ovatus 

These were both seen in March 2018. Sorry it took me SO LONG to answer you life is stressful!

I must look to the moon,

I must look to the trees,

I must look to the stars,

Before I begin to realize

Who and what I am 

Who and what we are

All small particles

But the manifestation of one being;

Of varying differences we may appear to be 

Our similarity is the quest of

Just being.

To come into peace

With who we are

Because all that is around you,

Is within you-

The moon,

The trees,

The stars,