Good Morning!

This year on Steemit has definitely been interesting! Before blogging on here, I just posted to my Wordpress Blog(started it in 2012) maybe once or twice a month. I followed a few people and they followed me, but didn't really connect that much with people! I think that was probably my fault, because I was mostly posting and not commenting a lot. I just wanted to share a few photos of butterflies and flowers in my flower gardens.

My son @d-pend, convinced me to open a Steemit account - he was quite insistent that it wasn't that hard to get started and he was right! He helped me learn the ropes on the voting system and I've even bought a small amount of Steem over the last year.

Since @d-pend has been posting under poetry, I've ventured out and read a lot of poems on Steemit. I even listened in on the Poetry Class on Steem Schools a few times to hear poems read and discussed.

I've always loved to read books, but my least favorite thing in English class in high school and college was trying to read and interpret poems. I could never figure out how to satisfy the teacher or professor! This discouraged me from reading poems that had lots of depth. I decided it just wasn't my thing and so I breathed a sigh of relief when I finished my last required English class in college!

I continued on to take my math and computer science classes, to finish my math degree. I was a computer programmer for 9 years before I stayed home to raise my two children. I'm now a math/reading tutor and substitute teacher.

So my point is, all these years later, I'm now taking the time to read poems on Steemit and other places. I've learned that it's okay if I interpret them differently than someone else. Daniel's 100 Days of Poetry Challenge, showed me there are lot of people wanting to express themselves through poems. He gave me some tips about how to read his poems. He told me there wasn't an incorrect interpretation. I've read many poems from the beginners through the advanced poets - some who are published poets -( @yahialababidi and @prydefoltz).

I will have a future post where I share links of some of the poems I read - sorry there were so many people that entered the 1OO Days of Poetry Challenge I couldn't read all of them!

Steemit has drawn me to look at other "tags" that I don't post under. On Wordpress, I pretty much stuck to looking at butterflies and flower posts. On Steemit, I've met people that live all over the USA and world. Some are Americans, some are not.

I follow @mineopoly who posts his poetry and thoughts and is an American teaching in South Korea.

I've met professional photographers @dmcamera (she gives lots of great tips for taking photos) and @dbooster - he (also posted lots of famous haiku with his interpretations).

@ackhoo posts great sunset photos and @ewkaw post flowers/dried stuff photos.

@overkillcoin has given me lots of laughs with all of his ideas on how to handle spam or just plain dumb comments on our posts! He is a very talented illustrator and has a great sense of humor.

@old-guy-photos has made Tuesdays more fun and I use his treetuesday tag and read lots of posts with trees from all over the world!

@apanamamama and @crosheille are both women that post about their crafts, their lives with children and lots of other things. I enjoy their posts.

@hethur240 and @mother2chicks are also two more Steemians whose posts I enjoy. When I first got on Steemit, there was a post that @mother2chicks wrote that I thought she was writing about herself and was so convincing that I think I told her I hope she would get well soon or something like that. (One of her tags on her post was writing, for a contest!. :)

I've learned a lot about cryptocurrency and the blockchain by being on Steemit. I've read posts by the witnesses and read articles on the internet and the newspaper.

I've seen greed displayed on Steemit by one Steemian that is only on here to post about cryptocurrency 10 times a day and vote for himself.

Steemit's not a perfect platform, but I'm grateful for the people I've met. I enjoy having a place to post my nature photos and other random things and once in a while, compose a haiku.

Thanks for anyone reading this who has commented on my posts - I will try to comment a little more on your posts and other people new to Steemit!

Cannas at the Dallas Arboretum

I will continue to post the beauty of nature and hope it makes your day just a little brighter when you see my posts. I want to encourage you to go outside and look around your world and find something interesting that God put there for you to enjoy!

Also, please be kind to one another; try to understand others viewpoints on life or some specific topic. You can disagree with them; but please don't hate them. That will accomplish nothing! Try to show them love or acceptance in some way. I'm trying to do this in my own life!

Now I'm off to help weed the Butterfly Plant Garden at The Heard Museum and Wildlife Sancturay with some other volunteers on this beautiful, cool summer morning. :)

Be Blessed!

June 23, 2018
All original photos posted by me