The cat in the hat is back! This bead shows a cat wearing a knitted "Melt the ICE" hat. Designer Paul Neary was inspired by the red tasseled hats worn by Norwegians to protest the Nazi occupation of their country during WWII.

Needle and Skein, the knitting shop where Neary works, offers the pattern for the hat for just $5.00, and donates all the proceeds to immigrant aid agencies helping people impacted by ICE's brutal invasion of their city, Saint Louis Park, Minnesota. Needle and Skein You can also find the pattern on Ravelry, an online community of over 9 million fiber artists. Ravelry also charges $5.00 and donates all proceeds to immigrant aid agencies that help people impacted by ICE.

"A robin red breast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage"
-- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Blake's poem begins:
"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an Hour
A Robin red breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven in a Rage"

To me, this poem says that all things in the world are connected and that the smallest things show us the larger world. Cruelty to animals mirrors deeper human injustices and cruelty to the innocent.

-- Picture by Ali Daniels/AP
Five year old Liam Conejo Ramos is detained by ICE agents after arriving home from pre-school.

There are a growing number of organizations working to protect immigrant rights and to fight child detention that you can help with a donation. Three that I think are doing good work are: RAICES, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and AMICA Center for Immigrant Rights.

"Truth for authority, not authority for truth."
-- Lucretia Coffin Mott
January 3, 1793 - November 11, 1880

Lucretia Mott was an amazing woman for her time, and I believe that she is an amazing role model for us today, given the turmoil that we find enveloping our country. She was an American Quaker minister, abolitionist, feminist, and social reformer. She and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, recognized now as the first convention to be called to discuss women's rights.

In her memoir, Cady Stanton had these things to say about her friend. "I found in this new friend a woman emancipated from all faith in man-made creeds, from all fear of his denunciations." "Nothing was too sacred for her to question, as to its rightfulness in principle and practice. It seemed to me like meeting some being from a larger planet, to find a woman who dared to question the opinion of popes, kings, synods parliaments, with the same freedom that she would criticize an editorial in the London Times." "'Truth for authority, not authority for truth,' was not only the motto of her life, but it was the fixed mental habit in which she most rigidly held herself."

"I am not young enough to know everything."
-- From the J. M. Barrie play "The Admirable Chrichton."

One of the beauties of growing older is that with experience and knowledge gained, I realize how much I didn't know when was younger. It's exciting to feel that there are so many new things to experience and to learn, and how my ideas and perspectives can shift.

I won't say the arthritis is wonderful, but I love the vantage point I see the world from now.