Snake Nation Press is a long-running Valdosta project powered by three indomitable women: Jean Arambula, Roberta George, and the late Barbara Passmore whose posthumous financial support has made possible extensive renovations to the historic home that now houses the Press.
Arambula and George recently hosted the Grand Opening of the Snake Nation House just a few blocks north of downtown Valdosta at 110 West Force Street, dedicating the Barbara Passmore Media Center where local writers can work, access computers and WiFi, as well as have access to Arambula, an experienced editor, and George who is an award-winning author.
Visit the Snake Nation House and find out for yourself how they can help your writing.
It might be just the place to finish… or start!… writing your own story.

It takes
Courage
To get up and dance
And
Trust
To keep on dancing

FORD
2022

Walking dogs is like watching them scroll through their Facebook.
They enjoy the scenery as it goes by but truly love stopping to check out posts.
Sometimes they leave comments, but dogs don’t respond with hearts or emojis.
They just leave a little p.

When The Old Lady told her church friends that she was going to a black-metal show, they reacted as if she were selling her soul.

That night at the Valdosta DiY House the first thing she heard, from a Florida band called Wreath, was their singer calling for opposition to the notorious Don’t Say Gay law and support for gay youth.

Later her very favorite black-metal band’s singer introduced the set by hollering “Trans rights are human rights! Women’s rights are human rights! Indigenous people’s rights are human rights!”

And even later: 

🎶 “If you can hear me, I LOVE YOU! If you CAN’T hear me, I LOVE YOU!” 🎵

No preacher has ever said it any more clearly.
LISTEN to The Old Lady!

Storm clouds
Building
On the horizon
Thunder and lightning
Ready to deploy
Rumbles in the distance
Rain will fall.
Will we drown?
Practice swimming.

Have you ever tried to give a pill to a cat?
Medicating a bunny is ten times harder.
Capturing the bunny to swaddle her tightly enough for protection from her razor sharp claws, gently forcing the syringe into her mouth without hurting her or getting bitten by her powerful buck teeth, and slowly easing the medicine in without choking the patient is a technique not for the tentative or faint of heart.
All during the process one explains to the bunny that “this must be done” and eventually it is done.
But it’s not over.
The final step is to return the bunny to her pen without risking a backward slash from those deceptively fluffy hind paws which contain weapons of bunny destruction.
Because let me tell you, this is one angry bunny.

Freedom means the right to behave as one wants to behave without hindrance or restraint, including by governmental authority.
Many Americans value freedom above all else, especially freedom from governmental authority.
In the March 2022 edition of Scientific American magazine Robin G. Nelson, a biological anthropologist at Arizona State University, writes that in New Zealand the government “…countered COVID with nationwide stay-at-home orders, border controls, hygiene campaigns, accessible testing and contact tracing… 18 months into the pandemic the country had seen only 27 COVID deaths…”
Taiwan instituted “…a 14-day isolation policy for travelers entering the country… increasing border controls and deputizing quarantine officers who could help isolated citizens.  By March 2021 there had been only 10 COVID deaths in a country of nearly 24 million people.”
In March 2021 the USA population was well over 330 million, and at that time the CDC reported nearly 965,000 Americans dead from COVID.
That is the price of freedom.

Looking forward to a lazy Saturday, doing a lot of nothing?
The Italians have a phrase for it: “dolce far niente”, “the sweetness of doing nothing”.
The idea is to savor the NOW, to live in the present moment without spending it thinking about something else.
It is the essence of mindfulness, allowing your experience to be whatever it is and relaxing into enjoyment.
Do more nothing today!

The Old Lady experienced an “Aha!” moment.
Some friends were defining the slang term “Karen” as referring to a white woman who acts overly entitled in an aggressive manner.
“Aha!” thought The Old Lady, “they label that woman a ‘Karen’ for acting like many white MEN have acted for centuries- but nobody attaches a gender-specific putdown label to MEN’S behavior!”
Shortcut labels are lazy language, AND inaccurate: by using a label one implicitly indicts an entire group. This is discrimination, whether it be racism or misogyny or anti-Semitism or any other -ism that expresses disdain for a specific group of human beings.
“I know some people named Karen,” The Old Lady finally said, “and they are NOT okay with this terminology.”
LISTEN to The Old Lady!

The Old Lady stopped for lunch at Joanie’s Blue Crab on Alligator Alley in the Everglades.
She sat on the outside deck overlooking a lovely scenic view.
A person at the next table complained “It’s just not the same, it’s changed since we were here eighteen years ago,” and they left.
The Old Lady enjoyed an excellent bowl of she-crab soup while watching a great blue heron catch a big catfish, stab it into submission, and swallow it whole. An anhinga hunted the waters, then dried and preened its feathers on a branch.
“Things are never the same, things change constantly,” she mused. “That’s what keeps life so interesting.”
LISTEN to The Old Lady!