SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- Readers: It may be a dark moment for you, with sadness, as you read this -- or one infused with a sunbeam symbolizing hope.
For me, as I compose this column (as on many days), it is both. That is the diurnal nature of night and day, decline and rebirth. And through the alternation of rest and activity, perhaps we can find a way toward balance.
Janus – January’s namesake -- looks forward and back. And even the groundhog, the story goes, ventures out this week, foretelling how much more winter we must endure.
Whether the weather of winter is just a few more weeks (or months) to endure, or some extraordinary Northeast Ohio collage, let’s keep growing together. And, like the groundhog, keep looking for the light beyond the shadow.
Recycle right: Mike Barson, president of the South Euclid Recycling Committee, has shared a worthwhile event.
The South Euclid Recycling Committee (SERC) and the University Heights Green Team are sponsoring “Recycle Right 2023″ from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the South Euclid Community Center, 1370 Victory Drive (behind Giant Eagle on Mayfield, West of Green Road).
Carin Miller, an education specialist at the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, will tell us the latest recycling guidelines for cities that use Kimble. This includes University Heights, South Euclid and Highland Heights. A question-and-answer period will follow the speech. Admission is free.
A better world: The college students of today will have a lot on their shoulders as we pass on the baton of 21st century responsibilities -- economical, ecological, creative and more.
Noticing achievements, efforts and imagination of learners in our midst, I find hope. Students of all ages bolster my hopes for a better world. Working for equity, achievement, health and joy, each talent in concert with others is like a lovely mosaic of possibility.
That dazzling image can begin in our region and reflect outward to touch our state, nation and world. Skeptical? Think of where we were even 20 years ago, then 40, and more, in terms of possibility.
The tools that the young can wield, together with knowledge and wisdom, are formidable. And their work has started.
Making the presidents list for fall 2022 at Miami University is Nicolle Figueroa of Mayfield Heights, who is earning both a bachelor of science in social work and a bachelor of arts in social work/psychology. This distinction is for those ranked in the top 3 percent of undergraduate students within each academic division. Great work!
Named to Miami University’s 2022 fall dean’s list, in the top 20 percent of the student population, are Erin Dickens of Lyndhurst, pursuing a bachelor of arts in public administration; Kennedy Hammer of Mayfield Heights, earning a bachelor of science in business in marketing, fashion; Danielle Silver of the Hillcrest area (44124), working toward a bachelor of fine arts in communication design, art therapy; Anthony Patrick of Mayfield Heights, working toward a bachelor of science in business, master of accountancy in accountancy; and Kaelum Adams of South Euclid, earning a bachelor of science in business in undeclared-business.
At Hiram College, Colton Allen of the Hillcrest area (44121) and Taylor Mullen of Lyndhurst (44124) were both named to the fall 2022 dean’s list.
At Oregon State University, Michael A. Hrenko, a post-baccalaureate student in computer science, was named to the fall 2022 scholastic honor roll with a B-plus (3.5) or better average and carrying at least six graded hours of coursework.
And thank you to all who have cheered on our most precious resource, the next generation.
Letting go: Releasing is not my strength, I admit, in all things -- small and superficial or large and enduring.
Letting go of a beloved animal companion is hard for anyone who truly felt the human-animal bond. If you have read about Robin, our rescue and our friend, in previous columns, you may already know where these words are leading.
As the metaphor goes, Robin has crossed the Rainbow Bridge.
There was hardly a place in the Hillcrest area she did not love to roam and explore -- from North Chagrin Reservation to Acacia Metropark, from Euclid Creek Reservation to Schaefer Park in Lyndhurst.
She never met a nibble or two from Wendy’s, McDonalds or elsewhere that she didn’t like. (She balanced a love of lettuce, high-protein foods and exercise with the occasional snack.) And she celebrated carrots and green pepper from Dave’s and Giant Eagle -- and wild strawberries and acorns and the occasional grasshopper, too, foraged in the bounty of nature.
This dog entered my family’s life in 2009 within a few months of my emerging from a rough time. Perhaps we helped heal her broken heart even as she immediately went to work on ours.
She was found on the streets of Cleveland, underweight, skin raw and flea-bitten, afraid of almost everything. She had already had a litter -- at least one -- but no identification of any kind.
They named her Robin at the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter.
There is a genuine individuality in pets, and a grasp of the core, fundamental tasks we are sometimes too busy to prioritize and savor:
1. Eat.
2. Sleep.
3. Breathe.
4. Drink water.
5. Move.
6. Play.
7. Be present.
8. Protect your turf, but welcome friends.
9. Use every sense to the utmost.
10. Cherish nature.
11. Respect the hearts of others.
12. Listen more than you speak.
Thank you to those at Lyndhurst Animal Clinic on Mayfield Road and Metropolitan Animal Hospital on Alpha Drive, both in the Hillcrest area, for compassion and support. There are many other talented crews throughout our area that tend to our creatures and ourselves, too.
And if you are among those who gave us more smiles and compliments than we could have imagined, thank you -- on a walk, from the drive-thru and by email. Your love helped her heal from the neglect of her former life, which we can only imagine.
If you have grieved the loss of a pet -- in all likelihood among other life losses -- perhaps there is someone with whom you can remember what you learned from that special relationship.
For whatever reason, these lines from a famous sonnet echo in my mind. They are about constancy, loyalty, fidelity -- and genuine, mutual acceptance, despite our inevitable foibles.
From Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark [ship]
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
If you missed the Sun Messages column “Pandemic from a pet’s perspective,” click here.
Spread light! Sun Messages is our column. Help make it yours by sharing upbeat news, events, awards, even anecdotes about what is happening in our seven-city Hillcrest area. Though February is a short month, let’s keep it filled with opportunity. Write to mariashinestewart@gmail.
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