Hello Dear Readers-Thank you for staying with us during this period of no publication! During this time we moved within our CCRC (continuing care and retirement community) to the Arbor, the assisted living portion of our community vs, our previous independent living portion.
The move was traumatic as is the case for most moves, but the move was the right decision for Mary & me per our current physical and mental conditions.
Contact Information Our contact information has not changed re our phone and email but it has for our mailing address:
Mary & Forrest Heaton
Galloway Ridge
300 Clynelish Close Apt 1047
Pittsboro NC 27312
Mary’s (unchanged) Phone: (919) 606 4719
Forrest’s (unchanged) Phone: (919) 306-2810
Mary’s (unchanged) Email: mheaton50@gmail.com
Forrest’s (unchanged) Email: heatonforrest@gmail.com
Topics We are not changing the four topics about which we write: parks (national), people, poetry and planet.
How Often We Publish. We intend to move from publishing one post per month to one post per quarter. Our reason for this change is to reduce the time allocated to research each month. We wish it were otherwise. Thank you for your understanding.
National Poetry Month Regarding April 2026, we are already a number of days into National Poetry Month (in the United States)! I originally intended to write this blog post at least by March but alas the move prevailed.) How to celebrate? One has the opportunity to chose from among a number of options which include:
Write a poem (perhaps to someone close to you who would very much appreciate the effort you put into this.)
Read a poem a day by your favorite poet.
Read a few poems on your favorite topic
or- just think about “the power of poetry” . . . and how lucky humanity is to have it.
People—What We Chose to Support As we are reminded when we see, for example, the Artemis II space program we, the people, are capable of choosing, for example, multi-country joint space exploration as opposed, for example, to “bombing a country back into the stone age.”
It is a choice. It requires education and commitment and investment and cooperation.
In addition to supporting NASA’s space program, another potential
Program support opportunity was sent to us by a friend: Africa’s “The Great Green Wall”, a twenty-country cooperation project intended to “stop the spread of the Sahara and restore millions of lives” as advised by National Geographic. This is the first we’ve heard of this project and intend to research the potential of our support.
We, the people, have many opportunities for support to our fellow men, women and children. We include these two projects for your support consideration and invite you to think positively of others.
Parks-We invite you to support U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives who Support Your Views In our estimation an absolutely terrible piece of legislation is being considered by the U.S. Senate. It is known as the Save America Act. The actual title is the Safeguard American Eligibility Act. It passed the (Republican dominated) House of Representatives multiple times in 2024. It also was re-passed by the House in 2026 and is being debated in the U.S. Senate this week. Democrats and Independents are reminding the public that non-citizen voting has been a federal crime since 1996 and that non-citizen voting has NOT been an issue in elections nationwide. This bill would require a passport or certified birth certificate for registration to vote, thus effectively eliminating most current and online registration methods. This would deny millions of U.S. citizens who do not have these documents the right to vote. The Trump administration is urging passage of this bill.
Members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives Please consider calling your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative and urge them to please :
1) vote No on the “Save America” Act,
2) roll back the devastating job cuts in the National Park Service (NPS).
And 3) (For your representative) vote No on the ESA Amendments Act (more appropriately the Extinction Act) a bill that would eliminate protections provided by the Endangered Species Act. We send to you our thanks for your support.