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Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

590 followers 440 following 3.2K posts

My only account, don't trust DMs

🐦 bird nerd
📚 word nerd
🎶 music enthusiast

•Another screaming speck of dust 🪐
•Dining on farce 🇺🇸
•Craving humanity 🇵🇸 🇨🇩 🇸🇩
•I SCREAM INSIDE TO DEAL WITH IT 💥

"freaks deserve trophies"

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Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

and she gets wings that are 🌈af

Taylor Swift poses with her arms spread in front of a mural of pastel-rainbow colored butterfly wings patterned with hearts, flowers and stars, and the word me between the wings in black capital letters with an exclamation mark.

November 11, 2025 at 11:49 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

Dug a hole in the garden
and buried a scream
and from it
grew a bright red tree

(Um, like a Japanese Maple????)

Japanese Maple, a shrub-like tree with red leaves

November 9, 2025 at 3:23 AM

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@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

I ✨️don't✨️ care

November 9, 2025 at 12:49 AM

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@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

My kid read this book from their school library in 3 days, and they asked me to read it. One character is written in poetry, another in prose. It's been about two hours and I'm halfway through, eating it up.

The book "Forget Me Not" by Ellie Terry is laid on a wooden surface with a watermelon bookmark sticking out of it. The cover is blue framed by large red poppies and a few small blue flowers, with a telescope near the bottom.

Description of "Forget Me Not" by Ellie Terry reads:

It would be nice to stay in one place long enough to make a best friend...

Astronomy-loving Calliope June has Tourette syndrome, so she sometimes makes faces or noises that she doesn't mean to make. When she and her mother move yet again, she tries to hide her TS. But it isn't long before the kids at her school realize she's different. Only Calliope's neighbor, who is also the popular student body president, sees her as she truly is - an interesting person and a good friend. But is he brave enough to take their friendship public?

As Valliope navigates school, she must also face her mother's new relationship and the fact that she might be moving - again - just as she starts to make friends and finally accepts her differences.

Ellie Terry's affecting debut will speak to a wide audience about being true to oneself.

"Terry, who has Tourette syndrome herself, offers enormous insight into an often-misunderstood condition, writing in verse for Calliope's chapters and prose for Jinsong's... Honest and moving." -Publisher's Weekly

November 8, 2025 at 1:46 AM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

More parallels to The Prophet

"Let it be us, let it be home
Falling asleep & not looking at our phone"

🤝

"To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart
And a song of praise upon your lips."

On Love, by Khalil Gibran

Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He knead you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your heart you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

From The Prophet (Knopf, 1923). This poem is in the public domain.

November 4, 2025 at 4:58 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

Um?

In the music video for You Need to Calm Down, Chester Lockhart hold and pink and blue flag and faints dramatically after seeing Laverne Cox

October 29, 2025 at 9:09 PM

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@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

I didn't have a chance to plan a recipe, so I brought home the soup du jour from work. Hearty chicken noodle: classic comfort food, and this cold front is perfect soup weather :)

#Souplor

A big blue mug full of hearty chicken noodle soup with tomato, bell pepper, carrot, onion, and celery

October 29, 2025 at 8:07 PM

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@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

I just want YOU

Close-up of Taylor and Travis in their social media engagement announcement

October 28, 2025 at 8:54 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

Always been one of my favorite passages from The Prophet

On Joy and Sorrow
Kahlil Gibran

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find is is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

October 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

The jellyfish and the sea turtles were out today, too!

A screenshot of my Snapchat with an image of a small clear jellyfish on the aand with my thumb and forefinger framing how small it is and a caption that reads "tiny jellyfish! 🪼"

A screenshot of my Snapchat of my foot next to a much larger jellyfish

October 18, 2025 at 3:31 AM

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@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

A beach day is always a bird day!

1. This Reddish Egret was uncovered by my kid who loves to run at birds to make them fly.

2. I just love Ruddy Turnstones.

3. These two Plovers (unsure of species?) looked like they were stuck in fight/flight.

4. Close encounters of the pelican kind.

Reddish Egret standing tall in shallow waves, with its red head and neck looking to the right, and its grey wings folded. The egret and the sky are both reflected in the wet sand.

Ruddy Turnstone walking away and to the left on the concrete surface of a rocky jetty. Its white belly and orange legs are visible below its darkly patterned body.

Two Plovers face each other nervously at the edge of the water on a beach

A pelican sitting on the rocks of a jetty, very close to the camera, and a person crouched down near it, whose head is visible in the lower right corner of the frame

October 18, 2025 at 12:10 AM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

But these fishnets are SO FUN!!

A close-up of legs crossed at the knee, wearing flesh-toned fishnets with rainbow gems

October 13, 2025 at 8:56 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

Especially proud of the mug, I never wear makeup

A close-up of a woman's face with ice blue and hot pink eyeshadow

October 13, 2025 at 8:55 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

Baby, it's a showstopper

#RainbowKittenSurprise #HotPinkIceCube #ConcertOutfit

October 13, 2025 at 8:29 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

Lyrically, the themes hit.
Sonically, it's a horde of demons.

Ghoul
Song by Rainbow Kitten Surprise, 2024
Lyrics (part 1)

I know the feeling, cold, I felt it creeping
Beneath my bedpost, I let it closer
If it possess me, will I levitate gently?
Will you find me in violence eyes with ultraviolet?
Who am I?

Am I my brother's keeper?
If I could save another
Who then the your redeemer?
Why should I save my soul if I never get to keep it?
Not getting any warmer but I'm reaching
Back to that feeling
Cold, I felt it creeping
It's something wicked
I brought it with me
If it possess me, will I levitate gently?
Will you find me repulsive
Uncertain of my motives
Who am I?

Ghoul lyrics (part 2)

Am I my brother's keeper?
How could I stand corrected
If Im my only teacher?
Why should I save my soul if I never get to keep it?
Not getting any warmer but I'm reaching
Will I ever even know it
If I become my demons?
Ever even know it
When I become my demons?
Ever even know if I burn good
I burn slow, I burn bright
Who and when and why
You can't be the reason anymore

Ghoul lyrics (part 3)

Burning, burning, please say something
Say you want me, say you love me
Stay one hundred
Burning, burning, please say something
Say you want me, say you love me
Stay one hundred
Love me for me, babe

I know that feeling
Souls I felt it stealing
Right through my curtain
It let it come in
I let it come and possess me in the twilight
Undressed with all my best intentions from my essence
Who am I?

Am I my brother's keeper?
If I should save another
Who then be your redeemer?
How could I save my soul if I never get to keep her?
Who and when and why
You can't be the reason anymore

Ghoul lyrics (part 4)

Bugging, bugging, please say something
Say you want me, say you love me
Stay one hundred
Love me for me, babe
I was a shadow
And one to follow straight to the meadows
Of Sleepy Hollow
I can't even tell you, does it sound familiar?
Tell me, tell me, I'm the realest
Tell me I'm the one for you

Okay, so show me the ropes,
Show the hope, show me the cost
Show me the coast, show me the most
Show me the most, babe
Love you the most
Do what I'm told, do qhat you want
Do what you need
Tell me I'm free, yeah, to be

Will I ever even know it
If I become my demons?
Ever even know it
If I become my demons?
Ever even know if I burn good
I burn slow, I burn bright
Who and when and why
You can't be the reason anymore

October 11, 2025 at 1:00 AM

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@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

Elements of the story shared with Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin, The Little Mermaid, and others.

Text from Wikipedia on the literary legacy of Cupid and Psyche. It reads:

Friedländer also listed several Wuropean tales of marriage between a human maiden and a prince cursed to be an animal, as related to the "Cupid and Psyche" cycle of stories (which later became known as "ThevSearch for the Lost Husband" and "Animal as Bridegroom").

Bruno Bettelheim notes in The Uses of Enchantment that the 18th-century fairy tale Beauty and the Beast is a version of Cupid and Psyche. Motifs from Apuleius occur in several fairy tales, including Cinderella and Rumplestiltskin, in versions collected by folklorists trained in the classical tradition, such as Charles Perrault and the Grimms brothers. In the Grimm version, Cinderella is given the task of sorting lentils and peas from ash, and is aided by birds just as ants help Psyche in the sorting of the grain and legumes as imposed on her by Venus. Like Cinderella, Psyche has two envious sisters who compete with her for the most desirable male. Cinderella's sisters mutilate their own feet to emulate her, while Psyche's are dashed to death

In Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, the mermaid is given a dagger by her sisters, who, on an attempt to end all the suffering she endured and to let her become a mermaid again, attempt to persuade her to use it to slay the Prince while he is asleep with his new bride. She cannot bring herself to kill the Prince, however. Unlike Psyche, who becomes immortal, she doesn't receive his love in return, but she nevertheless ultimately earns the eternal soul she yearns for.

C. S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces is a retelling of Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of one of Psyche's sisters. Till We Have Faces is C. S. Lewis' last work of fiction and elaborate on Apuleius' story in a modern way.

October 6, 2025 at 6:12 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

She's told to be silent, ignore distractions, and placate gatekeepers.

But in the end, they always look, don't they? She's rendered catatonic.

I wonder, did the box have this effect on her bc she was mortal? Or was Persephone trying to trick Venus? Was Persephone the one who sent aid all along?

The speaking tower warns her to maintain silence as she passes by several ominous figures: a lame man driving a mule loaded with sticks, a dead man swimming in the river that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead, and old women weaving. These, the tower warns, will seek to distract her by pleading for her help; she must ignore them. The cakes are for distracting Cerberus, the three-hwaded watchdog of Orcus, and the two coins for Charon the ferryman, so she can make a return trip.

Everything comes to pass according to plan, and Proserpina grants Psyche's humble entreaty. As soon as she reenters the light of day, however, Psyche is overcome by a bold curiosity, and can't resist opening the box in the hopes of enhancing her own beauty. She finds nothing inside but an "infernal and Stygian sleep," which sends her into a deep and unmoving torpor.

October 6, 2025 at 5:40 PM

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@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

Venus sets tasks for Psyche, each more difficult than the last. Each time, Psyche receives aid or advice to help her complete it.

The first task reminds me of Vasalisa and the Baba Yaga (WWRWW!), and the last one reminds me of some parts of Dante's Inferno.

Text from Wikipedia about the trials of Psyche. It reads:

Venus revels in having her under her power and turns Psyche over to her handmaids, Worry and Sadness, to be whipped and tortured. Venus tears her clothes and bashes her head into the ground, and mocks her for conceiving a child in a sham marriage. The goddess then throws before her a great mass of mixed wheat, barley, poppyseed, chickpeas, lentils, and beans, demanding that she sort them into separate heaps by dawn. But when Venus withdraws to attend a wedding feast, a kind ant takes pity on Psyche and assembles a fleet of insects to accomplish the task. Venus is furious when she returns drunk from the feast, and only tosses Psyche a crust of breas. At this point in the story, it is revealed that Cupid is also in the house of avenue, languishing from his injury.

At dawn, Venus sets a second task for Psyche. She is to cross a river and fetch golden wool from violent sheep who graze on the other side. These sheep are identified elsewhere as belonging to Helios. Psyche's only intwntion is to drown herself on the way, but she is saved by instructions from a divinely inspired reed, of the type used to make musical instruments, and gathers the wool caught on briars.

For Psyche's third task, she is given a crystal vessel in which to collect the black water spewed by the source of the rivers Styx and Cocytus. Climbing the cliff from which it issues, she is haunted at the foreboding air of the place and dragons slithering through the rocks, and falls into despair. Jupiter himself takes pity on her and sends his eagle to battle the dragons and retrieve the water for her.

Text from Wikipedia about the trials of Psyche. It reads:

Psyche and the Underworld

The last trial Venus imposes pn Psyche is a quest to the underworld itself. She is to take a box and obtain in it the beauty of Proserpina [a.k.a. Persephone], queen of the underworld. Venus claims her own beauty has faded through tending her ailing son, and she needs this remedy in order to attend the theatre of the gods.

Once again despairing her task, Psyche climbs a tower, planning to throw herself off. The tower, however, suddenly breaks into speech and advises her to travel to Lacedaemon, Greece, and to seek out the place called Taenarus, where she will find the entrance to the underworld. The tower offers instructions for navigating the underworld:

"The airway of Dis is there, and through the yawning gates the pathless route is revealed. Once you cross the threshold, you are committed to the unswerving course that takes you to the very Regia of Orcus. But you shouldn't go emptyhanded through the shadows past this point, but rather carry cakes of honeyed barley in both hands, and transport two coins in your mouth."

October 6, 2025 at 4:53 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

Sounds very Bejeweled stepsister-y of them, with a touch of Bluebeard.

Text from Wikipedia abput Cupid and Psyche. It reads:

Psyche's family longs for Newsom her, and after much cajoling, Cupid, still unknown to his bride, permits Zephyr to carry her sisters up for a visit. When they see the splendor in which Psyche lives, they become envious, and undermine her happiness by prodding her to uncover to husband's true identity, since surely as foretold by the oracle she was lying with the vile winged serpent, who would devour her and her child.

October 6, 2025 at 3:50 PM

Re🐦📚🎶

@birdsbooksnbops.bsky.social

The white teeth teens are out
The white teeth teens are up for it
I know you love it when the hairpins start to drop...

I'll let you in on something big
I am not a white teeth teen
I tried to join, but never did
The way they are, the way they seem
Is something else, it's in the blood