Olena Kuzmina
@lenkalesoleil.bsky.social
Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine. 💚nature, poetry, Buddhism, landscape painting, haiku, trees 🌲🌳, 🐾 cats, rainy summer & solitude ☘️
Pinned
Olena Kuzmina
@lenkalesoleil.bsky.social
· May 27
To anyone who has spent time with an animal, the notion that they have no interior lives seems so counterintuitive, such an obdurate denial of the empathetically self-evident, as to be almost psychotic.
archive.nytimes.com/opinionator....
#timkreider #companionanimal #petloss
archive.nytimes.com/opinionator....
#timkreider #companionanimal #petloss
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go,
to let it go.
Mary Oliver
#letitgo #nonattachment #poetry #maryoliver
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go,
to let it go.
Mary Oliver
#letitgo #nonattachment #poetry #maryoliver
January 14, 2026 at 2:17 PM
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go,
to let it go.
Mary Oliver
#letitgo #nonattachment #poetry #maryoliver
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go,
to let it go.
Mary Oliver
#letitgo #nonattachment #poetry #maryoliver
January 10, 2026 at 6:03 PM
January 8, 2026 at 12:49 PM
There are central organizing principles to nature, and one of those is that everything that is born eventually dies.
Focus on just this moment.
open.substack.com/pub/morethan...
#petloss #petillness #hereandnow #impermanence #grief #loss #selhelp
Focus on just this moment.
open.substack.com/pub/morethan...
#petloss #petillness #hereandnow #impermanence #grief #loss #selhelp
When Your Pet is Critically Ill: Seven Ways to Navigate Uncertainty
Focus on just this moment. And this one. And this.
open.substack.com
January 6, 2026 at 1:21 PM
There are central organizing principles to nature, and one of those is that everything that is born eventually dies.
Focus on just this moment.
open.substack.com/pub/morethan...
#petloss #petillness #hereandnow #impermanence #grief #loss #selhelp
Focus on just this moment.
open.substack.com/pub/morethan...
#petloss #petillness #hereandnow #impermanence #grief #loss #selhelp
January 1, 2026 at 1:12 PM
December 31, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Fireworks are dangerous and terrifying for ALL animals. Animals hear higher frequencies, making firework sounds painfully loud, and the resulting panic can lead them into traffic or harm themselves trying to escape.
www.animal-ethics.org/how-firework...
#fireworks #cruelentertainment
www.animal-ethics.org/how-firework...
#fireworks #cruelentertainment
December 30, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Fireworks are dangerous and terrifying for ALL animals. Animals hear higher frequencies, making firework sounds painfully loud, and the resulting panic can lead them into traffic or harm themselves trying to escape.
www.animal-ethics.org/how-firework...
#fireworks #cruelentertainment
www.animal-ethics.org/how-firework...
#fireworks #cruelentertainment
December 25, 2025 at 12:39 PM
December 24, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Lady Violet: Makes me smile, the way every year we drink to the future, - whatever it may bring.
Isobel Crawley: Well, what else could we drink to? We're going forward to the future, not back into the past.
Lady Violet: If only we had the choice!
Downton Abbey
#ifonly #newyear #downtonabbey
Isobel Crawley: Well, what else could we drink to? We're going forward to the future, not back into the past.
Lady Violet: If only we had the choice!
Downton Abbey
#ifonly #newyear #downtonabbey
December 23, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Lady Violet: Makes me smile, the way every year we drink to the future, - whatever it may bring.
Isobel Crawley: Well, what else could we drink to? We're going forward to the future, not back into the past.
Lady Violet: If only we had the choice!
Downton Abbey
#ifonly #newyear #downtonabbey
Isobel Crawley: Well, what else could we drink to? We're going forward to the future, not back into the past.
Lady Violet: If only we had the choice!
Downton Abbey
#ifonly #newyear #downtonabbey
The NYTimes cartoon -- I posted it 10 years ago on FB.
Now it's getting normal. 'Normal'.
#newyeartree #cartoon #climatechange
Now it's getting normal. 'Normal'.
#newyeartree #cartoon #climatechange
December 22, 2025 at 6:48 PM
The NYTimes cartoon -- I posted it 10 years ago on FB.
Now it's getting normal. 'Normal'.
#newyeartree #cartoon #climatechange
Now it's getting normal. 'Normal'.
#newyeartree #cartoon #climatechange
December 21, 2025 at 2:19 PM
death is everywhere
www.instagram.com/herta_burbe/
www.instagram.com/herta_burbe/
December 20, 2025 at 6:47 PM
death is everywhere
www.instagram.com/herta_burbe/
www.instagram.com/herta_burbe/
James Hamilton Hay (1874–1916)
The Falling Star (1909)
Hay's death from lung cancer in 1916, aged 42, prematurely ended his career, preventing him from being as well known as he might have been.
[I do miss *snowy* winters so much...]
#painting #jameshamiltonhay
The Falling Star (1909)
Hay's death from lung cancer in 1916, aged 42, prematurely ended his career, preventing him from being as well known as he might have been.
[I do miss *snowy* winters so much...]
#painting #jameshamiltonhay
December 18, 2025 at 3:12 PM
James Hamilton Hay (1874–1916)
The Falling Star (1909)
Hay's death from lung cancer in 1916, aged 42, prematurely ended his career, preventing him from being as well known as he might have been.
[I do miss *snowy* winters so much...]
#painting #jameshamiltonhay
The Falling Star (1909)
Hay's death from lung cancer in 1916, aged 42, prematurely ended his career, preventing him from being as well known as he might have been.
[I do miss *snowy* winters so much...]
#painting #jameshamiltonhay
“Life is easier to take than you'd think; all that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.”
(Kathleen Norris)
[source? & who is she? but I like the quote]
#lifeiseasy #quote #life #kathleennorris
(Kathleen Norris)
[source? & who is she? but I like the quote]
#lifeiseasy #quote #life #kathleennorris
December 18, 2025 at 3:04 PM
“Life is easier to take than you'd think; all that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.”
(Kathleen Norris)
[source? & who is she? but I like the quote]
#lifeiseasy #quote #life #kathleennorris
(Kathleen Norris)
[source? & who is she? but I like the quote]
#lifeiseasy #quote #life #kathleennorris
Here indeed is a major difference between people and ants: where we send our young men to war, ants send their old ladies. No moral lesson there, unless you are looking for a less expensive form of elder care.
― Edward O. Wilson (1929 - 2021), The Meaning of Human Existence
#biology #theantman
― Edward O. Wilson (1929 - 2021), The Meaning of Human Existence
#biology #theantman
December 17, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Here indeed is a major difference between people and ants: where we send our young men to war, ants send their old ladies. No moral lesson there, unless you are looking for a less expensive form of elder care.
― Edward O. Wilson (1929 - 2021), The Meaning of Human Existence
#biology #theantman
― Edward O. Wilson (1929 - 2021), The Meaning of Human Existence
#biology #theantman
“I sometimes longed for someone who, like me, had not adjusted perfectly with his age, & such a person was hard to find; but I soon discovered cats, in which I could imagine a condition like mine, & books, where I found it quite often.”
Julio Cortázar
Around the Day in Eighty Worlds
#cats #cortazar
Julio Cortázar
Around the Day in Eighty Worlds
#cats #cortazar
December 16, 2025 at 10:47 AM
"The real nature of each thing, and more so, of all things, is a poetical one. . . Haiku shows us what we knew all the time, but did not know we knew; it shows us that we are poets in so far as we live at all."
Reginald Horace Blyth, Haiku, Volume 1: Eastern Culture (Hokuseido Press 1949)
#haiku
Reginald Horace Blyth, Haiku, Volume 1: Eastern Culture (Hokuseido Press 1949)
#haiku
December 11, 2025 at 12:41 PM
"The real nature of each thing, and more so, of all things, is a poetical one. . . Haiku shows us what we knew all the time, but did not know we knew; it shows us that we are poets in so far as we live at all."
Reginald Horace Blyth, Haiku, Volume 1: Eastern Culture (Hokuseido Press 1949)
#haiku
Reginald Horace Blyth, Haiku, Volume 1: Eastern Culture (Hokuseido Press 1949)
#haiku
A pioneering force in elephant conservation, Iain revolutionised our understanding of African elephants through his groundbreaking research.
savetheelephants.org/news/world-r...
savetheelephants.org/news/world-r...
WORLD-RENOWNED AFRICAN ELEPHANT EXPERT, DR IAIN DOUGLAS-HAMILTON, DIES AGED 83
Nairobi, Kenya – Tuesday, 9 December 2025: It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, renowned Scottish zoologist and founder & president of Save the Elephants.
savetheelephants.org
December 9, 2025 at 4:05 PM
A pioneering force in elephant conservation, Iain revolutionised our understanding of African elephants through his groundbreaking research.
savetheelephants.org/news/world-r...
savetheelephants.org/news/world-r...
...this is what we fear—no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round...
From "Aubade" (Nov. 1977) by Philip Larkin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDr_...
#poetry #philiplarkin
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round...
From "Aubade" (Nov. 1977) by Philip Larkin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDr_...
#poetry #philiplarkin
December 2, 2025 at 12:18 PM
...this is what we fear—no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round...
From "Aubade" (Nov. 1977) by Philip Larkin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDr_...
#poetry #philiplarkin
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round...
From "Aubade" (Nov. 1977) by Philip Larkin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDr_...
#poetry #philiplarkin
Philip Larkin died of cancer on December 2 1985.
"I am going to the inevitable," he said to the nurse who was holding his hand.
#philiplarkin #poetry #inmemory
"I am going to the inevitable," he said to the nurse who was holding his hand.
#philiplarkin #poetry #inmemory
December 2, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Philip Larkin died of cancer on December 2 1985.
"I am going to the inevitable," he said to the nurse who was holding his hand.
#philiplarkin #poetry #inmemory
"I am going to the inevitable," he said to the nurse who was holding his hand.
#philiplarkin #poetry #inmemory
Swedish painter Georg Pauli (1855–1935)
Evening Reading (1884)
#readingisbliss #cozyevening #booklover #painting #georgpauli #eveningreading
Evening Reading (1884)
#readingisbliss #cozyevening #booklover #painting #georgpauli #eveningreading
November 26, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Swedish painter Georg Pauli (1855–1935)
Evening Reading (1884)
#readingisbliss #cozyevening #booklover #painting #georgpauli #eveningreading
Evening Reading (1884)
#readingisbliss #cozyevening #booklover #painting #georgpauli #eveningreading
They are the animals we eat and the animals we wear. They are the animals used in research and for entertainment, as well as the animals we sacrifice in the name of tradition and religion.
weanimals.org/2025/11/17/f...
#weanimals #joaquinphoenix #compassion #painhidden
weanimals.org/2025/11/17/f...
#weanimals #joaquinphoenix #compassion #painhidden
November 26, 2025 at 12:08 PM
They are the animals we eat and the animals we wear. They are the animals used in research and for entertainment, as well as the animals we sacrifice in the name of tradition and religion.
weanimals.org/2025/11/17/f...
#weanimals #joaquinphoenix #compassion #painhidden
weanimals.org/2025/11/17/f...
#weanimals #joaquinphoenix #compassion #painhidden
...Grant me a no news day,
a spare-me-your-views day,
in which nothing much happens at all...
a day we can barely recall
#poetry #simplelife #nonewsgoodnews #BrianBilston
a spare-me-your-views day,
in which nothing much happens at all...
a day we can barely recall
#poetry #simplelife #nonewsgoodnews #BrianBilston
November 20, 2025 at 3:41 PM
...Grant me a no news day,
a spare-me-your-views day,
in which nothing much happens at all...
a day we can barely recall
#poetry #simplelife #nonewsgoodnews #BrianBilston
a spare-me-your-views day,
in which nothing much happens at all...
a day we can barely recall
#poetry #simplelife #nonewsgoodnews #BrianBilston
In spring, hundreds of flowers;
in autumn, a harvest moon;
In the summer, a refreshing breeze;
in winter snow will accompany your.
If useless things do not hang in your mind,
any season is a good season for you.
The Gateless Gate
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qxE...
#zen #buddhism #thegatelessgate
in autumn, a harvest moon;
In the summer, a refreshing breeze;
in winter snow will accompany your.
If useless things do not hang in your mind,
any season is a good season for you.
The Gateless Gate
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qxE...
#zen #buddhism #thegatelessgate
THE GATELESS GATE: Compilation of Zen Koans
YouTube video by AudioBuddha
www.youtube.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:41 PM
In spring, hundreds of flowers;
in autumn, a harvest moon;
In the summer, a refreshing breeze;
in winter snow will accompany your.
If useless things do not hang in your mind,
any season is a good season for you.
The Gateless Gate
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qxE...
#zen #buddhism #thegatelessgate
in autumn, a harvest moon;
In the summer, a refreshing breeze;
in winter snow will accompany your.
If useless things do not hang in your mind,
any season is a good season for you.
The Gateless Gate
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qxE...
#zen #buddhism #thegatelessgate