Georgia Ann Thompson, the first female parachutist and inventor of the rip cord, became famous under the name Tiny Broadwick. She weighed only three pounds at birth in 1893 in North Carolina, and never grew past 5 feet tall and 80 pounds. She married at 12, and bore a daughter, Verla, at 13. After her husband died in an accident, she had to work 14-hour days in a cotton mill.
"In 1907 at the North Carolina State Fair, Georgia saw the performance, 'The Broadwicks and their Famous French Aeronauts.' The performers ascended to the sky in hot-air balloons, then thrilled spectators by jumping out of them with parachutes. Inspired by this, Georgia asked show owner Charles Broadwick if she could travel with the group and become a part of the act. He agreed to hire her, and Georgia’s mother let her go with a few stipulations- she had to leave Verla behind and send back money to help support her. Broadwick trained her in the art of parachute jumping, and in 1908, legally adopted her. When this happened, Georgia’s name officially became Tiny Broadwick.
"While performing, Tiny was known as “The Doll Girl”. She dressed in ruffled bloomers with pink bows on her arms, ribbons in her long curly hair, and a bonnet on her head. Tiny was just 15 years old when she jumped from a hot-air balloon at the 1908 North Carolina State Fair. Describing her feelings later, she said, “I tell you, honey, it was the most wonderful sensation in the world!” It was a thrill she would come to experience some 1,000 times in her life.
"Tiny and Charles Broadwick traveled all over the country with their balloon act, but by 1912, their performance was losing popularity. Fortunately, a new opportunity presented itself to Tiny when she met famed pilot Glenn Martin. He had seen her jump from a balloon, and asked if she would like to parachute from his airplane instead. Tiny immediately agreed to work for Martin, whose aircraft company is still in business today and is operating under the name Martin Marietta.
"In preparation for the jump, Charles Broadwick developed a parachute for Tiny made of silk. It was packed into a knapsack attached to a canvas jacket with harness straps. A string was fastened to the plane’s fuselage and woven through the parachute’s canvas covering. When Tiny jumped from the plane, the cover tore away and her parachute filled with air.
"On her first jump, Tiny was suspended from a trap seat behind the wing and outside the cockpit, with the parachute on a shelf above her. Martin took the plane up to two thousand feet, and then Tiny released a lever alongside the seat, allowing it to drop out from under her. The jump was a success and she landed in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, making her the first woman to parachute from an airplane. After that first jump from Martin’s plane, Tiny was in great demand all over the country. She also became the first woman to parachute into a body of water.
"In 1914, at the start of WWI, representatives of the Army Air Corps visited Tiny in San Diego and asked her to demonstrate a jump from a military plane. At that time, many Air Corps pilots had already perished, and the Army wanted Tiny to showcase how to safely parachute out of a plane. During the demonstration, Tiny made four jumps at San Diego’s North Island.
"The first three went smoothly, but on the fourth jump, her parachute’s line became tangled in the tail assembly of the plane. Due to high winds, she could not get back into the plane. Instead of panicking, Tiny cut all but a short length of the line, which made her plummet towards the ground. Still keeping a cool head, she pulled the line by hand, freeing the parachute to open by itself. This demonstrated what would be known as the rip cord, and showcased that someone who had to leave an airplane in flight did not need a line attached to the aircraft to open a parachute. A pilot could safely bail out of a damaged craft. Following this, the parachute became known as the life preserver of the air.
"Tiny Broadwick’s last jump was in 1922, when she was just 29 years old. Chronic problems with her ankles forced her into retirement. [All those forceful landings took their toll!] She stated at the time, “I breathe so much better up there, and it’s so peaceful being that near to God.”
"Tiny received many honors and awards in her lifetime, including the U.S. Government Pioneer Aviation award and the John Glenn Medal. She is one of the few women in the Early Birds of Aviation, and she also received the Gold Wings of the Adventurer’s Club in Los Angeles. In 1964, Tiny was made an honorary member of the 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg. With that honor, she was told she could jump any time she chose. At the age of 85, Tiny Broadwick died and was buried in her home state of North Carolina."
Shown: Tiny Broadwick seated in a sling hanging from the side of Glenn Martin’s plane, 1913. Thanks to Daniella Wild for calling my attention to her!
https://www.asomf.org/womens-history-month-the-incredible-story-of-georgia-tiny-broadwick/
Selkie tapestry. Many of the folk-tales on selkie folk have been collected from the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland). The folk-tales frequently revolve around female selkies (seal women) being coerced into relationships with humans by someone stealing and hiding their sealskin.
A typical folk-tale is that of a man who steals a female selkie's skin, finds her naked on the sea shore, and compels her to become his wife. She will spend her time in captivity longing for the sea, her true home, and will often be seen gazing longingly at the ocean. Once she finds her selkie coat, she can return to the sea, where she really belongs.
SYMBOLS IN THIS TAPESTRY:
This tapestry features a woman who has just left her home on land behind after finding her selkie skin. The colors of the land are dull, symbolizing how her life on land is not true to who she is, whereas the sea is colorful and vibrant, where she really belongs.
The only part of this tapestry that doesnt have much detail is the shore on which she stands. This is to symbolize how she is metamorphosing on neutral land. When we feel the need or want to change our course in life, I believe that it is always best to do it from a neutral place, not one that is governed by extreme emotion, which can cloud our judgement and our hearts true desire.
The selkie folktale always reminds me that we should follow the calling within ourselves, whatever it may be. Its only through curiousity and trust in that calling, that we can become who we were always meant to be. Dont let someone keep your skin from you - find it and transform into your highest self 🤎
This is also a nice time to recommend watching "Song of the Sea", its one of my all time favorite movies about this exact topic!
I hope you like how this one turned out!
Why you should always put a coin on a frozen cup of water before storms.
It's called the one cup tip. You put a cup of water in your freezer. Freeze it solid and then put a quarter on top of it and leave it in your freezer.
That way when you come back after you've been evacuated you can tell if your food went completely bad and just refroze or if it stayed Frozen while you were gone. If the quarter has fallen to the bottom of the cup that means all the food defrosted and you should throw it out.
But if the quarter is either on the top or in the middle of the cup then your food may still be ok. It would also be a great idea to leave this in your freezer all the time and if you lose power for any reason you will have this tip to fall back on. If you don't feel good about your food, just throw it out. The main thing is for all to be safe.
Remembering Maila Nurmi (Vampira) (December 11, 1922 – January 10, 2008)
Maila was a Finnish-American actress who created the campy 1950s character Vampira. She portrayed Vampira as TV's first horror host and in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space. She is also billed as Vampira in the 1959 movie The Beat Generation.
Before Japan’s modernization, women of each and every household were tasked with what is possibly one of the most difficult crafts in the world of culinary arts—rice cooking 🍚.
They washed rice and let it sit in the water so it would absorb moisture. They poured it into a pot large enough to feed a family spanning three generations. The precise amount of water added was determined by the rice’s age and degree of refinement.
With too little water, the rice would burn. With too much water, the result would be an aspiring porridge.
They made a fire under the pot and sealed it with a heavy lid. But the flame had to be kept modest at first to heat the entire pot. Then, the fire needed to be strengthened so the water would boil and cook the rice.
But a few moments after vapor was witnessed from between the pot and the lid, they withdrew firewood swiftly so that the remaining embers would help the rice receive an appetizing, glossy coating.
The rule of thumb was to never, ever leave the pot unattended while cooking rice, even if they heard their babies cry. They had to tell when to take the next action by listening to the sound of rice boiling inside and the way the vapor rose. Opening the lid to look inside would let the vapor pressure go and render the rice a failure.
Skilled housewives were able to create a crispy brown scorch on the outermost layer of rice (like a creme brulee) by doing everything above at the right time, based on years of experience.
When the skills of the wife exceeded that of the mother, the family’s rice scoop was handed down to the next generation, indicating that she was the new boss of the house.
If you own a modern Japanese rice cooker, it does a perfect job thanks to reflecting centuries of collective rice-cooking experience of Japanese women in history 🥹. いただきます Itadakimasu!
Woodblock print by YOSHIDA Hiroshi (1876 - 1950).
"We should hold each other more while we are still alive, even if it hurts." -Robin Beth
"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Das
💯
So many feel lethargic , unmotivated , or worn out in this hemisphere. We are really not made to rocket straight through Winter , ablaze with energy . Look at nature . The ground , the plants , the animals are deep at rest . This is the natural way of things . Spend some time with the long nights , the moon , solitude , the bare earth , stillness . Be easier on yourself ..
~ Victoria Erickson ~
Artist Credit : Elaine Bayley
The self, in its efforts at self-realization, reaches out beyond the ego-personality on all sides; because of its all-encompassing nature it is brighter and darker than the ego, and accordingly confronts it with problems which it would like to avoid.
I had to help innumerable people to get a bit more conscious about themselves and to consider the fact that they consist of many different components, light and dark. That's what one calls integration: to become explicitly the one one has been originally. As Japanese Zen says: "Show me thine original face."
A dissociation is not healed by being split off, but by more complete disintegration. All the powers that strive for unity, all healthy desire for selfhood, will resist the disintegration, and in this way he will become conscious of the possibility of an inner integration, which before he had always sought outside himself.
C.G. Jung, Marriage as a Psychological Relationship, CW 17: Development of Personality, par. 334.
Disintegration - the breakdown of the persona in the individuation process; the moment when the excessive commitment to collective ideals, the persona masking deeper individuality, disintegrates.
Art: Pam Hawkes, Field Mouse
"Two steps forward, one step back. This is how we often evolve in life. When we witness ourselves taking a step backward, it may appear as though we are moving backward, not realizing that its purpose is to accelerate our movement forward.
If we were to step forward too quickly, without feeling ready, we might scare ourselves into turning in the other direction, abandoning the path completely. And it takes time to grow into the version of ourselves that is two steps ahead of where we once stood. And so, the purpose of a step backward is not to diminish our progress or hold us back but to steady ourselves for the journey ahead.
Every runner knows that pauses are a part of the journey, and you must pace yourself, for in sprinting forward, you will lose momentum. Remember that progress is not linear, and there are seasons in life where the slower we go, the faster we travel."
Words by Tahlia Hunter
Artwork by Christian Schloe Digital Artwork
At 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married and had no children, was walking through a park one day in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favourite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll unsuccessfully.
Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would come back to look for her.
The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter "written" by the doll saying "please don't cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures."
Thus began a story which continued until the end of Kafka's life.
During their meetings, Kafka read the letters of the doll carefully written with adventures and conversations that the girl found adorable.
Finally, Kafka brought back the doll (he bought one) that had returned to Berlin.
"It doesn't look like my doll at all," said the girl.
Kafka handed her another letter in which the doll wrote: "my travels have changed me." The little girl hugged the new doll and brought the doll with her to her happy home.
A year later Kafka died.
Many years later, the now-adult girl found a letter inside the doll. In the tiny letter signed by Kafka it was written:
"Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way."
Embrace change. It's inevitable for growth. Together we can shift pain into wonder and love, but it is up to us to consciously and intentionally create that connection.
"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."
~ Claudine Gay
when they want to control you they do not come with shackles made of iron they come instead with cages made of shame and story like the one about the woman who earned crisis for her curiosity so tempted by a life of wisdom and independence she caused the downfall of all civilization
women are dangerous says the shame story of Eve they cannot be trusted and should not trust themselves
give a woman free choice and she’ll eat the fruit tempt the man enrage the god she’ll destroy us all with her mad desire to know to discover to understand her self her world her maker give a woman any freedom and she’ll follow her curiosity shape her own story seek truth beyond the dictates of order and obedience
she will wreck your carefully controlled mandates your reign of tightness she will unmake your holy wars of right and wrong and infuse the realm with choice and instinct empathy outranking rules creativity eclipsing war sovereignty subsuming blind servitude
when you want to know like Eve when you have a taste for truth and a hunger for wisdom you have to question the stories test the facts rattle the cage who profits from you believing a lie? who benefits because you believe you are both cause and curse?
they have tried to burn you with their shame strip you violate you shrink you silence you but they could not break your phoenix spirit its fierce heat will melt old regimes and enflame a generation who will not settle for smallness for submission for shame
sink your self into the feathered red sleeve of your ancestors and rise, woman rise again for you are Persephone’s Daughter Lilith’s lover Eve’s heir
find the truth eat the fruit unmask the myth let it burn