Kansas State Flower: Sunflower

Nature, State Flowers 2 Minutes

Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are a treasure of summertime. They typically begin blooming in the mid-summer and can persist into early fall. The flowers, which stretch around 3 to 6 inches across on average, have a broad central disk surrounded by short, yellow petals. Sunflowers grow on a hairy, sturdy, upright stem that can be several feet high. The stems can hold a single flower or be branched with multiple blooms. Rough, hairy, oval to triangular leaves grow along the stem. These flowers are annual, meaning they complete their growth cycle in one year. You should plant them in the spring after the garden soil has warmed to at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sunflower Care

The only mandatory requirements for sunflowers are a sunny location and well-drained soil. Select an area sheltered from strong winds that might topple these tall plants if possible. It can be helpful to plant sunflowers in groups to support each other against wind and rain. Growers often have to stake their sunflowers, especially the tall varieties, to keep them growing upright. The plants can become very top-heavy when in bloom. Planting sunflowers along a fence is the easiest way to stake them. Bamboo stakes are also strong enough to keep them upright. Use care when inserting the stakes so you don’t damage the plant’s roots.

Sunflowers don’t like to compete with weeds, so keep the garden clean. Mulching around your sunflowers will help maintain soil moisture and weed suppression. Furthermore, wildlife is often attracted to sunflower seedlings. So it’s best to protect seedlings with row covers or screening, removing the cover once the plants are 1 to 2 feet tall.

Light

For the best flowering and sturdiest stems, plant your sunflowers in full sun, meaning at least six hours of direct sunlight per day. Because they are heliotropic (their flower heads follow the sun), ample sun exposure will help sunflowers remain straight rather than bending toward the direction where the light is strongest.

Soil

Sunflowers will grow in almost any soil, including poor, dry soils. However, they thrive in well-drained soil that contains a good amount of organic matter.

Water

Although tolerant of dry conditions, watering sunflowers regularly promotes blooming, as flowering often reduces during periods of drought. Allow the top 1 to 2 inches of soil to dry out between waterings. If your sunflowers are drooping and the soil is dry, that’s often a sign they need more water.

Temperature and Humidity

Optimal temperatures for growing sunflowers are between 70 and 78 F. Still, they tolerate high heat as long as their moisture needs are met. Sunflowers can handle somewhat chilly but sunny environments. They also tolerate high humidity but must have well-draining soil and good air circulation to prevent root rot and other diseases. 

Types of Sunflowers

Helianthus annuus ‘Russian Giant’

Helianthus annuus ‘Teddy Bear’

Helianthus annuus ‘Giant Sungold’

Helianthus annuus ‘Autumn Mix’

Helianthus annuus ‘Italian White’

SOURCE: THE SPRUCE

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Published by pat frederick

Published

150 thoughts on “Kansas State Flower: Sunflower”

      1. Morning, Pat! They’re very salty with kind of a nut flavor. You can buy them already shelled but I like to suck the salt off the shells personally.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. They are tiny – I put the whole seed in my mouth and suck on it, then pull it apart with me teeth (obviously, I can’t eat them now!) and chew up the seed inside.

            Liked by 1 person

              3. IDK, it’s been so long since I bought any. But I expect you can buy a bigger bag of unshelled seeds than those already shelled for the same price.

                Liked by 1 person

            1. Me again . . . bagged sunflower seeds, shelled or not, taste old to me, of late. I believe the bottlenecks at US ports are delaying distribution of lots of food items. Everything is already stale.

              Liked by 2 people

    2. Good morning, GA. I looked up your location on Florida’s panhandle. Google maps gives little info, but I do know I-10. Those sunflowers look like they could shade some solar farms, but maintenance and distribution of energy remains a technical problem. I’ve tried eating sunflower seeds both salted and not, but they are a nuisance. Most animals can handle them, though. My rooster Speckles eats them first, out of his dish.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Good Morning, Katherine!
        That field of Sunflowers is in California, I think. I have eaten sunflower seeds shelled and lightly salted – they add a nice crunch to salads.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. They do add a nice touch, and I love salads. I use walnuts, and maybe cashews, in mine. I also have a salad spinner, to keep lettuce fresh and crisp in the fridge. Feta cheese, but that is no longer made from goat’s milk, and it’s enshouded in tough plastic packaging. Most of my trash is packaging and broken plastic things.

          Liked by 1 person

      1. it was 50 here this morning.
        all sorts of moms and babies running around though. we got to see so many this morning: one mama had hers early in May–her baby is losing its spots already and is getting tall. The mama with the twins is HUGE compared to the first mama. she is far meatier in the chest and leg area.
        then there’s a mama who had her baby late–probably June–he is still so small and cute.
        the mama with the triplets tiptoed around the back of the pond and didn’t come out into the yard. this is the time when the mamas will rejoin the herd so to speak and all the babies run around together in the yard. so much fun to watch!

        Liked by 2 people

              1. yes. but as i said to Filly elsewhere in this thread, the deer have a keen sense of smell–and bears have a pungent aroma. they get a whiff of it, however faint and they take off.
                we know when we don’t see the deer for a few days, a bear has been thru. when the air clears, the deer return

                Liked by 1 person

              2. Deer are smart. I watched one day before yesterday, right next me as I sat outside watching out for Speckles. The deer ate much of Specs’ grain but didn’t touch the fresh corn I had given Specs earlier. The corn was getting sour. I’m sure someone will eat it, eventually.

                Like

              4. Hahaha. I guess deer like your mums better than my corn. They also like eating the lilly flowers I planted next ro my house, and the magnolia flowers, and the blueberries and figs the birds and squirrels don’t get. And they like some grass, but not all, apparently.

                Liked by 1 person

              5. they eat anything tender–like when it first grows in spring. people would give me all sorts of things to plant–like roses, hostas, hyacinths–that they swore deer wouldn’t eat. they ate them all

                Liked by 1 person

  10. nwtex

    nwtex

    August 12, 2024 4:22 am

    Kamala Harris panned for requiring ID to enter Arizona rally after previously painting voter ID laws as racist
    Harris rallygoers outside Phoenix were required to present IDs upon entry

     August 11, 2024

    *snipped*

    X users began sharing screenshots of the email and lambasted Harris for perceived hypocrisy.

    “Voter ID is racist, but you can’t get into a Kamala rally without ID,” actor Kevin Sorbo wrote to his 2 million followers.

    “So let me get this straight: Requiring ID to vote is racist… But requiring ID to attend a Kamala Harris ‘rally’ is NOT racist?” Nick Sortor wrote to his more than 448,000 followers.

    “Kamala Harris requires photo ID to enter a private campaign event. Kamala Harris doesn’t want to require photo ID to vote. Kamala Harris doesn’t want to require ID before crossing our border. Weird,” political commentator Gunther Eagleman also wrote on X. 

    Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment, but they did not immediately respond…

    Harris accused Republicans of “once again doing everything in their power to suppress and attack the voting rights of people of color.”

    “They are deploying suppressive voter ID laws, racial gerrymandering, voter roll purges, precinct closures and reduced early-voting days – all of which have been laser-targeted toward communities of color since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013,” she wrote.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kamala-harris-panned-requiring-id-enter-arizona-rally-after-previously-painting-voter-id-laws-racist

    Liked by 1 person

      1. it’s deceiving that wind farms are allowed to be called green, when clearly they’re not. they use diesel/hydraulic fuel–which needs to be changed at least once if not more a year and the disposal of the blades is expensive and sometimes impossible.
        In the story I liked, the blades are so heavy only one can be transported to a recycling facility at a time–think of all the diesel required to do that as well.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Much confused terminology everywhere. Are you following the protests against the off shore wind farms? More cost-ineffective, dangerous, and eco-damaging superfluous technology, and for what?

          Liked by 1 person

          1. i wonder where the heck the “save the whales”…”save the dolphins” …”save the eagles” people are all hiding. wind farms are ALLOWED to kill so many eagles a year. wth?

            doesn’t make sense

            Liked by 1 person

            1. The US likes to do everything on a massive scale, unfortunately. Many of these ideas are good, but the scale is wrong. Windmills make sense for Holland, which uses them to pump water out of the dikes. A windmill makes sense even in the US, where Jimmy Carter’s father bought one for something like $700, during the Depression, to pump water for family use, as I recall. (Jimmy’s 100th birthday is October 1, by the way. I hope he makes it.)

              Liked by 1 person

  12. if the illegals aren’t costing us millions in their “needs”, then city/state officials are abusing their authority and costing us untold amounts in graft and grift!

    article

    DocGo was one of a few city contractors tasked with developing upstate hotels-turned-shelters last May, a novel city practice that auditors deem “unusual,” and has met with strong opposition from several upstate counties, including Rockland and Orange.

    Although the city’s DocGo contract has been running for over a year, the audit only looks at city payments for services rendered in the beginning months of May and June last year.

    The audit covers more than 30 temporary hotels-turned-shelters managed by DocGo both inside and outside the city, including two in the town of Newburgh in Orange County.

    It finds that as high as 80 percent of payments for that two-month period—at $11 million—either lack proof of services rendered or are unauthorized per the contract.

    Of the questionable payments, $2.5 million were for unauthorized security, medical, and social services, $1.7 million for vacant rooms, and $230,000 for inflated food bills, according to the audit.

    For example, a Newburgh hotel billed a total of $57,000 for hundreds of unoccupied rooms in early May, for which DocGo got an additional $40,000 in commissions.

    At the same hotel, billed hours of security services for May 12 exceeded the contract limit by eight times—it was claimed over 20 guards were on different shifts that day to aid the hotel’s own force—and were paid without the city’s written approval.

    The same Newburgh hotel also stood out as having the highest number of meals delivered during the two-month period. For example, it billed 1,288 meals for May 26, whereas only 388 meals and snacks would be needed that day based on the stated occupancy.

    Hundreds of illegal immigrants or asylum seekers lined up outside of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City on June 6, 2023. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

    All payments were made by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which has direct oversight of DocGo and its subcontractors.

    In response to auditors, HPD said it had given undocumented verbal permission to payments beyond the scope of the contract, that it paid for vacant hotel rooms in preparation for a likely sudden influx, and that excess food was sometimes purchased and stored for future use.

    The Epoch Times reached out to Mayor Eric Adams and DocGo for comment.Upstate Hotel Visits

    Auditors visited around two dozen hotels in the New York City metro area last December and found 530 rooms at eight upstate hotels housed illegal immigrants from the city.

    These hotels were in the counties of Albany, Westchester, Dutchess, and Orange, where two Newburgh hotels had 122 rooms used as city shelters.

    Orange County has had an effective court-ordered temporary ban against the city’s upstate hotel shelter practice since last May. Prior to the ban, the city had sent 186 illegal immigrants to the two Newburgh hotels, according to a court filing at the state supreme court.

    County attorney Richard Golden told The Epoch Times in an Aug. 9 statement that he has no knowledge of new arrivals from the city to any county hotels after the ban.

    The county also has an executive order in place barring New York City from establishing unlawful shelters inside the county, which withheld a legal challenge last month.

    The largest portion—nearly half—of surveyed illegal immigrants during the hotel visits are from Venezuela, followed by Ecuador, Colombia, and Mauritania.

    Most entered the country illegally via the southern border in Texas, with a relatively small number arriving via the states of California, Arizona, and New York, according to the audit.

    During their visits to these hotels, auditors found deficiencies—such as missing microwaves and refrigerators, mold, and water damage—in 80 percent of the inspected rooms.

    DocGo will manage upstate hotels for the city until December, although its shelter services inside NYC ended in May, according to the audit.

    New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is challenging Adams in the Democratic primary for the mayoral race in the fall of 2025.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/audit-finds-nyc-overpaid-upstate-hotels-millions-sheltering-illegal-immigrants

    Liked by 2 people

    1. About sunflowers, being Kansas’ state flower. I saw them often in drainage and irrigation ditches in Kansas and Nebraska, back when I drove regularly through those states. All animals seem to love sunflower seeds, including the squirrels that used to hang from and swing on my bird feeders
      Efore the holding strings and bases broke off. A racoon, too, used to bat at the feeders from the roof, so now I just sprinkle birdseed on the ground. Rats used to eat the sunflower seeds I put in chicken food in their coop. I would find the husks the next morning. Here in Georgia, I have had sunflowers growing wild in gutter and garden, but hurricanes fell trees and lots of plants, including sunflowers and my carefully tended banana trees.

      Farming/gardening takes a lot of work and attention.

      And I tried to respond to the illegals in NYC statement and got bumped back to this one. Look on a map to find why NYC is the source of all the nation’s troubles since G. Washington and sidekick Alexander Hamilton used lands westward of GWs estates to expand into the Ohio River Valley and points beyond.

      Liked by 1 person

          1. we had the raccoons coming up on the deck and knocking down our hummer feeders. that’s why i began taking them in at night. but when they returned and found no feeders, they pooped all over the pillows I had out on my deck furniture. made such a mess. so i burned the pillows, them they just pooped on the deck or furniture itself.
            we catch them all the time on the trail cameras we have set up so we know it’s not other creatures making the mess.

            Like

  15. Ah, there’s Wheezer! She was apparently waiting outside – as soon as I opened the door, she scooted thru the doggie door and sat down to wait patiently for her tuna, which she is gobbling down as we speak!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Alrighty then – she decided to take a turn-about the living room….and headed down the hallway until I came around the corner. Back into the LR, thru the kitchen and she is now hunkered down on the rug inside in front of the patio door.

      Liked by 1 person

          1. we had a load of firewood delivered yesterday and the couple who bring it, brought their dogs. well the dogs enjoyed rolling around on the “new to them” grass and ran all over sniffing peeing and such. this morning all those deer? they were eyeing the pile of firewood suspiciously and sniffing the ground where the dogs were rolling around. some turned and moved far away–the little ones sniffed and sniffed–one or two (must be bucks) stomped their little hooves. it was hysterical.

            Liked by 1 person

    2. Wheezer the cat? My stray cat, Lollipop, showed this morning, for the first time in three days. I left him eating breakfast. Need to go get his dish before the ants get it.
      Happy birthday to me tomorrow!

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Yep, my patio kitty. She’s still not gaining any weight so I’m thinking another dose of wormer might be needed. And since she never appears pregnant, I’m wondering if she may have been neutered at some point. She’s been around for over a year now….

        You almost share a BD with my granddaughter, Piper – she turns 15 today.

        Liked by 2 people

        2. It may not be as hot where you are. No one here is very hungry, except the biting insects. I’m not very hungry, and neither is Speckles. He’s spending his days in the coolest possible places. We all do seem to lose weight in the summer. Might be best to wait on the wormer.
          Leos abound. JD Vance, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, me. Trump is a Gemini, and Kamala Harris is a Libra, same birthday but not the same year, as my sister. Of course, sister Carol already knew that . . .

          Liked by 2 people

          1. No, it’s not been that hot here; I gave her one dose of wormer a month or so ago and a follow-up is needed. She also has fleas and ear mites but none of those issues can be solved w/o getting hands-on and she’s got some dangerous front claws – she’s already nailed me twice!

            Liked by 2 people

            1. I have had lots of cat scratches and bites, but a former veterinary assistant taught me to wrap the cat in a towel to perform relatively operations, like toe nail clipping, or to lance abscesses on Blackie’s butt, when he was alive. Phyllis was also there to help, then. Long time ago.

              Liked by 2 people

        1. Thank you, Ms. Pat. You are the first to
          say so. No special plans, except to stay as cool as possible, in this heat, rain, and humidity. I was glad to see Lollipop, and he is now sleeping on a shady chair in the carport, but he didn’t eat much, and ants were all over his remaining food. I dumped the food in the driveway sun and filled the empty dish with water to run off the ants. The fire ants are the worst of three different kinds. I have fire ant pimples on my hand and may get one on my toe, where ants hide in my shoe.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. The fire ants are mean and their stings hurt several minutes. Ike other ants, they seem to crawl uo yoy leg or arm en masse, then start biting all at the samevtime. I think one got me outside today, as I sat on a bench watcging Speckles. I read in a library book a few years that an ritual of passage for the Huarori (sp?) a jungle-living tribe deep in South America, was to fill a burlap sack with fire ants and leave the poor young man to his fate, for a few hours or more. This is supposed to toughen him up.

              Like

  25. Liked by 1 person

  26. President Trump to sue DOJ for $100 million for the gov’t’s unprecedented raid on Mar-a-lago claiming political prosecution.

    FTA

    EXCLUSIVE: Former President Donald Trump is set to sue the Justice Department for $100 million in damages over the government’s unprecedented 2022 raid on his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida, with lawyers arguing it was done with “clear intent to engage in political persecution.”

    Fox News has obtained Trump’s memo claiming “tortious conduct by the United States against President Trump.”

    After the raid, Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed to investigate. Smith ultimately brought 37 felony counts against Trump, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.

    Trump to Sue Joe Biden’s DOJ Over Unprecedented Mar-a-Lago Raid for $100 Million
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/breaking-trump-sue-doj-mar-lago-raid-100/

    Liked by 2 people

  29. “A Succinct history of Trump and Elon Musk’s budding alliance, and why it matters.”

    Pepe Lives Matter, Aug 12, 2024

    EXCERPT: “The DOD’s biggest contractor is Elon Musk. This occurred when Donald Trump was in office. Trump essentially helped propel Elon into his position as the richest man on the planet. What did Elon Musk do with the massive wealth he acquired? He bought the CIA-controlled Twitter, and subsequently exposed how they were working against Trump and Republicans.

    He could have done anything else with his money. But he attempted to save free speech. Listen to what Trump said here: “He’s one of our great geniuses. And we have to protect all these people. He’s one of our very smart people. We have to cherish those people. Shocking how well…it’s come so fast. You go back a year. They were talking about the end of the company and now all of a sudden they are talking about these great things. He’s going to be building a very big plant in the United States. He has to because we help him so he has to help us.“

    (Video)

    But take a wild guess at who actually “suggested” that Elon Musk buy Twitter and save it. Listen closely to Nunes here: “We are all for it. President Trump, before Elon Musk bought it, actually said to go and buy it…. We encouraged Elon Musk to buy it because someone has to take on these tech tyrants. People like Elon Musk doing what he is doing, we are definitely in favor it..” It sure seems like there has been a hidden alliance between them for a while now.

    (Video of Nunes)

    Listen closely to Kash Patel here. He literally tells us that Trump and his allies gave him a massive DOD contract…. “So when I was over at DOD we gave this guy that’s Department of Defense. He is doing some cool stuff in space and everything. He’s doing a ton of stuff that you would think is so global. He is literally launching this thing called Sat Link which almost no one knows about but he’s been building for five years. Wow. Which is free wifi for the world which is amazing…..”

    https://pepelivesmatter.substack.com/p/a-succinct-history-of-trump-and-elon

    Liked by 1 person

  30. Liked by 1 person

  31. George Profile picture

    George

    @BehizyTweets

    1h• 2 tweets • 2 min read •

    Read on X

    BREAKING: The European Union just issued a letter to Elon Musk demanding that he censor Donald Trump in their upcoming interview. Threatening him with “legal obligations” if he fails to stop the “disinformation”Europeans are interfering in American elections”This notably means ensuring, on one hand, that freedom of expression and of information, including media freedom and pluralism, are effectively protected and, on the other hand, that all proportionate and effective mitigation measures are put in place regarding the amplification of harmful content in connection with relevant events, including live streaming. which, if unaddressed, might increase the risk profile of X and generate detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security. This is important against the background of recent examples of public unrest brought about by the amplification of content that promotes hatred, disorder, incitement to violence, or certain instances of disinformation.”

    OH SNAP! 𝕏 CEO Linda Yaccarino is blatantly calling it election interference

    “This is an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US”

    Liked by 1 person

  35. Liked by 2 people

  38. A bird with a thin neck and long beak feeds a grub to one of its small, fluffy chicks.
    Sandhill Crane mama feeding colts I saw this sandhill crane mama feeding its colts. Taken April 8, 2023 in Gainesville, Florida. © Mario Labado/TNC Photo Contest 2023

    Petr Bambousek​, Czech Republic​

    White birds crowd the sides of a rock outcropping. A long bird is in flight, framed by an opening in the cliff. Waves crash on the rocks in the background.
    Gannet Colony The giant cliffs that line the shores of the archipelago are home to a variety of attractive bird species. Probably the most spectacular colonies are those of the northern gannets (Morus bassanus). In this photo I tried to capture as best I could just the unique environment of the terrier colonies with the typical combination of strong winds and rough seas. © Petr Bambousek/TNC Photo Contest
    Mustard yellow fields frame a large fallow field. Hummocks of gray dirt are pushed up at the end of parallel tracks.
    Farmland Although this is actually an irrigable land, it became dehydrated due to the decrease in the water level as a result of excessive water use. The vehicle, which has deep well drilling equipment, is about to start work to dig a new and deeper well on the land below, which has become ineffective. We must have water for a healthy future with conscious agriculture.​© Mustafa Binol/TNC Photo Contest 2023

    A group of people stand at the edge of a large, open sandy area. Large holes dot the surface, filled with green and orange water.Dry Fish Pond The holes dug by fish for spawning can be seen after the pond has dried up.​ Tai Sang Wai, Yuen Long, Hong Kong © Jeanny Tang/TNC Photo Contest 2023

    Liked by 2 people

  39. A single tree grows on a small circle of land surrounded by water. The tree is covered with white egrets roosting for the night.O Pé de Garças A small island with a tree welcomes a flock of herons every evening, who come from far away to rest for the night until they leave again the next morning. The image was taken at a small lagoon in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. © Rubens Rebouças/TNC Photo Contest 2023

    Close up view of a spider covered in its tiny baby spiders.
    Wolf Spider Mama This image is a 129 frame focus bracket of a wolf spider with her babies. I encountered her in the middle of an asphalt path during an early morning macro outing this summer. You can usually expect some movement from the kids, which could ruin a stack attempt, but they were all completely still for this set. © Benjamin Salb/TNC Photo Contest 2023
    Two butterflies float next to each other, illuminated by a golden light. Long, thin stalks of grass wave around them.
    Love Follows Butterflies chasing under the setting sun at Nankun Mountain, Guangzhou, China. © 雷 波/Lei Bo​/TNC Photo Contest 2023

    A long legged spider hangs suspended from an egg sac spun from its own silk. The round sac seems to glow with a soft golden light.Terrifying Geometry This is a species of spider known as ogre spiders, of the genus Deinopis. The photograph was taken at night in the middle of a mature forest in northern Ecuador in the tropical rainforest of the Ecuadorian Chocó, a place considered a hotspot. The spider photographed was generating its egg sac with its own web.​© Jaime Daniel Fajardo Torres/TNC Photo Contest 2023

    Purple and orange colored fruits grow from the flat, prickly scales of a cactus. The face of El Capitan glows in the light of the setting sun.Fruits of Labor Prickly pear cactus fruits at the base of El Capitan at sunset, Guadalupe National Park, Texas. © Adam Mowery/TNC Photo Contest 2023

    Liked by 2 people

  40. Patience

    August 12, 2024 5:45 pm

    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump

    As President-Elect,
    I worked with the Olympic Organizing Committee of Los Angeles
    in getting the 2028 Olympics
    to come to the United States.

    There was tremendous competition from other countries.

    President Obama refused to speak to the International Olympic Committee

    (perhaps because of a previous rejection by them of a proposal personally made by him!),

    which needed the enthusiastic support and approval of the U.S. President

    – Without which they would not have chosen our Country.

    I gave them what they wanted to hear,
    and got the job done!

    It was my great honor to do so.

    Hopefully I will be President,
    and
    our Country will have reached new (and record!) levels of success.

    SEE YOU IN 2028.

    Thank you!

    Liked by 1 person

  42. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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