0715210234: People who aren’t much fun are still people.

0714211817: Sometimes, the most profound things to come out of one’s mouth are mere reminders (of things previously spoken)!

When I used to do the groups up at Mesilla Valley Hospital some of the people would scoff because they’d heard it all before! Apparently they never stopped to think perhaps some of the others in the group never had? Unless you have groups segregated by levels……. You must start with those most lacking in knowledge. When you go on a hiking trip with the family, as the leader of the group do you go at your own pace or the pace of the youngest, the smallest, the slowest, the weakest?

For those of you who have yet to find your soulmate – Is it possible they live in the future? The past? In Heaven?

0714211719: Joy and sorrow are the primary experiences one should expect to have in this life. Trying to go for too much or too little of what life offers us is where so many of us get into trouble. They are the sunlight and the darkness that ensure a balance which enables us to grow in God’s likeness – like a plant! Too much light… too much darkness… you see!

Life is filled with reasons to feel joyful and sorrowful – don’t turn away from either of them!

•Title credited to Bobby McFerrin.

0713212247: The more stock goes up with regard to love, the more stock goes down with regard to money (and power). The more stock goes down with regard to love, the more stock goes up with regard to money (power). This goes to the ❤ of man’s existence – the systems he erects and the relationships he shares with his fellow human beings!

You see, love and caring for one another takes away the emptiness (and fear) that we seek relief from through what money can buy to fill… and eliminate… And when we are united in love, power doesn’t mean much anymore. Equality and security replace uncertainty and and inequality.

So if you want to neutralize the power struggle (and all the fear-based…) constantly playing out in our world – LOVE IS THE ANSWER!

•Title credited to the great Todd Rundgren (Sung by England Dan and John Ford Coley) – and one of my personal favorites.

0713212212: Companies are using our money to put in safeguards that were absent and previously allowed certain things to slip through the cracks, grant us certain perks, or simply ensure fairness… How does it feel to be giving money to a company who is using it to further their advantage and to further your own disadvantage? Cable companies for example, no longer want to be restricted from access (to their own equipment) inside your home. So, they have spent billions completely redoing technology, which among other things, better protects them from us, using our own moolah!

When something goes wrong, when doing business or dealing with a company as a regular citizen… They know they have the advantage on their side. They know that the typical American citizen is not prepared to wage a legal battle against them. That is why so many companies win with the little person and back down when it comes to the rich and powerful. But this is not how it should work at all. For the average citizen you would have to go out and hire a lawyer. If the company is large enough they probably already have some on staff. But none of this should make any difference if there is an injustice. But that’s not the world we live in is it! The person who has a lawyer or the person who has the better lawyer is generally considered the one who is right – In legal terms. Not moral terms!

What is it with charging different prices for the same shirt but a different color? Geeez… I remember years ago walking into a store and the coolest color on the shelf was $8 more!!!!🙃 I was p’od!!!

Someday, an extra large shirt will be more expensive than a large shirt – man cannot think of anything else better to do than to refine his profit margin.

You know whose paying for all these cameras in the stores…? WE ARE!!! The honest people who don’t need watching!

0713212109: They had to appease the guilt of mothers* out in the workforce and away from their children. So, in the nineties they came up with this bullshit, that it’s not the amount of time you spend with your children but the quality. Remember a 2 income family pays more taxes (in some cases) and has more buying/spending power. And 2 parents out of the house also contributes to the demise or weakening of the family structure which in turn destabilizes the strength of average Americans in the face of corporate America, government, and also certain groups within the population. i.e. Groups who have one income which is sufficient so that at least one parent can stay-at-home and properly rear their children and sufficiently prepare them for the world outside the home. You think the animal kingdom is competitive?

*It’s my understanding many women wanted out of their relationships but were financially dependent on their spouses/companions. Others were sick and tired of sitting around the house all day long (cooking, cleaning…) while their other half… The Bible talks of the breaking down of the family unit.  What many women fail to realize was that they had given up the most important, most powerful, most demanding, and most rewarding job in the Universe!

There’s just one problem with “the strong survive and the weak fall by the wayside”. And that is that man has the ability to care for the weak or let them fall by the wayside – they/we all have a choice. If GOD didn’t intend for the strong to protect the weak, then HE wouldn’t have granted us that ability. HE wouldn’t have given us that consciousness, nor that conscience to do so.

People use the excuse all the time that people out on the street asking for money are running a scam. So what if they are… God gives you the Blessing just the same doesn’t He? How often do we outsmart our selves, talk ourselves out of a Blessing from God?

•Title credited to Pete Townsend and The Who.

0713211732: Many people go to school to learn how to become great writers – but the best they are able to achieve is writing great. Rocky remember? I think I’m a great writer but I don’t write so great. Well, I take great notes anyways. That is when I’m able to remember them and not too lazy to write them down.

0717211138: A prayer I was taught by God 8 or 9 years ago that came to me just weeks after I started reading The Bible. Several years before I had tried but just couldn’t do it. And again, a couple of decades prior, I tried and failed. I supposed my lifestyle was far too contrasting in nature. Anyways, about 8-9 years ago I gave it another shot… One afternoon I tried reading one of the books straight through and it took about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. I don’t recall which book it was however. Then GOD intervened and said try reading 4 chapters a day. I started at the beginning with Genesis, took that advice, and for approximately 10 months I read those 4 chapters a day until I got through it – front to back. GOD knew exactly what HE was recommending based on my limitations and the fact I’ve never been much of a reader. At this same time I was reading “The imitation of Christ” and took the same recommendation and applied it to this little red book given to me by a dear, dear friend who received it following the death of her Grandfather. And sure enough, it worked!

I’ll tell you what spurred me on with regard to another attempt at reading it (The Bible). Sometime around the mid-nineties just after our fathers’ passing, I had a conversation with my younger brother Gabriel who told me when he was about 13 or 14 he had had enough of what his mother had to say about our father. One day he got on his bike in Ontario, Ca. and decided to take a ride out to Laverne and look for our father who was homeless at that time. His reason, he wanted to meet the man face-to-face, and decide for himself who he was and how he felt about him.

Well, one day I realized that I felt the same way about The Bible. Opinions abound about that ancient text. I wanted to see for myself what it was, and how I felt about it first hand. So I did. Two things stood out early on:

First, it was an indictment of mankind, and what man would write about himself, his own kind in this regard (and hope to live peaceably among his fellow human beings);

Second, was that there was little or no humor in it which is often the case when trying to take the sting out of an otherwise controversial or sensitive subject (is there anything more sensitive or controversial than The Bible). Another way humor is used in books is to bolster sales. And now that I think about it, there simply are few justifications for man’s history regarding his behaviors (something one very well might expect – of course you can always argue… I’m quite sure there will be some disagreement here -> slaughter of entire civilizations… babies…) towards his fellow man (ok I admit it – The Bible is riddled with justifications for… and criticisms of…). All told… it does seem to contain quite the explanation. Maybe I should change the above title to “opening a real can of worms”😒 Moving on….

This is the prayer GOD gave me just weeks into my third (or fourth) try at reading The Bible*. It took a few weeks to form, but eventually it came to me.

“Oh Blessed Lord, let my heart, mind, and spirit be open to receive this most precious gift through YOUR SON JESUS CHRIST who is risen! Amen.”

Oh, one last thing. Something very interesting took place right around this time**. As I sat on the couch in the living room of our little apartment on Roadrunner pkwy. reading (aloud)… I remember hearing a little noise at the door periodically. I would get up and look through the little peep-hole and see nothing. This continued for some time. We had hung a Christmas Wreath on the front of the door for the Holidays which remained there for some time (months lol). This might have been around March or April of 2013 (maybe 2014). Anyways, one day we were coming home from the store(?) and heard a little noise coming from the wreath as we were unlocking the front door to enter. It was 3 little sparrows in a nest. It was the second floor with a little overhang, and 2 doors, one to the right and one to the left – opposite each other. Now I don’t know about you, but to my mind… Birds don’t ordinarily nest where there is a lot of human traffic. I seem to recall something in either The Bible, “The Imitation of CHRIST” or “Poem of the Man-God” about GOD’S creatures longing to hear GOD’S Word.

I just want to say that it is things just like this which have contributed to a greater Faith and understanding of GOD and HIS existence, as well as HIS love for each and every one of us.

**I believe August or September of 2012 (maybe 2013) was when I sat down and read The Bible, a chapter in its entirety as mentioned above. I became discouraged for several months and then attempted to pick it back up some time in February or March of 2013 (maybe 2014).

•Title credited to Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

0711211829: To me it seems these writings are like an egg forming in a bird. At some point they’re ready to be laid, and out they pop. Pretty much fully formed – it’s as if… well, as if I already have it memorized and am merely putting it down in written form for the first time. Actually, the idea comes to me initially (often prompted by and relating to a specific event or merely triggered by one), and then once I am in front of a screen or piece of paper and pen/pencil…. as I start to write it it simply unfolds*. In 98% of the cases it’s just that simple, and straightforward. However, for almost the entirety of the time these writings have been coming to me, they have been so vivid that I have a tendency to wait or hesitate to write them down (as if they will stick with me forever) – and in most cases they are gone as quickly as they come, and my memory of them is as if they had never been there at all. And with increasing frequency, where they were there (in my head) just seconds before. With increasing frequency, they come, then vanish in an instant. Old age?😏

•Title credited to Plutarchs’ “The Symposiacs” 1st century C.E.

*Must be coming through the subconscious. To me it’s like a computer working on a math problem in the background. 🤷‍♂️

0708211040: I worked in jobs where apparently there wasn’t alot of competition. I realize now that some people go that route because they don’t have it in them to compete. They don’t have the drive or the sense of worth, or in some cases the interest to enter into a contentious setting. I’m guessing I’m one of those people. I mean there are people with my (dysfunctional/addictive) background who are fierce fighters and strategists – I’m just not one of them.

•Title credited to Neil Young