A lot of people never make it through the worst of it – And of those that do… alot of them run out of steam before they reach the finish-line (I think I’m one of’em) 🤷‍♂️

There’s always a deeper meaning to/behind something!

Once you know the principle behind something you can apply it infinitely

Why do you suppose God-made such a high ceiling?

Animals have a nature, and a character similar to we humans.

I’m not interested in being right. I’m only interested in the truth -Not yours! Not mine! “The…”!

I get a lot of mixed responses of late with regard to my sharing in meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. I know I have my own mixed opinions about myself. But I’ll never forget what my sponsor of 14 years, Granville, once told me, “Richard, of all the people I’ve sponsored through the years, you’ve come the furthest.” 🤔 Of course Gran was also known for his “two-sides-of-the-coin” sense of humor lol In that particular instance though, I’d like to think that with all the afternoon’s we spent struggling together with my disappointments and ingratitude regarding what I had really been given… that he saw something in me that made it all worthwhile in the end ☺

This past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about about the issues I’ve been having with people in the meeting. Some rather negative feedback…. A few minutes ago I thought about Granville -Hoping somewhere up there, he’s smiling down on me (and that somehow, through all of this, I’m on the right track). So I asked God, and then flipped the penny -Heads it twer! 🙂

For some time I was having trouble with my blue ray player. The Wi-Fi wouldn’t stay connected. Ana was even nice enough to bring me another blue ray player but it did not have Wi-Fi 😏

I fussed with the one I had for a couple of months at least. Then one day I decided to call Sony and have them assist with troubleshooting it. They put me through several troubleshooting procedures… None of which seemed to work. The recommendation, go find the store to have it fixed since the warranty was out on it. So I figured I’ll just keep reconnecting it with the password… Anyways, the following day I went to my buddy’s pawn shop and looked around like I usually do and in the front case there was this little gadget that caught my attention. I asked Daniel what it wasn’t he said it was a roku. He said they were about $45 at the store and he’d give it to me for 30 🙃. So I fussed around back-and-forth for a bit with a couple of other items, a Leatherman wave, something else which I can’t recall, Oh, it was a Chicago Blackhawks hoodie. Well Betty decided to give me the roku for 10 bucks -yippee!!! So I brought it home, set it off to the side and decided to watch TV from the blue ray (YouTube, Tubi… the usual) – But I couldn’t get the Wi-Fi to stay connected on the blue ray. A. Apparently when we did the troubleshooting through Sony, the problem only worsened. So I thought 🤔 guess I better hook up the roku to the TV -2hich I did.. I found out very quickly that I could do nothing without a remote…. So I called Betty back to see if they had a remote there that I could buy…………………. She said she had one sitting in front of her with the the pawnshop tag sticker on it for $29.95 and that it went with the roku she sold me for $10 lol she tried to sell me the remote I said well what are you talking about it goes with it. She chirped, I just told you that roku for $10 it’s $29.95. I said oh come on it’s too late for that lol. I told her I’ll be right down to pick it up and I’ll bring it candy bar has a bribe!! So I took her to candy bar and I brought back the remote and the roku has been working perfect ever since. Inspirit you see things like this God does for me all the time. How many things does he do that I never notice? How many times did my actions interfere with him doing these very things many times in the past? Now tell me something, is that perfect timing or what? I didn’t have to skip A-day of watching TV via WI-FI!

OK another miracle – Tonight it’s Friday night. Last Saturday, or Sunday I went down to the big bookstore and picked up my 2 James bond box-sets with 6 of each in them. Vol7me 1 and 2. I put them on hold at the local bookstore the day before. When I went to go pick them up the following day, somebody had switched one out. It’s switched out “Diamonds are Forever” for Tomorrow Never Dies”. So I decided to go back over to the bookshelf where there were thousands of DVD’s and see if I could find that other missing DVD. I started looking at the 1st at the 1st bookcase and then the 2nd and then a woman started talking to me while I was humming the song living let die. We talked for 45 minutes to an hour and towards the end of that conversation I turned and tried to find that DVD not even remembering which one it was. All I had to go by was the binding on the DVD cover had a one and a 1/2 inch picture of sean or of Sean Connery or Roger Moore on it. So I went through hundreds and hundreds of DVD’s only going by that little picture on the spine with no idea what section of the alphabetized… I was looking for. So I started at a and work myself through the alphabet. Anyways it’s anyways this woman and I continued talking it was getting late and I was getting hungry and her husband was asking her to get going… so I started to peer between her and the 3rd bookshelf trying to find the movie I was looking for -which I had no idea what I was looking for lol Suddenly, for some strange reason I turned over my shoulder and looked at the 2nd or 3rd shelf of the 4th bookcase the bookcase and 010 on 2 DVD cases in the midst of 30 or 40 on that particular shell, among several hundred on that particular bookcase. Before my eyes could even focus I found myself going back-and-forth between these 2 particular DVD’s for some unknown reason. As my eyes began to focus I went from the right DVD case to the left and and saw a picture of James bond, Sean Connery on the spine of the DVD case – It was diamonds are forever. It was at that moment that I recalled seeing that movie in the set yesterday. God! So we got that wrapped up but there were a couple of duplicates dvds in the set – One was “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” and the other was thunderball. I kind of wondered what the other DVD’s were that should have been in the set. Anyways when I got home and started going through them and cleaning…. I started going down the row of them while they were in the Box set and thought one of them was “For Your Eyes Only” -a definite favorite of mine. But it wasn’t, it turned out to be “Dr. No”. Well guess what? Well over at my buddy’s pawn shop earlier today I was paying on a layoway and for a brief moment got side tracked and decided to flip through some movies. Guess what I found in the 1st place I looked, the movie behind the movie first in the row? “For Your Eyes Only”. And I don’t know if there are multiple versions of this movie on DVD but this one had the picture of Roger Moore in the back and when I slithered it into the Box-set where I pulled out 1 of the “Thunderball” duplicates, the picture of Roger Moore on the spine fit perfectly along side “View to a Kill”, “Octopussy”, and “Live and Let Die”. God once again! Yahoo!!!! What a way to start off the weekend -THANK YOU LORD!!!! 🙆‍♂️

Bonus: Couple years ago, I decided to buy some corn dogs for my neighbor who happens to work for the Wal-mart I shop at. The 30 ct. box runs $8.97. There was no price on the shelf they were on -the nearest tag was $3.97. Anyways, I asked an associate for help who turned out not to be much help (normally they price-match). So, when I got to the register there was an issue with the barcode – 🤔 long-story-short… without even asking, the associate in self-checkout punched it in at $4.00. WHEN WE THINK OF OTHERS GOD ALWAYS… My Grammie had a saying “YOU CAN’T OUTGIVE GOD!”

One day, @ Wally-world (Wal-mart), I was looking @ basketballs. I spotted one on the shelf @ $14.97. When I took it to the register it scanned $49.97. But the manager on duty refused to honor the price -so I went and got another which was a çno-inflate instead. It was also in the wrong place -regular price $38.97 and got it for $19.97. Anyways, when I got home and took it out of the Box and noticed it had no place to put a needle in it to air it up. To make matters worse, the the writing on the Box said guaranteed for one year not to go flat. So I thought to myself what happens after a year if you can’t fill it up with air? So I took it back! They asked if I wanted to get another one and I said yes. So back once again to the basketball section…. I saw that same ball I had wanted a couple of days before, in the wrong place again…. (But the ball in the box didn’t look right* -I checked another ball in the same box next to it, it looked the same so I figured oh well, it’s OK) “Wilson Evolution”. When I took it up to the register it scanned at $14.97 instead of $49.97 (🤷‍♂️ so I never even got to tell them it was on the shelf with a sticker price of $14.97 or $19.97 ->@ this point…. 🤔 lol) This particular item had a bar code on the ball itself and that’s what they scanned. After I paid for the item I went back to the basketball section thinking thinking that ball did not belong in that Box. The Box had “Evolution” on it but the ball itself was not. So, I went back over and looked at the other boxes again to be sure. What happens next is really interesting, because it never happens-not in the town I live in any ways… A young man who happened to be working the Sporting Goods section happened by, stopped and asked me if I needed anything – to top it all off, he was a baller too! I told him “I had just bought this ball but that the ball inside the Box didn’t look right”. He took one look at the ball, looked up at the shelf above the section where I had gotten my ball, grabbed another Box with the right ball in it and switched them out right there on the spot! GOD!!!!! 🙏

* As it turns out, there were several balls in the wrong boxes. Which I had pointed out to a supervisor a couple of days earlier. For whatever reason, they were $14.97 balls Inboxes that were supposed to add supposed to have balls with greater prices pricing. $49.97 and $38.97 and so forth. I don’t know if someone was buying balls and then switching them out with cheaper ones and returning them…. But I felt I should point it out to the store and on the last. God always appreciates honesty! Although I’m not necessarily real pleased about my motives.. I hate doing a good deed with “what’s in it for me” in mind. I think that particular day, I was a little resentful of the manager the day before, not wanting to honor the price on the basketball that was shelved, or boxed incorrectly.**

**I learned a long time ago that there are many different kinds of people in the world. If one manager tells you “no” go to another one, and quite possibly they will tell you “yes”. I’m going to different people in stores, I’ve talked to different people on eBay…. Explain the exact same situation to two different peeps… Had one show no empathy or sense of fairness whatsoever… while another flat out said “Oh no, we need to do something about that!” Some people are great, others not so much! Some people seem to care, others not so much! 🤷‍♂️

While Jesus was down here He spent many hours in A-day alone in prayer and meditation (to continually rely on His Heavenly Father for strength, direction, connection. That being the case -how much do you suppose we require? 🤷‍♂️ I mean if this God-man had requirements in order to… then what of us?

If they (we) did to Jesus what they (we) did, what can we expect?

The more salt you put on food the more your body craves! The more fatty foods you eat, that is the more food you eat that has no real new nourishment – The sooner you will become hungry again. I notice when I eat a lot of fatty foods my body starts craving fatty foods. Do you tell your body what to do or does your body tell you what to do?

When I did drugs, the more I did the more my body craved and demanded – And in ever increasing quantities. The thought came to my mind many years ago -that of moderation and just the right amount. All I require, once A-day, is a teaspoon of God’s grace. No more and no less!

“IF SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE GOTTEN GOD ALL WRONG* -THEN WE WHO ARE NEITHER ENTIRELY CLEAR AS TO WHERE WE ARE COMING FROM (AT ALL TIMES) -AND TO A GREATER, OR LESSER DEGREE STRUGGLE TO CONVEY OUR OWN CONFUSION (OR IGNORANCE/INEXPERIENCE) -THEN WHAT ARE OTHERS TO MAKE OF US – THEN WHY WOULD IT BE CONSIDERED SO FAR-FETCHED FOR OTHERS TO “GET US ALL WRONG” 🤷‍♂️

In a nutshell: “IF SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE GOTTEN GOD ALL WRONG – THEN WHY WOULD IT BE CONSIDERED SO FAR-FETCHED FOR OTHERS TO “GET US ALL WRONG” 🤷‍♂️

*

**”Act as if ye had faith; and faith will be given to you.”
–David Mamet (b. November 30, 1947)

This certainly sounds like it comes straight out of the King James version of the Bible, but its origin is far more contemporary.

The line is spoken by Paul Newman in Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict (1982). Mamet’s screenplay was based on the late Barry Reed’s 1980 novel, which in turn was ghost written by this fella.

It’s left as an exercise to the reader to attempt to locate the line in the novel. All the Internet references I checked credit it to Mamet, and who am I to doubt WikiQuote?

How could a line of dialogue from a modern film be mistaken for scripture written two millenia ago? It appears in the middle of Paul Newman’s jury summation scene, which is cited by those who rank such things as one of the greatest monologues to appear in a motion picture:

•Title is an excerpt from the book/film “Conversations With God” by Neale Donald Walsh. Film credits: Henry Czerny in starring role playing Neale Walsch; Directed by Steven Deutsch (2006).

Feel free to add to the argument (if a thought should strike you) -and even if that thought should go against your own personal feelings or long-standing views!*

*You see, mankind is not only littered with misconceptions about things (particularly those things…), but in many instances he is either the purveyor, and or the gate-keeper of those misconceptions.Therefore, what we are attempting to do is nothing short of to “bring crashing down”… As previously stated, “We are moving very rapidly in the areas of technology and information. But very slowly -possibly even backwards, with regard to Truth, and our own Humanity.”*

*”There are always advantages to doing things the right way and there are always advantages to doing things the wrong way. Some men continue to seek out advantages through doing things the wrong way.”

•Title is taken from a song written and sung by the great Bruce Springsteen (1987).

When an honest man does business with a dishonest man -who tends to get the short end of that stick? It is a rare man indeed who not only has the capabilities but the willingness to business is in an honest fashion -to compete with dishonest businessmen and still come out ahead!