Bright and early, first thing in the morning,
do you seek out memes that insult your enemies?
Tag Archives: Choosing feelings
Closing one’s mind to toxicity
“It has to be dramatic. It has to be big. It has to be the Big Lie versus the Big Steal.”
— Steve Bannon
She didn’t know.
After everything I’d gone through in order to catch that bus,
there was no way in hell I’d fail to do whatever it took to stay on it.
Victory is mine
In a blog post of July 19, 2014, I declared my ambition to become the “Nemesis of the morning glories” in the garden out behind my church. My plan was to spend four hours per week specifically weeding the morning glories in that garden.
On Monday, October 20, 2014, I wrote, “The morning glories are vanquished. As of today, they are under control throughout the entire garden.”
Learning curve
Cornel West channels Martin Luther King Jr. to criticize Obama
Friday 2014-12-26
Learning happiness can take you out of your comfort zone.
So, there can be a learning curve as one comes to tolerate and manage greater degrees of happiness and prosperity than one has been accustomed to.
Some time ago, this short, very thin Korean immigrant with shoulder-length gray hair began coming to the shelter. When he first came here, he was in bad shape; he appeared to have no resources at all.
Counting my blessings
Here is a short list of things I can be grateful for.
| ✓ | A clean sheet every night* |
| ✓ | A clean pillow case every night* |
| ✓ | A blanket every night* |
| ✓ | A pillow every night* |
| ✓ | A hot shower every night |
| ✓ | Clean clothes available every day |
| ✓ | A good supper every night |
| ✓ | Financial resources: At this time, anything I want, I can get. (Anything I can’t get, I don’t want.) |
| ✓ | Moral support from my family, my friends and my church. A ton of people are pulling for me, hoping for my prosperity. |
| ✓ | The best problems in the world. (See next Wednesday’s post.) |
*(To my knowledge, no other shelter in Baltimore City provides these things. If you don’t bring your own, you sleep on a bare mat. A change in that situation is something to earnestly hope for.)
Originally posted Christmas Eve 2014.
Note on forthcoming posts
Biting the bullet
The inevitability of evil
Sooner or later, it had to happen.
Sunday, about 14:00, I had just bought my second coffee at McDonald’s. I put it on my table and, as they require me to do, took all my things with me to go out and smoke.
Related: Does McDonald’s discriminate against the homeless?
Outside, I took one more shot at trying to understand how evil — negativity, conflict — happens.
There are those who say that evil is necessary because without it, humans would never be able to appreciate joy. I have never found this believable.
Continue reading The inevitability of evil
What do you want?
Choices between darkness and light.
Balk: Issues of the idle mind
Self-management is paramount.
It also takes work.
