Bright and early, first thing in the morning,
do you seek out memes that insult your enemies?
Tag Archives: Choosing thoughts
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.”
Note on forthcoming posts
Biting the bullet
What do you want?
Choices between darkness and light.
Balk: Issues of the idle mind
Self-management is paramount.
It also takes work.
When you can’t get what you want
(Originally published July 5, 2013 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 2014-09-17.)
There is a song from The Sound of Music that relates; it concludes, “… I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don’t feel so bad.”
Wednesday morning I stood outside McDonald’s having my last smoke before leaving. I considered that as soon as I got to the library, I’d need to count my pennies and plan spending for the rest of the week. I pondered whether or not to buy a soda on my way there. I’d had some unusual spending earlier in the week, and faced some more unusual spending in connection with the 4th of July (The library’s closed.). The wisdom of having bought or not bought a soda at this time would depend on the outcome of that planning.
Keep the focus on you
(Originally published 09/15/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 06/25/14.)
Teddy is an old man. He wears a rosary around his neck, and never fails to “testify” in chapel. “I talk to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost every day,” he says. Every time there’s an altar call, he runs right up there to get born-again — again. Five times a week, he’ll do that.
He got barred out a year ago for selling someone oxycontin.
Friday night 09/07/12, he came back. He insists to everyone that he’s never been here before, and said he wants to get into the program.
Aside from those things, he hasn’t changed at all. Still all the same empty religious talk.
Sunday night he said he changed his mind about the program. They require you to sign over all your benefits, and he’s not willing to do that. That tells me you don’t want to get well.
I get bad feelings every time I see him.
———— ♦ ————
Sitting outside waiting to be let in, Wednesday 08/29/12 Fallon and a couple other guys I don’t like too much got into reminiscing about how this shelter used to be, years ago, before the renovation. This upset me.
The power of presence
(Originally posted 08/15/13 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 05/21/14.)
[Note, 08/15/13: Releasing this now as I will have another post on similar topics in the very near future.]
Wednesday afternoon 07/03/13 I stepped into the shower and said, “OK, what will I think about?” The answer came, “Think about nothing. Give yourself completely to this activity, this experience.”
And at once, for the first time in weeks, I felt the boost that comes from conserving one’s energies, when they are no longer being drained by attention to things distant from here and now and what I myself can do.
This is the power of presence.
[Notes to follow up on in the future:
– Scott Morrison
– Brother Lawrence: silence; feelings
– Forgive us our trespasses
– Take no thought
– The needle’s eye
– Just for today
– Serenity prayer
———
– Be here now
– Wherever you go, there you are
– Conspiracy Theorists: America’s Lost Sheep?
– Was There a Jesus? If So, What Was He Like?]
