the grace of God.

 Everyone that believes on Him.

children near a streetlight. "against the dying of the light."

Poet Dylan Thomas talked about raging "against the dying of the light".  But imagine that passage another way, passions redirected, put towards the insignificant trifles of our youth.

Imagine children continuing at play even after the street lights come on in the evening; they don't congregate directly under the glow of the lights, nor particularly away, but askance, none being explicitly the center of attention themselves, but the entire group being the reason.

A group happiness, as of a gaggle or a herd, and those empty moments and stray laughter mark the time, even as we don't mark the time, but instead claim we were waiting to grow into adults, and by then, those moments are lost forever.

We see them, we look away for a moment, and the moment is gone forever, lost in the dustbin of eternity, where the toys look smaller, cheaper, they soon lack the luster and pinnache that we remember, the novelty is gone.

just remember, 1/28/23

Just remember, things will seem easier when youre dead.

a time to plan, a time to do.

You either carry over a to-do list from the next day, or make that to-do list the night before. I love hitting my Google Calendar the night before. It reinforces a sense of structure. But don't forget too, to include "whitespace" for brainstorming and inspiration. Mind inspiration isn't idle time, because a lot of that will come when you're busy, but make time to chase those leads, which is what inspiration is: a nexus of leads.

Either intimidated or inspired.

In any confrontation, there is either intimidation or inspiration.  You choose how you react: whether to cower or rise to the occasion.  We can become complacent in our dictums, and we become lazy, we can become slaves to our circumstances.  We can react with hostility, defensiveness, envy, and maybe even fear.

Do we regroup and come back better, or do we hide under the porch, my friends?  An orphan became the Emperor of most of the known world.  He said in his private journal that he retained the mindset to react to anything, not by whim or instinct, but reflectively, that he could choose how to react.

Our modern leadership guru wants us to be lions, but even the lion's great majesty is just an image, for the lion is a scavenger, an opportunist.  How much of that should we employ?

Certainly we should take advantage of circumstance, when our principles are observed. 

Should we lapse into complacency at the expense of core business?  Do we spend the work day dreaming of some turn of luck that affords the purchase of daydreams?

Neigh.  We work and dream, too, but we can't stop work to dream, nor can we afford to neglect our dreaming for work.

We might miss stray currents and less beneficial aspects by staying to the center.

on doing selfcare even when you don't think or don't feel like you're worth it...

 Try to be good to yourself, and it's especially important to treat yourself well during those times when you don't think you deserve it.

AW Tozer on politics...

It is not complimentary to the masses that they are so easily led, but we are not interested in praising or blaming; we are concerned for truth, and the truth is that for better or for worse religious people follow leaders. A good man may change the moral complexion of a whole nation; or a corrupt and worldly clergy may lead a nation into bondage....  -AW Tozer

the ppl you burn and karma.

What if all those ppl you knocked down fell into your pathway forward?

Remember, the universe cleans itself, and karma is a great wheel that will eventually make a full rotation: it will all come back around.

motivation and goals in the New Year, 2023

Isn't motivation just the desire to not "mess up"?

Aren't goals just crap in the roadway of life?

John Dewey and Marcus Aurelius on Thought.

"There are, however, no sharp lines or demarcations between the various operations just outlined.[thought and belief] The problem of attaining correct habits of reflection would be much easier than it is, did not the the different modes of thinking blend insensibly into one another."

-John Dewey, How We Think

"We ought to consider no only that our life is daily wasting away and a smaller part of it is left, but another thing which must be taken into account, that if a man should live longer, it is quite uncertain whether the understanding will continue sufficient for the comprehension of things, and retain the power of contemplation which strives to acquire the knowledge of the divine and the human.

For if we being to fall into dotage, perspiration and nutrition and imagination and the appetite, and whatever else there is of the kind, will not fail; but the power of making use of ourselves, and filling up the measure of our duty, and clearly separating appearances, and considering whether a man should now depart from life, and whatever else kind absolutely requires a disciplined reason, all this is already extinguished.  We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and understanding of them cease first."

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, book three.

"So far there is the same sort of situation as when one looking at a cloud is reminded of a human figure and face.  Thinking in both of these cases(the cases of belief and of fancy) involves a noted or perceived fact, followed by something else which is not observed but which is brought to mind, suggested by the thing seen.  

One reminds us, as we say, of the other."

-John Dewey, How We Think.

 

mastery and strength from Lao Tsu.

According to Lao Tsu:

Strength is controlling others.

Mastery is controlling one's own self.

CS Lewis on redeeming oneself from the past.

"...sunlight, though it has no favourites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one."   -CS Lewis

Happy New Year, or curb your enthusiasm, from AW Tozer.

Every new year is an uncharted and unknown sea. No ship has ever sailed this way before. The wisest of earth's sons and daughters cannot tell us what we may encounter on this journey. Familiarity with the past may afford us a general idea of what we may expect, but just where the rocks lie hidden beneath the surface or when that "tempestuous wind called Euroclydon" may sweep down upon us suddenly, no one can say with certainty....  

-AW Tozer