Tag: thinking about things

Being Vigilant

It is hard but necessary to be vigilant. We can become distracted by what is happening around us and we lose sight of what we should have been doing in the first place. All that potential and possibility goes to waste because we stood still too long while opportunities pass us by, unseen, unknown.

We may feel so desperate that we grab the first thing we see or get. However if we are too hasty we may grab at straws too short to save us. Straws that are too weak to bear our load. It may be that this straw comes with too many compromises that cause us to lose our identity so that when we walk past a mirror we cannot see ourselves.

Then, when we get too desperate nothing makes sense, no one is as they appear to our impaired minds. So those who come to do us harm appear to us as friends who are there to save us from those who really are there to help us. We make enemies based on perceived injuries and miscommunicated good intentions. Our minds do not help us to see the truth but speaks to us of wrongs done that can never be reappeared alliances that break relationship and make us suspicious – illogically so.

This is a time when we have to cling to what is sane. To cling to the truth, not because it is popular but because it is simply that, the truth. It is the time to be vigilant about extending grace to those who truly need it, not because of what we can gain by being so but because we are sent to support those who need to be uplifted.

The are so many more dangers around us today than there were a year ago, so much that it seems as if form last year to this we have aged ten years. However, we cannot allow fear to be our companion, to set the tone for how we proceed. We need to face the truth whether we like it or not and be every mindful that difficulties, like some potholes, cannot be avoided.

Be vigilant and rely on God to help you to see those things you cannot see. Rely on Him to give you the wisdom you do not have. Be humble enough and acknowledge that you cannot control or prevent the dangers that lurk just out of sight, but, you can determine how successful you will be in resisting them, by vigilant.

Can You Change the World?

I thought I never wanted to change the world, until my eyes, my heart and my mind were opened to what the world is really like. But then I looked at my own condition and felt defeated. Can I really change the world, when I cannot see beyond my own condition? Here is a poem by an unknown monk – this is largely speculation – that may cause you to think differently about how and even if that is possible…

I Wanted To Change The World
Unknown Monk 1100 A.D.

When I was a young man, 
I wanted to change the world.

I found it was difficult to change the world, 
so I tried to change my nation.

When I found I couldn't change the nation,
 I began to focus on my town.
 I couldn't change the town and as an older man, 
I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, 
I realize the only thing I can change is myself,
 and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself,
 I could have made an impact on my family. 
My family and I could have made an impact on our town. 
Their impact could have changed the nation
 and I could indeed have changed the world.

A Poem to Change Your Life…

Today I share with you a poem you may have never read that is so appropriate no matter the time in which you discover it. It is ageless…

If
by Rudyard Kipling

(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:



If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:



If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’



If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Though the Righteous Fall Seven Times They Rise Again…

I’m sure there are many guilt-filled persons walking around who have not allowed themselves to be persecuted in the court of public opinion, but who have gone ahead and condemned themselves and exacted punishment. Guilt is a burden that many find hard to bear, but many carry. The thought that “I made a mistake” or “I did something wrong”, can be the nail that seals a life of misery from which a person can never recover.

So many are so concerned with doing good and making sure they toe the line, they eventually have a nervous breakdown and destroy that image constructed by one foolish act – at least this is how they see things. They do not believe they can be redeemed after those mistakes and either lash out at others or lash out at themselves. The reality though, is that we all do things that will cast doubt on our “good”l image that we have spent so long constructing. For some being good has become a full time job and they have traded genuineness for fakeness. We become okay with persons who project what we expect and not who they truly are and expect others to be and act perfect when they were never meant to be that way. If we are good maybe it is okay to judge others, to relegate some to “those people”, who we will never be like.

If we accept that we a imperfect beings, then when we fall we can recovery quicker. We can accept that our failures do not define us but can transform us, help us grow and flourish, then we can better survive the storms of life. Guilt, will not take root and eat us alive – stifling our potential. Then we would know that there is life after those mistakes and that those mistakes will not have power over us. Instead of aiming for perfection, what we need to do is be honest on our journey, expect honesty and nothing more. Know that persons will disappoint you and be okay with this because they were never perfect to begin with and they should not have to be something they by nature are not.

Don’t strive to be perfect but to be an overcomer. It is better to have failed and learned from that failure than to remain stuck on impossibilities that cause you to fail. For it is in falling and failing many times that you will ascend to where you are truly meant to be:

for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,
but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.
Proverbs 24:16

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

Dream…

Dream

Close your eyes
close it tightly.
tighter
a little tighter -
now dream.
Dream of the happiness you want more of.
Now dream.
Dream of the you you want to be
because it can be
not because you wished upon a star.
Now dream.
Dream about the things you have to do
things that need doing
things you were meant to be doing.
But these are not fantasies.
Not lost in another reality.
These are real buds
buds that just need to be pruned - 
watered with real tears
real blood.
They will grow and flourish 
but only because you made them so.

So dream
dream of peace, love and prosperity - 
not of this word but really real
fully ready to be plucked
really ready.

when the leaves have fallen
rotting all around.
When the musky scent of that refuse
assaults your sense
dream.
dream of a spring blooms a=with blossomed hope
true.
Wait for it.
Wait for the lazy summer days.
Days when you can fully reap the harvest - 
pluck miracles out of your baskets.
Dream, wider than your reach and hold them
to your bosom.
Let those dreams flow everywhere
bringing you to life
keeping you alive
fueling your very soul.

But  
never stop dreaming.
fight against the disease of dreamlessness.
a gangrene triumph that eats away slowly
 at the core of your essence.

My Insecurities

My Insecurities


They are my jailers
and they hurt me.
They keep me in a dark cold room
where no light will thrive.
In a corner I am shackled
for good measure.
Escape seems impossible.

They are large scabs 
that never quite heal.
There is no balm that can soothe them.
Just under the skin,
their onslaught of venomous magots
reinfect me.

They wield decay
always.
Hope never has roots to grow.
Before I can think it
possibilities vanish before my eyes.
I have been mortally wounded
no surgeon can save me.

On the edge of light and darkness 
I perch.
I cannot take flight because my wings of been clipped
the sears of doubt
have permanently anchored me.

I falter and flutter
in this glass bottle.
I am trapped.

Though escape seems impossible
I must attempt it

or die

You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Know.

You Can't Fix What You Don't Know

                                                         sg.
You know what you know
and don't what you don't.
The view from a distance looks better
then the one up close,

"right I'm gonna take a closer look."

Never happens.

Too painful,
better to avoid what will make you unhappy.

So it's really is true?
Ignorance is bliss.
The best kind.
The kind that will leave you an amputee
who never feels the pain
of loss.
Never even knew you lost something.

Until you need it.

Then you scramble frantically
searching
for what has been lost.

Now you know something is missing.

To find it you have to bring your lenses close
and start searching...