Could be a miracle cure but it might suck

IT’S NOT A MIRACLE CURE...BUT  IT’S CLOSE

Today marks the fifth day I have been under the weather.  I won’t get too descriptive, however, I do have to stop a moment to examine that  saying—“under the weather.”  If you listeners to my podcast. Skip. Down a few paragraphs.  

What in the world does under the weather mean?  Why  “under” and why the “weather?”  I mean if I were feeling. Really well would I be in the middle of a phone call and say “yep I’m really getting stuff done Joe.  It’s probably because. I’m a little “above the weather.”  What if.you are just  feeling average are you “in” the weather or around the weather?  Is there a particular. Type of weather we’re dealing with that has to do with health?  I’m thinking there must be since right now I have a “head cold.”  If I get a little better  this afternoon will I only have a head cool?  I have this pain in my knee so  perhaps I’m experiencing a knee fog that may have resulted from a hip tornado?  One thing’s for certain this entry. Is not the  product of “lake-effect” intelligence.  

I suppose when I stop to think a minute and recall a little medical history, I shouldn’t really be shocked. About this strange language revolving around health and body parts.  Somehow we have made  some great advances in medicine despite calling a sharp pain in your. Shoulder a Joe Zebra.  What? You’ve never heard of a  Joe Zebra and yet you know what a Charlie Horse is?  Come now..... 

Anyway... I’m coming around to peace and joy pretty soon, however it’s an uphill climb when it comes to “modern” medicine.  Maybe. A look at medical history. Will lift my spirits?

DLet’s see... speaking of seeing....while  there are still too few females in medicine’s upper. Crust we can hold out hope.  After all there. Have only been prominent  female doctors since about  2600 B.C. So that’s a new concept.  Speaking of seeing and new concepts Cataract surgery was being taught  starting in about 650 BC just saying.  Before the age of antibiotics and the miracle cure known as aspirin we had several  monarchs (kings not butterflies)  making attempts at the miracle drub of the day.  While many know that raw honey is good for a lot things, several  kings used “cures for a lot of things all lumped together  to make  a miracle  potion of sorts.  In fact, “Theriac” combined the cure for several illnesses and poisons  (almost 65)  and stayed on the  shelves well into the 1700s.  

Thes Ypres of potions were  perhaps by the grandest treatment of all...the one  that we used for centuries and  yet. There is only. One word for it... It SUCKED!”  Yes...I’m talking about  LEACHES.

These  little creatures  preceded actuaries and insurance salesmen, and  even big. Pharma in bleeding the public when it came to health care.  Blood “letting” techniques were used for  all types of treatments and on people of all social strata.  I didn’t. Come across. It, however, I imagine there is some sort of dquantity and attachment location manuals  for this treatment somewhere.  If you had a nasty infection on your. Left elbow there was  the 7 leach two hours drain whereas if you had inflamed hemroids that. Had to be something different.  The only problem is that this technique  probably didn’t work all that often and had some  significant  drawbacks. One “patient/victim” of blood letting was. The father of our country  George Washington.  It is believed he literally had the life sucked out of him.  

...And with that phrase.. I roll around to peace and joy.  

If we will have blood sucking bugs attached to us, drink potions, have magnets and electrodes of all types attached to. Us in all types of places etc., then what more evidence do we need that we wish to live forever?  The thought that keeps running through my spirit is “it’s not how long you live, it’s how well you live”, oritdoesn’t matter so much how many. Days you have in your life as it matters how much life you have in your days.”  Sure you want to be  a person with a fairly healthy body and yet how much of seeking peace and joy really has to do with feeding and  healing your spirit and your “soul.”  I wonder if. People could. See your soul, would  I take better care of it.... and  now I write this thing called the peace and joy blog where I suspect people at least get a peak at my soul....so what do I learn from the world of body medicine that I can transfer to the world of “soul medicine?”  I think three things.

One—my ideas about peace and joy will have to  change over time.  After all, I wonder if I’m  still at the leach stage in some ways  that I view present. Challenges?  

Two.  Just like so many people in the past, how often do I listen to the “snake oil salesmen” of self help rather than doing the regular kmentally healthy activities to develop immunity and resilience??  

Three.   What will I. Do to help keep my environment  healthy for  me and for others?  It’s hard to  stay healthy in a toxic. Environment regardless as of  what you do for your own body and soul.  Now those are three things I think about and the third one prompts my next entry “FWhat a peace and joy environment looks like and five  ways to grow one.”  

So that’s for tomorrow which means  this is enough  for today—don’t forget that  leach on the back of your left leg...

Dealing with your space and trash so to speak

TIME TOGET SOME TRASH OUT OF YOUR SPACE?

Early this. Morning I was out  trying to get a good. Photo of the “winter moon.”  Why it is called this...I don’t rightly know, however, I don’t understand  many celestial terms regarding the moon.  For instance isn’t the moon always full?  Is there a moon that is hollow or does the moon leak so that sometimes we need to refill it?  Okay... I’ll let that go...however...I did get disturbed because  my pics of the moon didn’t come out the way I planne3d.  Clouds off to the West kept drifting  in front of the  moon soI couldn’t quite capture  what I wante3d.   eventually  I  just returned to my  kitchen and figured there would be another impressive moon some night or that 30 people would also post pictures of this moon on Facebook.  As i glanced for my cup to take some cold medicine (tomorrow’s topic) I noticed how much “stuff” has  built up on the counter.  I think all the appliances on the counter. Get used somewhat frequently so I’m not  complaining, but this did serve as a reminder of  how much stuff we  all keep in our space just in case it becomes useful or because it is too clumsy  to put away and  too difficult to just get rid of.  

As I moved. Toward the living room I  wondere3d why I had the overhead kitchen. Light on.  After all, I saw its reflection in the deck  door.  Wow...all the sudden I realized it wasn’t the kitchen light at all it was that moon.  The  train. Of thought was fully loaded and leaving the station at that point.  The appliances on the  counter form a ring of cooking satellites and are objects we use and the moon is out there sits beyond  all the stuff we have launched into the  earth’s orbit and is still out there  whirling around at 17,000 miles per hour.  

Yes the fine citizens of earth have shot a lot of things out ther4e into the heavens that we. Only use. Sometimes or for a short while.  Now a lot of  our “orbital debris” (let’s call it  space trash) just. Hangs in orbit and spins along with us.  So what’s a few. Things floating around. In outer space?  At last count there were over 20,000 pieces of space trash bigger than a  softball moving in predictable. Orbits around earth and somewhere  over a half million  pieces over all.  Somehow my new  “hot pot” on the counter didn’t  seem like so much clutter.  Instead of launching a car into. Space Elon needs to  launch a giant  garbage truck, a dumpster and a space magnet.  Fix the ozone layer? No problem... If we launch  a few billion rolls  of duct tape from  ground control we can have that hole in the ozone patched in no time.  Just  tape some of our  big chucks of space. Trash together and  drag it in front of the  ozone layers in need of repair.  How  did all this trash get up there?  Well let’s take one example.  China launched a satellite to track who knows what and several years later they didn’t  think this satellite was doing its job or  they didn’t want others to find out  what  was gaining. From  this satellite so they unilaterally decided. To launch  a missile into space to destroy their spinning  device.  The launched a rocket and tracking it with  GPS or Google Maps they hit the target—The  explosion change one trackable object into  about 3,000  pieces of space  trash.  

Space Trash Peace and Joy

This whole thing moved. From. A picture of the moon to. My internal question of “how much space trash do I  carry around?  How  can  I reduce that?  

Well...let’s say my life is the earth (of course the universe revolves around me)  and my past is all the satellites and rockets I have fired off into space.  Have there been some Challenger disasters?  No doubt.  Anyway the left over emotions and lessons/memories from all these  experiences are often still whirling around in my orbit.  So often, I want to rid myself of these satellites and make an effort to  change life and thus blast them out of my orbit.  Unfortunately, instead of clearing up my space I have the Chinese rocket  effect.  I break the experience into countless parts that can interfere with with my next attempt to experience something.  In short, I reduce my chances of  a peaceful or joyful experience due to allowing the space trash from other experiences to clutter up.the heavens.  

 So I asked myself—-How can I change this?  Well so far I’m working on two ways.  First is  to largely ignore  the past and pretend that all that junk  in space won’t get in my way.... that works to some extent.  Second I play cosmic junk drawer.   What’s that?  Okay who doesn’t have a junk drawer?  You know the place. You put things that are too valuable to toss, and that you will use at some point?  The thing about your junk drawer is that you don’t worry about what’s in it.  You simply  believe. It is valuable and that it will be useful in the future.  However, you don’t use a lot of emotional, spiritual, or intellectual energy worrying. About what’s in it until you are solving something.  Your “junk” is not a box of left over. Trash that keeps hanging you up.  It is a drawer full of solutions.  Knowing. That you are not going to find all the solutions you ever need in your junk drawer  is critical and that’s perhaps how to look at our  left over past.  If it fits our problem use it...if not let it sit...Just like the stuff in our junk drawer we don’t go looking for problems it will solve...so our past doesn’t dictate our  present, or our future.  our junk drawer. Does not impact how we. Perceive our current situation and allows us to experience as. It is happening.  

To summarize (something I write about often and will write about again)—we have a lot of trash in our space.  It comes from our past and we drag it along in our orbit for a long time without cleaning it up or  figuring  out. That it really belongs in a “junk drawer” not spread out in the path of our present or future.  We can access. This junk as it becomes part of a solution, however, it  will not bring peace and or joy if we let the junk define our. Current view of life.  ... 

There will some more about  these themes in other posts, however, thank the heavens  you have read this far...Have a Moonlit Monday Morning tomorrow..

Thank You Thursday for Staying Connected

THANK YOU THURSDAY—Thanks for Staying connected

I need to look it up...but not today.  For now my incomplete memory is close enough.  It was  Groucho  who said something like—“I’m not sure I want to be part of any group that would  have me as a member.”  I remember seeing a t-shirt in the early 70s that said “I want to be  different just like everybody else.  

In “western” culture we. Most certainly find ourselves  drowning in just that dilemma.   Our self-help media encourage us to  be individuals and yet provide techniques that for all intents and purposes train us to fall in a “normal” range of thought and behaviors.  This range is established by making comparisons and you are. And I am  urged to change so that I fit the norm most of the time.  

Sure  some self-helpers encourage you to be you to the extreme... however they often start by inferring you have some deficit that is unacceptable or should be and that deficit of course,  must be corrected.  In short you need help because. The secret moral majority says so —don’t you agree (insert rolling eyes).  So we have some encouragement to be extraordinarily  good at  a range of things that  most people value on the one  hand.

...And on the other  hand...

Massa media  and capitalism encourage us to meet some standards and we are sold things so that we have all the symbols that say we belong to this or that group.  If you want the best and to be seen as being the Best Buy a Rolex, drive a BMW, and never shop at  Walmart.  

What does all this mean for.seeking peace and joy?  My thoughts conjure  up a tight rope requiring a balance between the very  human feelings of  wanting to belong and conversely wanting to be able to  express  your unique  gifts.  The odd thing is... while this is. Not very easy, most people do not acknowledge that each of us is  walking that tight  rope a lot of the time.  For me personally I have  tried on several occasions in life to test how far I can stretch the  rubber  bands of belonging and still experiment with changing. Myself to de3velop skills or explore different ways of thinking.

My current attitude suggests that my patterns of doing this aren’t likely to  change anytime soon so that makes it important for me to  say thanks to the “group” and individuals who have allowed me to stay connected with them as I experience life.  It would be simple for some of you  to break the. Ties because I don’t really fit in with “your other friends” or because you don’t really need connections at all.  Yet, so many of you have  decided to walk with me for a while even though I am always choosing the tight rope between buildings instead of going down to the second floor and. Using the skywalk.  

To seek peace and joy....

I’m going to finish this post up with a poem/rhyme, however, I want to say I respect the challenge we all face in wanting  the power of the group and the glory of individual growth.  It is likely to be.with most of us most of our lives.  My promise is to.be tolerant in most instances and  to understand that every journey follows a growing map with lots of detours.  In short, thanks for being  rest stops, refueling stations, churches, bars, and schools wrapped up in humanity on my trek.  

A Network Of Angels

I am walking alone and I don’t feel so strong

Do I need to fly. Solo  or need to belong?

If I fly with the others can I really fly free

To become the true self I am. Meant to be?

Yet what  if my purpose is to feel the smile and the scar

For being a bridge for those who seek their own distant  star

For  I can spot saints in both steeple and bar

And pass on my lessons as. You become who  you are

There is a truth that I must face

I’m  at the right time and in the right  place

So this is the role I’m meant to embrace

As my network or Angels provide me needed. Grace

To All who assist me hear clear as I mumble

”Thanks for lending a hand as I soar then I stumble

And making me whole again whenever. I crumbleTogether we’re  brilliant alone I am humble”

Thanks for filling my cup...please let me know if you  are ever thirsty...

Peace and Joy 

Tied Up in NOTS

ARE YOU TIED UP IN. “NOTS”

Well... I’ve been. Off the keys a little this week, however,  I’m going.to be back at it in full force now.  You might say I was tied up with other things so to speak.  

So  my topic today is related to tying ... having strings attached although some folks  bargain for no strings attached.  The next  post will be about neck ties, scarves, and bandanas .   Today we will be focuses on  one variety of strings—shoestrings and how they  connect with peace and joy.

First a little  history...

While it may have been considered. Closer to a small rope, ancient  humans  started. The practice of  tying their shoes or padding to their feet.  Scholars (did you know. There were shoestring scholars?)  have documented strings in use  in 2800 BC and estimate they  have actually been in use  far longer—like as far  back as 5550 BC.   So as far back as the gang was. Gathering up their clubs to. To hunt wild beasts they were  lacing up their  Reebok’s for the day and on the run.  The Ancient  Greeks and Romans were already using  straps and strings to such as extent that  folks often got razzed if they  didn’t lace their  sandals  well.  So if you didn’t have your Air Platos”  tied in a Granny double rabbit ear looped, you might be getting an earful at the coliseum or at the Parthenon.  

as with all things, not much is known about shoestrings in the Middle  ages, however it has generally been. Agreed. Upon that  the most significant. Modern era string weave was. Rolled out in about 1835 and the manufacturing. Procss and types of strings has not changed  very much since then.  

Do you think your strings are too long?  If so you are not alone.  Many. String/shoes makers now  only make  them in a length that will. Fit in all their  shoes....so if you try got put  Chuckee Tee strings in a low-top Puma you are going to. Have some loose ends to tie up.  

So now to the peace and joy part.  A lot of times when you are tying your shoe, you are kneeeling down....this provides an excellent  time to throw up a prayer or 30 seconds of  meditation per shoe.  If you want a little more time buy rounded strings that are “coated” because they  come undone about 30 percent faster/more than flat-woven strings.  also if you don’t often tie  your shoes they can serve as a reminder that you always have a choice  of showing your personality through the  strings you choose or  in the way you respond when  you break one while tying it.  Of course 90% of all shoe strings break when you are late or in a hurry.  Yes most shoestrings break on Monday mornings. 

Well that brings us to the. Part where I tie in peace and joy.  You know I loop around and then tighten up the whole thing...wrap it up in a nice little bow you know.

Just as shoe strings provide us with n opportunity to get little moments of rest in our day they should also remind us NOT.  To get all wound up in  our personal NOTS.   I know not what yours are so here are a few I have had and sti8ll have.  These are  sometimes  barriers to my peace and joy or lessons it would be great to fully learn.  Here are four  types of “nots” that  get me tangled up at times.

Well the list of potential “nots” is long, however, the ones below tend to trip me up most often

One: “i am NOT. As young as i used to be.

Sometimes I don’t start down a new path to explore because I think it will be a long road and I don’t  have the energy to do yet again something new.  The irony for  me (and others I suspect) is trying new things tends to keep me feeling younger not older.  some years ago  when I started to learn the guitar  I mentioned to someone teaching me a chord transition that I probably. Couldn’t  get this because I had started  too late in life.  He laughed and said this  will take  years and you’ll never learn it all, but you’ll be a fairly  good player by the  time you are 50 and  maybe one of the better  60 year old players you know and when you get to 70...watch out.  as it turns our I was NOT. To old. To learn those new. Tricks and am still having. A blast  improving  all the time.  another example of this is my return to writing.  I had done some when I was “younger” and yet I di8dn’t know if  I could let the muse grab me again.  As it turns out I’m really glad I didn’t  stick with I’m. Not as young  as I used to be.

Two.  I am NOT going to try that again.

Sometimes I block possible peace and joy by  not attempting something (including foods). That I didn’t  like earlier in life.  I refused to stay open to. New old possibilities.  The odd thing is I am always preaching the ability to change and yet sometimes I let a failure  last forever when I’m pretty certain I’ve learned the lesson or have the persistence  needed to give something a second or tenth try.  

Three.  I’m NOT. Ever going to be as. Good as. (Fill in the blank with a. Name  at fill in a errand . What’s that?  It’s an action word that is used as a noun like boating or swimming etc... 

So the point is here is a case were I discount my gifts and blessings by  comparing my current state with  what I assume is the state of someone else.  Rarely is comparison going to  help you  find inner peace and joy.  Well. Maybe not ever... yet when watching someone to learn or watching someone who has  some real extraordinary  talent I fall into the trap of  feeling rotten because I know I can’t. Or won’t. Do something as well as somebody. Else.  I remember talking with a buddy of mine saying I’ll never be “Clapton” good at this opening riff.”  He said  and EC would never be as good at making  him laugh with his twisted wit as you.... “. This serves as a reminder even today search for and grow your gifts, and even though nobody  can do everything everybody can do something.

Four. I am NOT strong  enough to make it through. This.

The  problem is... I’m. Going through it no matter whether. I think/know I’m not  strong enough, so this is rather defeatist. Thinking.  The second problem is “I”  am not strong enough?  Since when. Is it the best move to Do all things alonE to prove yourself and to whom?  Maybe in a lot of instances you are meant to walk with someone on your growth journey and maybe.you will be walking with people you didn’t anticipate.  Maybe whatever you are trying is not a “me” thing it is an us thing.  Sadly I  start with. I am. Not strong enough too often instead j of gathering my supporter around and asking who else wants to go there.with me?  

Well that’s just four.  Here a few more “nots” I see people getting. Tied up in..hopefully these  entries help you relax the knots and help peace and joy flow a bit more  freely..

Some other. “NOTS” 

I am not  the right body weight (especially compared to person x).

I am not as wealthy as I need to be for this  point in life.

I am not making  as many friends as I think I should have.

I am not  normal.

I am (fill in almost any action verb)  for example  eating right, reading  enough, exercising as much a s that guy, looking as young as I would  like.  

DThe Liszt. Could go on and on, however..

I AM NOT GOING TO KEEP WRITING  THIS ENTRY FOREVER LOL

To summarize shoe  strings have been around for a while and you can use tying your shoe as a quick meditation or prayer break.  Everyone gets tied up in some  ‘NOTS” and these can block a whole lot of peace and joy.  To tie up the final loose ends here I would share this .  The next time you  want to say “i can “not” or I am “not”  end that thought or the statement with the phrase. At least. Not yet and see if that helps.  You know, some strangers are just friend you haven’t met yet. And some are  people you used to.know, however we change...we grow...we learn...and through it all I can’t help but wonder if we used  are statements to establish.in public who or what. We. Are more often and declared less often “what/who”. We are ‘NOT’ a little  lesas, if we might “NOT”  be living with a little more peace and joy.  I think for one I would

More  tomorrow.

Building Blocks 4

USING  THE BLOCKS TO  BUILD A BELIEF

Well as it happens I rounded off the last. Building. Blocks in a series yesterday and. Slapped the lyrics into a somewhat jumbled chord progression.  Because change happens the first building blocks of a song change a bit over. Time and most times when I write something bleak or pessimistic, I make some attempt  to offer the reader/listener a choice that I feel  exists in the real world whether or not it’s my path in the end.  

Having said all this here are the lyrics that have captured me  at this moment.  I recorded the song and slapped it into the video at the bottom.  I haven’t  “performed” this song. Nearly enough for it to be in its final form, but the soul of it Is alive and kicking.  Thanks for coming with me on this little journey.  When do I start the next set of blocks?  Three...two.... one....you got it now is always the best time to start.  

Soak in the  words and enjoy a Marvelous. Monday

Block  (verse). One

Every now and then peace and joy drift from your routine

Confusion rushes in filling all the spaces in between

Humbling Numbing chaos crashes into what was once serene

That’s when you must name your torments and learn much later what they mean

You must name your torments and learn much later what they mean

Block (verse) Two how.it how.it

as you stand there in the rubble  you hear the ancient bell begin to chime

Is the cathedral going to open or  does the bell mean it’s. Closing time

The poet’s pen starts screaming knowing not who will hear the rhyme

That’s too cryptic for the scholars and far too loud for the passive  mime

Block (verse 4/chorus) 

Oh brothers and sisters we’d better  make it snappy

Give hope.room to breathe and resilience  to be a bit more scrappy

Treat each other better or a little less crappy

Because more than one out of seven dwarves  should be happy

Blink your eyes clear to find your truest vision

Say  so long to the ghosts of regrets and indecision 

The  stanzas  of change are incredibly near

This peace and this joy is right now and right here

Block (verse) Three

If we  don’t hear the poet the egotists  will take the field

To test the sharpest  sword and use the strongest  shield 

The  results of these battles are signed and thy’re sealed

No one wins wars once again  is revealed

Repeat  Block 4/chorus

Now  here’s my challenge. To you...pick  one of your  best  features and write a four line verse about. It..maybe how.it grew in you or how you use it often...this is always a good way to start your week or strengthen any day.   

More  soon 

Reflections on mirrors

reflections on  Windows and Mirrors

As we  stare into the night sky we see  stars.  They are millions of  miles away  and millions of years ago.  The light you see  started out so long ago that it’s source may no longer exist as we know it.  even the sunlight of our days takes 8 minutes to get here, however, the energy that produces  that light takes a couple years to  get from.the center of the sun to the  outer surface where we see it about 8 minutes later...so even sunlight we see is not  the sun as it is.  

What does this have to do with  Windows and  mirrors?  Well  to be quite frank we often say “seeing is believing” and yet if if it requires light to see we are never seeing what  exists in any given moment no matter. How fast the speed of light is.  Maybe that’s a really good. Argument for  praying and meditating with ones eyes closed.  Also maybe most the time we see what. We believe we are about to see  and believing is seeing instead.  

So now let’s move along to mirrors.   The objects we think of  as mirrors today—you know the silvered-glass we hang in our  houses and on our  cars, are not all that old historically.  In fact they were the  brain child of a German named Justice Liebig and their invention  is dated at 1835.  What in the world did  egotists do before then?  Is that?  I think. That’s. Why wealthy. Folks hired  lady’s servants/maids.  The lady of the house  had someone they trusted to ask “Does this  dress make my  hips look big?”  The  men of the house  were  able  to dodge that question only so often.  Anyway...did the  restricted availability of mirrors lead to less  self-judgment?  Did we worry less about aging?  Well  let’s grab some perspective on that too.  You  know that 110 years ago  the average life expectancy was still far less than 50 years old...so who needed a mirror?  We were always Looking good, right?  Another. Thing about mirrors that have come to make me wonder is do we use them to determine  what we look like to ourselves or what we look like to others?  How much  does this matter to each of us?  How well can a mirror tell us about  how our outsides match our insides?  The irony of mirrors is that  we can get an idea of what we looked like in them and we do that  so we think we can control what others think of our and how we look.  The reality is  people  look at their fellow human  beings  through so many sets of lenses that trying to control  that is  not the most efficient use of time.  If a woman prefers a tall brown haired  dancing partner there are no amount of times a short blonde can look in the mirror to determine how  to look good  for that person.  If a guy will only go out with a  Cubs fan then no mirror will change  the person looking. Into from bein a Cardinals’ fan.  Then  regardless of. What the mirror cannot reflect, there is always. The possibility it reflects things in a distorted manner.  This wouldn’t  be a problem, however, the mirror  has the reputation of reflecting things accurately or even  better magnified.  There’s a mirror I see on a fairly  regular  basis that have a slight  bend in it so from across a room the image is always distorted.  Oh and  your car maker will tell you objects may be closer than they appear—just saying.  

So stand and stare at yourself in the mirror if you insist... just know. You can only see your past and what lies behind you.  

Oh  before we  make a brief comparison. Between mirrors a and windows.. a bit more about the history of mirrors.  The  first. Mirrors were designed using  water placed in a dark container or just using a deep pool of water somewhere Now can’t you see this 7500 BC  when Fiona  sends her hubby  out to get dressed for a formal toga party and tells  Marcus to  go out to the pond to get dressed and  pick between a couple of. Tunics.  Then about. 30 minutes later Fiona. Goes out only to  find Marcus with a fishing rod in hand trying to catch the big one that got away when he was dressing for  breakfast?  

Well of course these first mirrors were.designed by  ancientEgyptians or so they say...because  they wrote down that they discovered. Them.  Then again Columbus discovered America where people. We’re waiting.for his ships when they came ashore.  I’m not sure we have. This discovery concept down quite in western.society.  

Windows

Well I talked about. These things earlier this week.  Windows.allow you. To see some of what exists outside right now and. Possibly  see what is oncoming if what we see is moving toward us or we are moving toward it.  However, windows only offer  a limited arc of vision even the windshield of an AMC Gremlin had a huge span and yet the driver’s view was not limitless.  

the point of all this?  If  knowing yourself is needed to get to peace and joy and having an accurate picture of what that. Looks like externally at given. Minute is critical....to you... you may have a bigger problem than you think.  

Maybe it’s a good. Idea to start with some internal silence and reflection in order to  see what we believe in instead of external means to believe in what we see?  Do we even  need mirrors...yes... but maybe we need the  kinds of.mirrors that friends can be.  Friends will tell you their honest. Views on  your thoughts if you invite them too and return that favor.  If you don’t like  what you see friends and sometimes family (they aren’t the same thing) will help you change the internal picture  you have of yourself and yourself indeed.  Just remember the thing about  friends and others is that you can wander around enough (just like wandering around in the “house of Mirrors”  to find those mirrors that  reflect just what you want to see.  Be aware that. There are. Many. Other. Perspectives of you and tthat you can’t control  many of those.  

I am certain I’ll have more to say about mirrors  in the future, however,for now that’s about enough.   I’ll wrap this up with a little  song about  mirrors and speaking of that... building block  number four and the chorus are  nearly forged for the weekend.  

Till then  know that your past  is in the mirror and your present and your possible futures exist within.  With that ..go out and create some peace and. Joy

What’s outside and inside your favorite window?

Change the Window Every. Few Days?

It’s late afternoon and the sunshine is blazing through the full-length window connected to my deck door.  It’s almost annoying...except that I love the sun and in the winter the daylight is far too brief.  So if this sun is annoying why am I looking out that window.  Well...any of us who stands and stares out a window collecting or avoiding thoughts—-you have a favorite window—I know you do.  This one is mine.  I like the one above the sink too.  There is a moment each morning and each evening when the sunlight reaches the horizon and comes to join us or says “good night.”  

Earlier today, I looked out that. Other window and pondered how different the view might be if those two windows  were in other places or in opposite places?

You see, I choose the windows I use to provide my picture of the world.  Sure some circumstances have placed a limited number of windows in front of me from time to time, yet still I choose these.  Through these windows I  can only see part of the world out there.  The rest of the.universe is only evident  through my memory or my imagination.  So while staring out I have  this little slice of “real” and the rest is my construction.  Now my construction is just as real because I don’t stop and say to myself—“Jim you only see the river—your thinking of  tomorrow’s or yesterday’s

 dinner is not being required of you...you are choosing it .  You are  giving it the window in your mind and it is through that window you seek peace and joy.  

 So from my favorite window I See the river flowing in front of me and then I move my focus to the river as it comes toward me.  I have no need to see it after it passes. Yet, I don’t try to look too far upstream either.  Maybe that’s why this is my favorite window.  The best views  from there  remind me about  what is a healthy state of mind for me.  I can do very little about  what is past and the time is not quite  here for the future, but it will come. In it’s own time and pass before me and I won’t miss it.  I see the sunset through this window and it’s often  the time when the  Western sky is  at it’s most beautiful.  If it’s not the western  sky where the sun is setting, we’re all in a bunch of trouble.  

Even if this is my favorite view on things, I’m reminded by other windows that it’s not the only perspective.  Sometimes it is good to find a new perspective.  This can. Bring a different set of realities into focus or allow me to see better what someone else is seeing when they look outside and inside for that matter.  It also reminds me to invite people to look through my window and ask to look through theirs from time to time.  

How often  do we need to change the view?  I’m not sure, yet I know I find. More peace and joy when I do it.  So in the spirit of experimentation why don’t we all do it a little more?  Maybe if we  switched windows  we could. Get a sense for. What looks the same no matter what window you see it from.  I think sometimes we. Forget the similar things and focus on the differences.  By looking out. A different window and talking about it  with someone you might find out that you are  both calling  something a cloud, however the clouds you see are nothing. Like the clouds they see, in fact, you are talking about  the same word  but two entirely  unique  things so arguing about  clouds isn’t k at all helpful.  

Okay... become aware of your favorite windows, change  your view or imagine what would be in your world if you used a different window.  Know you choose the windows you look from most of the time.  Invite others to look out your window and ask them what they see after they look.  There’s no real need to  tell them what they are looking at or what they might see until they’ve taken a good look.  

Well it’s the night outside my window now and time to close the windows. To my soul—if that’s what your eyes really are.  

I

Maybe tomorrow we talk about the  difference between. Windows and mirrors?  

?  

And the blocks just keep on falling

THE BLOCKS JUST KEEP ON FALLING -BB 3

Building on the first two verses or stanzas from last week wasn’t incredibly straining, however, it  created a train of thought for this. Song/poem that has me a bit perplexed.  I’m looking  at the direction this is taking, however, when you create things they. Go where they go and maybe you mold them later and maybe you don’t.  It’s the chance the creator takes.  

so again, I want to address the peace and joy  stuff and let the words cap off the entry .

Seeking peace and joy for me means not getting stuck in the  past with the torments of the meanings in your life that you want to change.  In order to move forward, it is critical that I work on  moving. And pulling the lessons from these torments I into the present when they apply.  It is not  necessary to carry the whole past along as long as you believe the lessons from the past will be there when you need them to. Problem solve—you don’t need them to be the problems to be solved.  Aso what in the world does that have to do. With this song?  Well ladies and gentlemen and kids of all ages it feels like this verse pile is a place where I’m depositing thins for a while...mostly feeling or images of feelings that I have. To place in a parking lot and know the lessons of them will be there later.  Carrying these feelings around  isn’t going to help me look at each day with a fresh set of eyes or a “new mind,”  so I’ve got to clear the path a bit by writing these things down in a song that I can. Sing and flush from my present when I want to.  Having. Said all that  here’s the third block with a few slight changes to the first  two: 

EEvery now and then. Peace and joy  slip from  your routine

Confusion Rushes in filling all the spaces in between

Humbling numbing chaos crahes down into what was once serene 

That’s when you must name your torments and find out much later what they mean 

Building Block 2

 As you stand there in the rubble somewhere in the distance there’s a chime

The cathedral may be open or maybe the bells are tolling for it’s closing time

The poet’s pen starts screaming knowing not who  will hear the rhyme

It’s too cryptic Thor the  scholars and far too loud for the passive mime

Block 3

If no one’s there to listen then the egotists will have to take the field

To test. The sharpest sword and the hardest  shield

Before the battle starts the results is signed and sealed

For war never has winners and once again that is revealed  

Block 4 and the music..next weekend! 

Pills please enjoy why the sequel is rarely equal

PILLS, PEACE AND JOY

Why as equal is rarely equal

Well...my intent was to. Move away from the box office or  streaming the movies we all know and love yesterday, it became  evident to me. Last. Night that I had done made one  unthinkable error  in my entry and had one additional  thought to share.  First Star Wars was an interesting science fiction adaptation of the. Psychological ideas of Campbell, but  not Erikson...I am embarrassed to note that in my haste I  credited the wrong classic  psychological theorist.  Star Wars has the Arctypical  characteristics of  a Jungian  flavor.  So my apology for that.  It’s  like calling a liberal and a Libertarian  the same thing... not true.  

Anyway that’s not the main. Topic for today.  

While  choosing my top five movies and offering a list of  “others” I left one Movie off intentionally—THE MATRIX.

In my view the. Movie has as much to  do with seeking the truth vs false  happiness or success as any  movie ever made and  like most of the movies I like there is a decided internal and external world. Battle.  If you want to seek peace and joy you must take the red pill and sometimes the rabbit hole gets quite deep.  Real events often aren’t really that real and can be reframed instantly.  Once you reach a certain sense of. What makes you real you  do have  significant  control over the external world where a lot of people  have not chosen to be as aware as they. Could be.  

At the end of the movie (the. First one)  Neo states quite truthfully  he  didn’t  do this to tell  folks how this is going to end, but  to show  people  where. To restart so to speak.   

He  simply says. This is where we begin.  

Obviously, I love all these concepts, and yet, the movie isn’t. On my list.  Why?  

The Sequals

The sequals for this movie we’re ridiculous and completely discounted the spiritual and existential aspects. That were so strong in the first movie.  The two  follow-ups turned. This into a science fiction  war/mystery techno fest.  They  pretty well wiped out the. Richness. Of the first film because the lesson in the first  film was that we need to wake up and change... the other moviewas were simply about fighting and I think they ruined the value  of the  whole conceptual  underpinnings of the original.  

Okay... I have said all I need to about this....if you  are seeking  peace and joy take the red pill and free your mind—tha’t my bit of wisdom  for today.   More soon..but it won’t be a sequel.