MINE, damn it! LOL

"Simplify your Life

Give up what you don't need and be glad you did"

I love this!  Boy and automatically where does my head go?  STUFF!

Clothes, shoes, Technological Devices, Knickknacks or Bric-a-Brac,

Cluttered up living spaces, Magazines, Recipe clippings, Coupons,

Overstocked; pantry, freezer and fridge,

Let us not forget--Junk drawer(s) and the I'll sift through these later, Piles…

After my mental break, in 2003, of a 17 day hospital stay severity.  I've got most of this whittled down to pre-assembled, break it all down with a phillips head and an allen wrench in less than a few hours, box it up and a $19.99 U-Haul is more than enough space than I need.  Truth be told, I still have way more than I actually need, (shoes, clothes, glasses), how I rationalize(?) this is it is a small way of "self medicating" or "self soothing" not to  a manic degree.  And I donate like crazy as I rotate seasonal "stock."

Maybe because my hand was pretty forced during those not a pot to piss in years, more than once did I move with next to nothing, because I had no one to help and no money anyway; just some clothes, a chair I could carry, a few other things a few bus rides could carry--my cats too…

Regardless of how it happened, I am better for it!  How so, makes me dig deep:

• I am never really worried about anything, the only thing that I go out of my way a bit to protect in my living quarters is my boys (cats).  Added security, carriers at the ready accompanied by an old school 3G LG Rumor2 prepaid.  Just in case!
• My spirit or sense of being feels lighter and brighter the more open things are.  The real behind less is more.
• I feel more secure.  I don't know how to explain the insecurity that came with having all this crap.  As I reflect almost an anxiety at times like where will it all go, how will I get there, I need these things because they are mine…MINE--Yes, that's it!  I no longer feel these/this = MINE. 

                                                   I've lost the MINE attitude and learned POSSESSION is NOT security

Let's follow this thread

To the next place, which always makes me giggle that it doesn't jump first, "material" does…

Simplify…Giving up what I don't need internally…glad you did:

Addictions, Prejudices, False Self, Selfishness, Control,

Complicating & Compromising, Last Word,

Greed, Vanity,

Revenge,

                           Fear;

                             Be love rather than "seeking love"

                                                                                            }     outwardly…

                             Be me rather than "seeking me"

No longer...

[I have long since ditched Cable Television and do old school over the digital air waves and Netflix]  

No longer viewing television news...or reading/"Following" television news online. 

I will old school news paper, at the YMCA when I workout two days a week or at the Library--there is no need for me to have that dropped at my doorstep daily either, or all access online.

I will live my life and welcome all that and those I encounter with kindness and respect.

  Looking UP!

Sunday's Sermon:

"Practices"

I never predict "practices" or "resolutions", the Holy Spirit moves and works in unpredictable ways...

Lenten "Practice" 1.  

Keep my eyes on my own paper.  My answers aren't elsewhere.

Lenten "Practice" 2.

"Pay attention, now! I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves." -Matt 10:16

Lenten "Practice" 3.

"self-reliance and self-learning are your greatest assets" -Lailah Gifty Akita

Lenten "Practice" 4.

"You have gotten to where you are at by way of how you got there."  -Paul G.

Just(ice) How Righteous

Passion for justice & peace vs. righteous anger:

To be angry causes a chain reaction of disharmony.
To be peaceful causes a chain reaction of love.

anger = chaos
peace = calm

With Lent approaching, as well as, ongoing presidential debates, Lord, let us watch our tones and tongues.  Within The Spirit of true grace and redemption absolute, I pray these things. Amen.

"The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with Himself included in that community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant." 
— Dallas Willard

Shutter Release

Looking through the lens
Without a worry or care


Mesmerizing


Hypnotic


Caught timelessly

Beauties reality

Seemingly so transparent

Until

Looking through the lens
Shutter release...

Thursday's Chew-Bit

One of the most attractive things about living simply, modestly and minimally is being uncomplicated.

Anyone who has known me in past lives to knowing me presently I am confident could attest that minimal comfort is how I thrive and grow and think and behave at my best.  I am not just talking material minimal comfort either; Spiritually and mentally and physically.

My Achilles heel, over-thinking, complicating my being creating things.

So hyperaware to the viscous circle of complication seen nearly everywhere, self included, often out of my mouth or in my head; "I/some folks waste so much time trying to complicate things."  It is almost as if it is easier to create things anxiously than to be at peace rationally.

A world of want what we want when we want it--more and more, faster and faster...

Creating things = convenient
              vs.
Being things = inconvenient

Gnawing and Flow Charting

Gnawing and Flow Charting

AKA:  Weekend Mantra...

Q.  "How can a [young] person stay on the path of purity?  By living according to your word."  Psalm 119:9

"Then a voice came from heaven, 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.'"  John 12:28 -->  "This voice has come for YOUR SAKE, not mine."  John 12:30 -->

"Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place."  Psalm 51:6  -->

"Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."  Psalm 51:12  --->

"I will put my law in their mind and write it on their hearts."  Jeremiah 31:33 --->



A.   "I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word."  Psalm 119:16

"Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him"  Hebrews 5:8-9


My personal "left with" is simply put:

Peace and love are pure or purity.
I prayed for restoration--wanting to live according to the word;
obedience is a "delight in!"

"Mantra" For this Weekend

                                                              Weekend "mantra"

"It is not easy to stand up against your constituents or your friends or colleagues or your community 

and take a tough stand for something you believe is right. Because you always want to keep working 

and live to fight another battle and it might cost you..." -Caroline Kennedy

"I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither 

angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of 

hell can separate us from God's love."   - Romans 8:38-39

Stand-up for what you believe, even if it means you are standing "alone!"