Thought for The Day - A Measure

Birds of a feather 18 x 24 pastels

I'm Listening 24 x 36 oils

A dip in the container, the amount available surpasses what's needed. But from time to time, we look at the container and the scoop (what's inside us) as if we needed to dole it out in small portions. We measure, we calculate and somehow our calculations don't include the supply. And yet, this supply, the place where we draw from, never runs dry.

Lavish living; not spending every penny earned, but finding joy in what cannot be purchased. Or what is purchased is cherished, valued and enjoyed!

Thought for The Day - "There's enough to go around!"

I'm Listening 24 x 36 Oil

I remember summers in Kansas City, MO and Omaha, NE the places where my mother and father's siblings settled. The large families, with three or more children, where dinner or even breakfast was an event. Food on the tables from one end to the other. And though, as a child, I could barely eat an entire hot dog (and at this point in life, I struggle not to eat a pack of hot dogs) my relatives could put away food. But rare were the words, "stop eating so much," uttered. No, what was usually heard were the words: "have more, there's plenty."

Now as a grown man with a family of children, I look back at our meals, when my youngest was willing to have a meal with us, there was always enough to go around twice. My daughter, always a thin princess grew to eat her fair share and can cook as well as her mom. My middle son, always "husky" can eat me under the table and my youngest, now a teenager, eats his height in food, when he is so inclined to eat what we've prepared. When we have family over, please believe there is more than enough to go around and around and around!!! And someone always wants to take containers of food home. My niece always asks my wife to bring a healthy portion of potato salad by the next day. Plenty of food.

Too often in life, we act as if resources are scarce. Even in our prayers, we pray for a portion, as if the supply were meager. We pray for the success of our children, while we are barely seeing success in our lives! We are willing to put our dreams on hold or abandon them altogether, in hopes it will somehow happen for our children. And we seem to do this with the thought: "there isn't enough success to go around." Well to that I say "there's plenty to go around!" I dare say, if every living person in this world were willing to work for theirs and work for the good of their neighbor, family and foe, we would find the very universe would make it possible for everyone to achieve!

Honestly, I believe every person thinks the same to be true. But when we look at what we've accomplished, when we consider what we desire as being so far away, we 'assume' the resources are small and obviously - based on my feelings of lack - there has be a short supply of ______. But when we examine the number of mornings we wake and the sun rises, when we consider the number of times we toss food in the garbage because it's gone bad. And when we consider the times we take clothing to shelters and the Goodwill because we have more to fill our closets, you've got to know "there's plenty to go around!"

Thought for The Day - In Mid-Sentence

Interrupted,
Cut-off
Thought separated by an interjection of other thought
Crossing an intersection and t-boned by another vehicle-interruption

You are flowing, mind and body progressing and suddenly, you're brought to an abrupt HALT! Couldn't continue if you tried. Words pile on top of one another like a stack of matchbox cars. Body, spasming, nerve endings firing like a bag full of firecrackers going off.

...And that's life

Events occur - we don't consider to be "natural changes," but sometimes they are - and your course of action and thought have to change. It's been said life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react. I believe it's true, but there are certain events that we give a "governing vote" in the direction of our live from here on out.

Funny how these thoughts come randomly and find their way into this space.

We live our lives in light of what has happened and though we aren't completely at the mercy of circumstances and occurrences, they influence our thoughts and therefore our actions, henceforth and forever. Believe me, we can change, we don't have to remain stuck at the accident scene and the remainder of our life playing like a scratched LP (that's a vinyl record, for those born after 1990). Two analogies are my personal reminders, my tools to get passed the "stuck places" in my life. Both involve prayer:

1. Pray yourself out of yourself
2. Pray until you pray

Both suggest that "we," or "I" can be my impediment when it comes to seeking guidance/change/the will of God in our lives. Both imply greater effort, focused on removing the block and allowing our soul to soar to the very heavens for help. I'm feeling this myself this morning, even as the words leave my hand and land in this space. There is a need, a request, stuck mid-expression in my throat and I'm certain I have the power to utter it, but "I've" got tot be removed from the equation. I hope you're feeling me!