Thought for The Day - What does it mean?

Forgive my rambling this morning. Without the reported high profile, headline making cases of police abuse, I can have my own level of frustration. There is so much turmoil and yet, you and I will get in our cars, on public transportation and go to work - whatever that is for you. We wear clothes and shoes, manufactured by people we may never know, under circumstances that would shame us if we did. We buy food in stores with layers of management, everyone needing a check to take home and feed their families. We fill trash cans full of food wrappers, discarded food and other items and there is no telling where this goes. Stuff, stuff, stuff!

We have relationships that are meaningful, but in all of our relationships, some things are said and others not. We can be forgiving, but repeated disregard continues. We can love and be ignored; we can give our "all" and yet remain empty handed and be left with no hope of change. We can talk, communicate our concern for improvement and never see a change on the other side of our "relationship equation." More stuff, stuff, stuff!

Layers of government; from the local, town, county, state and country to the international community. In our democratic society, we are "allowed" to elect who will "lead" us and unless we as a large constituent enforce our needs and wants, the politicians disappear to their local, county, state and federal meeting places and make decisions we would never agree with! Certainly, we need the processes in place, but in the scheme of getting and keeping our piece of the pie, we can't invest the time to ensure the democratic process works in our favor. It's just more stuff, stuff, stuff!

You know, I'm not coming close to scratching the surface and perhaps this isn't the place to do so. Like the complex layers of our society and our global community, there are both good and bad qualities in each of us. We are both victim and abuser in any given day! We can love and hate, ignore or lavish others with our care. And yet, in all of this, above all of this...

Thought for The Day - Searching to Find...

Looking up, focusing on nothing in particular, glancing over my left shoulder, watching the fish swim and play and the orange, blue, red and white of the painting sitting on the easel...I absorb it, listen to it and wait for an answer. The question, unspoken, hangs in the air...how will my arm extend to the world today? A candle in hand, a light shone on the common place, bringing light to details we know, but ignore.

There are many details, messages and truths to know. I'm shining the spotlight on the ugly as well refined beauty. Innocence and joy, love and faith. But there's always another side to all of this and especially from a human perspective.

Thought for The Day - Troublin' Times

Oh it's a troublin'
These days and times
We don't know where we're goin
 And we sho' don't know how to get there!

I look out my window and see the movement of traffic north and south. All day, cars (people) going and coming, visiting and leaving, here and there. A billion thoughts, feelings, memories, todays and tomorrows going by. While it is dark, their thoughts are driving by, not resting, not enjoying a warm bed or the arms of a lover. It is, indeed 'troubled times.' Like a constant churning of waters from below, it leaves us all 'unsettled' and wondering.

I guess we love our drama...we like it served on fine china, on mahogany dining tables underneath crystal chandeliers. We like to trouble the waters - in another's life - and complain when others aren't giving us our dessert with the silver plated dessert fork. We are a troubled people.

All across the land, over the seas and in the far reaches of continents undiscovered (Maybe they should remain undiscovered; there might be peace there. But Lord knows we won't let it remain that way!), trouble rules the land! And when we lie down, our dreams are full of the raging, boiling waters of turmoil and chaos.

And yet the children play when we let them... undisturbed, full of laughter and not a care (trouble) in the world. But not for long; we need them as fodder for this fight!