Here’s a Little Food for Thought:
Why is text messaging confined only to a hand-held devise?
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Monthly Archives: October 2009
Trying to Make Amends for Vietnam War
How do you say you’re sorry to a people whose country you bombed in the name of peace and democracy?
What words can you use after saying that you are personally sorry for the Vietnam War and the mistakes our government made some 40 years ago?
Continue readingEating right can be such sweet sorrow
Life’s Ultimate Prize Goes to Those Aware
I admit it. I cheated.
I rushed to a finish line and cheated myself. I thought I could complete the course as quickly as possible to move on to the next life event. But it took me but a moment to realize my mistake.
I had cheated myself of real improvement, real growth and I now know that the true challenge in life lies in the smallest detail. Continue reading
I’m saying “Let it go” really means Let it go
Contoveros comments on his Meditation Technique
“[If] . . . we are not keeping ourselves open to the new opportunities that may appear . . . [w]e will miss them because we are still in our old mindset . . .”
Continue readingMother Nature’s quick fix heals the blues
Back For More Meditation and Bird Talk!
Contoveros comments on a Recent Blog Post
Laura,
Watching the birds does help. So does meditation so long as you can nudge out not only the bad thoughts but all thoughts that could intrude upon the present: the watching of birds, the chirping of the birds when you close your eyes; the feel of the sun as it warms your body.
Voice needed to keep us men folk in line
There’s no such thing as “girlfriend aggro”
by Potty Mouth Mommy
This was my response to the above writing 1 day ago:
Holy Shit!
I stumbled on your post from a thread on “anger” and it blew me away.
I’m a guy who never really looked at things from that perspective before. I don’t play the dungeon and dragons stuff, but I used to stay glued to a football and/or baseball game come hell or high water.
Was my wife seething in the other room because of my sports mistress?
Family Problems are but “Unicorn Rainbow Poop”
I gotta remember this line from your great post-writing. You have a way with describing something in such earthy, easily relatable terms that makes it a joy to view and ponder.
But would you have been so inspired to bring forth such an informative and entertaining post if life provided you with a Rose Garden?
Ok, ok, you’ll take a rose garden any day over a life of thorns, weeds and creepy, crawly, critters sometimes called a spouse.
The Better Half and the Lower Half
You “are” appreciated. You ARE loved. You are “needed” to share your voice with both the better half (you women) and the lower half (” some,” . . . all right, . . . “most” . . . damn it! Do I really got to say “ALL” . . . men?) [present company excluded, particularly when you will only be able to see or hear me bellowing out words that’ll appear on a “man-made” computer terminal.
{Crap. The automatic edit machine wanted me to change “man-made” to “synthetic.” The computer has no balls, let alone an eye for literary art . . . Humph!}
Please continue with your contributions. It could help keep some of us in line or to get “back” in line.]
— Michael J Contos
(Comments are from a post on spousal (righteous) anger two weeks ago)
Safe Place Still No Guard Against PTSD
My Correspondence with a Woman with PTSD
You got it Sweetheart!
PTSD is what this Vietnam War veteran is talking about.
Comments Cure Contoveros’ Curiosity
PTSD alert: don’t squander away your life
A Teutonic Plate shifted inside of me.
I felt someone had thrown water at my face, had “hit me upside my head” and looked me dead in the eye demanding my fullest attention. Have I been squandering away my life?
‘Infinite Mercy’ May Set my Teacher Free
My son’s favorite teacher killed herself.
She was depressed, they said, when she took the life of her three-year-old son. Then . . . she committed suicide, leaving a note for her husband and the child’s father.
Meditation Aimed at All PTSD Veterans
Tibetan Book Winds its Way Thru My Life
I got a chill when I saw the word “Tibet” today because it took me back to the late 1960s when I was a newly minted second lieutenant trying to make his way in the US Army. The words that impressed me then, however, had nothing to do with the military. It had everything to do with life. Nearly 40 years later, I see that the “Tibetan Book of the Dead” called out to me, though I may not have known it then. Continue reading
When Is Using God’s Name Blasphemy?
God damn it. I forgot the lead I wanted to write here.
It was on the tip of my tongue (pen, key board key, etc.), and Christ, I lost it.
Continue readingWhen Your Helping Just Isn’t Enough
I offered to help some people today whose car had broken down.
Also learned that offering a helping hand sometimes is not enough.
Music (mantra) melts the mind madness
When I want to (need to?) quiet the chatter inside of me, I play a little music in my head — sort of like a mantra — that becomes a lullaby for the Mind.
Release Me; I Swear I’ll Never Sin Again
Hey. Please get me out of here.
How the hell did I end up here, this empty place where no one can see me, touch me, or, more importantly, hear me?
Why am I locked up, away from the world outside this jar-like existence. Who did I piss off? What was my grievous sin?
Identity Loss Leads to New Outlook on Life
I lost my wallet.
And found a new freedom that only the loss of identity could possibly grant me.
Continue readingGoodbye Love; I’m Off to Find the Wizard
I must go.
And so, I simply say Goodbye.
Can aspiring to be “God-like” be heresy?
I felt so inspired by Robert Terrell’s guest column for Confessions of a Mystic that I penned a response that asks if we can ever become “God like” in our daily lives:
* * * * * * * * *
* On reading Robert’s excellent article, I was reminded of a philosophy espoused by a fellow named Sartre, in a play called “No Exit.” It dealt with life after death and how a man living with two women in one room viewed existence. “Hell. . . ,” the man said. ” . . .is . . . other . . . people . . .“
Continue reading
— Who’s to Blame For War After War? —
I Blame God for War.
I blame the Most Powerful Force in the Universe for not using its Almighty Abilities to stop war dead in its tracks.
“I may be a descendant of someone’s slave”
Discussing the History of Nat Turner
“Ever Hear of Nat Turner?” Sheriff Joe Wilkens asked me.
“Sure,” I said. “He’s a famous black man who led a slave uprising before the Civil War.”
— Some Wounds May Never Ever Heal —
The Vietnam War changed Joe.
It stripped him of all interest in leading people in any official capacity.
Forever.
— Why Must This Path Purt So Much? —
Pain: What Good Is It?
Sometimes, it works. But sometimes it tears into my psyche, bringing with it a fear that this discomfort, this thorn will continue to haunt me, raising its head more and more as I feel the aging process more keenly and with it, an unwanted sense of my mortality, my deterioration and the inevitable end that I will someday meet. When the pain increases and I can’t steer my mind away from it, I know deep inside that the end is not so very far away!
“Thank you” for letting me serve, somehow
- Ever get more out of doing something nice for someone than that person ever expected you could possibly get?
Potluck heads bucket list of things to do
Lighting Up With Something New in Life
My favorite store greeter told me she wanted to smoke grass before turning 60.
Why not study art, writing, or some other esoteric topic? I asked.
No, she said, “I have never smoked marijuana before.”
Banner bird brightens boy’s breakfast
A little bird brightened my day today.
The bird recognized me out of more than a hundred people sitting at tables eating breakfast.
I had not noticed until after I had gotten my free breakfast, sat down, and began munching half of a piece of bacon. I chewed and chewed and methodically relished the taste with my eyes closed and my mind “forced“ to stay “in the moment.”
I felt calm and “in tune” as I glanced up, feeling that I had just been watched, was still being observed, being singled out.
“Don’t like this love…(crap)” she told me!
“I don’t like this love shit,” a woman I was about to meditate with whispered to me while in the circle of our six-person meditation “community.”
Veterans find joy in their own backyards
You can’t know how much pleasure there is in feeding a squirrel until you open yourself to the wonders of nature . . . and of course . . . feed a squirrel . . . daily.
Meditative dining offers food for thought
Mindfullness Practice Helps While Eating
Eating sausage in the morning helps me “Be in the Moment.”
I dine at an IKEA store in Conshohocken, PA, the North American headquarters for the Swedish furniture company. It offers a restaurant serving good food for prices that beat the costs of diners and even fast-food places. (99 cents for scrambled eggs, home fries, and a choice of bacon or sausage. Coffee is free from 9:30 to 10 a.m. with refills.
Dream reveals a key to unlocking Paradise
I dreamed I wore a dress to a training class for new lawyers learning to defend criminal defendants. No one noticed my garb. None of the other attorneys said anything, and I never felt “different” or out of place as a brand-new public defender awaiting to argue his first case in Court.
But when I left the room and took a break, a supervisor removed the dress as he and others tried to run off with what they said was “inappropriate” clothing for a man’s courtroom appearance.
Serving others helps to serve you as well
The purpose of Life is to know, love, and serve the Creator.
But how do you serve an All-Giving Entity?
I believe that “to Serve the Creator is to Serve Humanity”
What’s Love Got To Do with My PTSD?
Love can Help You Deal with PTSD
What’s Love got to do with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)?
The feelings they generate stem from that same Core within, at least, the same Core within me.
Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers
It’s just like heaven . . . Being here with you . . . You’re like an Angel . . Too good to be true. When You are near me. My heart skips a beat. I can hardly stand on. My own two feet. Because I Love You; I Love You, I Do. ‘Angel Baby’. My ‘Angel Baby’. Oh, Ooh, I Love You, Oh, Ooh, I Do . . . No One Could Love You . . . Like I Do!
Contoveros 