True Love can Quench Allison’s Desire #1

Your “Beloved,” is what you need. You yearn and long for Him, don’t you?

Always have, always will.

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Sun shines to make up for snowed in winter

     Played “peek-a-boo” with the sun and shade this morning. On the road from Ambler to Conshohocken, PA, I engaged Old Sol in a game the Almighty must have created for mankind’s appreciation. Why else would God — who caused the sun to come into being from some huge cosmic explosion — have invented shadows? It’s all part of His Love for us humans!

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Heaven appears now in Love from within

Heaven on Earth. What a beautiful idea.

     Why must one wait for death to enjoy this state of eternity? Why not enter while one is still alive?

Like right now.

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Tibetan singing bowl aids a goddess & me

     Kneeling on my knees, I hold the bowl out with one hand, while placing the other hand on the wooden floor, crawling from one side of the chair to another.

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Ring of truth played with bowls & forks

     My shoulders have grown enormously since this afternoon. I feel they’re “indestructible.” That I have durable lightweight plastic pads all around the neck, the collarbone and the head, as well as my upper chest and back. Energy of some sorts is protecting me from all harm to those areas. And it may be rubbing off on what they call the “Chakras‘ to my heart and higher parts.

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Name-caller gets his butt kicked in the end

Originally Cont’d from Name-calling can get you kicked in the end 1-28-10

     Calling a kid names could cause a lasting scar one may have to deal with later in life. It’s either that, or you learn to “toughen up as I did, and let the wise-cracks, the slurs, the hate-filled and ignorant remarks simply glide over you.

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‘Shining Moment’ sends me ‘Soaring High’

Originally Cont’d from Youth recaptured through football hurdle 1-22-10

     You had to be a little tough to grow up in Brewerytown, the neighborhood of Philadelphia I called home for the first part of my life. You also needed to be open to other ways of life, different religions, and those of another race.

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‘Letting Go’ Requires Faith and Hope

Cont’d from Seeing is believing in the ‘letting go’ process 1-30-10

Letting go” is a process I thought I had completely bought into when I “gave up” trying to control things and had surgery done on my eye.

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Part III, Don’t “Squander Away” Your Life

Originally Cont’d from Don’t squander away your life 12-5-09

     How can I deal with PTSD and prevent “squandering away” my life?

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‘One-Eyed Jack’ provides more meditation

Originally Cont’d from Steroids Pushed as Far as the Eye can See 2-5-10

     I’ve developed a fear of changes I’ve been forced to make and have a concern with the almost constant pain in the bad eye. It’s a low threshold of irritation, but a pain, nevertheless, that is taking more of a toll on me. Like headaches. Nothing acute, but a numbing sensation that increases as my blood pressure rises, or as my heartbeat increases, creating a throbbing pain.

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Buckle stabilizing retina called ‘excellent’

The “buckle” holding the retina in place on my left eye the past 30 days looks “excellent,” Dr. Ali Zaidi announced Wednesday. What’s more important, my vision has improved, and there’s hope for more improvement before I’m to get a new corrective lens prescription, following a detached retina operation Jan. 22, 2010.

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Eye “balling” new game for aging vision

     Got me a built-in “jelly” toy for my left eye. It’s about the size of the pupil, you know, that part of the eye that we say is the color shade of blue, green, or in my case, brown.

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Steroids Pushed as Far as the Eye can See

     I’m hooked on steroids. And no matter what I do, my doctor won’t let me get off of them.

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Can Eye Movement Still a Body or a Mind?

I can see!

     Just a little. A small section at the top of my eye. Through the peripheral vision of my left eye.

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Joy Found in Everyday ‘Common’ Ground

Part III in totem series (Hawk, tiger & sparrow)

     There’s nothing quite as common as a cracker, one of those Saltines, that is . . .

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“Soma” practice sensually loosens me up

     The black eye patch slips from my face as I throw my head back in a frenzy of movement. I’m trying to keep up with a pace I “feel” the “Soma” teacher is ratcheting up, as she “pushes” my body, mind and spirit higher and higher.

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Eye still on the 30-day writing finish line

     Surgery was completed on eye yesterday. I have to return today for an exam. Boy, am I drowsy.

     Have had to urinate constantly. May have to cancel afternoon meeting to learn how to be “calm” and find “peace.” It’s a free workshop, and if you know anything about me, you’d know I can’t stand to pass up anything that’s free.

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Meditation time is right in this moment

     Driving while stuck in a traffic jam ordinarily would not be the best place to practice mindfulness meditation. I found out today while rushing to a doctor’s appointment, it was the “only” way to travel.

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Meditation time is right in this moment

     Driving while stuck in a traffic jam ordinarily would not be the best place to practice mindfulness meditation. I found out today while rushing to a doctor’s appointment, it was the “only” way to travel.

Blog Post Mistakenly Published Twice in a Row!

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Yucky moment leads to ease of suffering

     Ever have one of those “yucky” moments? Like, when you put your hand in a box, feeling around for some specific item only to come upon something gooey, wet and, of course “yucky.”

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Run away & you live to fight another day

Originally cont’d from Last minute reprieve delays eye execution 1-25-10

     I have never been good at waiting, and when I have something unpleasant to do — like undergo an operation in the hospital — I prefer to get it over with. Quickly. And not have to count the minutes that seem to pass by so excruciatingly slow.

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Last minute reprieve delays eye execution

     I felt the governor had called in a reprieve at the 11th hour, minutes before my scheduled “execution” was to take place Monday.

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Laser pain – small price to pay for vision

Originally Cont’d  From Eye surgery burns the bravest resolve 1-17-10

     Anyone facing a detached retina medical procedure must learn to deal with discomfort. A patient will be in store for short bursts of pain that get progressively more difficult to deal with around the eye.

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Eye surgery burns the bravest resolve

      I prayed I wouldn’t show any fear, but I did. I couldn’t help it. I pulled my head away from the laser burning into my eye like a mare pulling away from a wrangler trying to break in a unridden horse.

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Blindness Warning Wraps ‘Round Wrist

Originally Cont’d from Bubble battles detached retina’s blinding 1-16-10

WARNING: Handle this detached retina eye patient with more care than he handles himself. A Bubble in his eye could explode. Now wear this bracelet until we say otherwise. (And stay off airplanes, for Heaven’s sake!)

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Bubble battles detached retina’s blinding

     A green wrist band announces to a Good Samaritan that, should I fall ill or be rescued from some accident, that I have a “Bubble” in my eye.

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‘Letting go’ provides a better ‘vision’ in life

Psychedelic green bursts of light pulse across my eye. It’s like a strobe light flashing over and over, as I “see” a colorful cascade of a lime green pigment appear before me as if it’s penetrating the eyeball itself.

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Driving too fast to slow thru a lens hazard

(Don’t Try This at Home, Kids)

A contact lens done me in. I tried to insert one in each eye while driving behind schedule to get to a meeting Saturday morning.

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Highly Sensitive People get Highest Grade

     I feel I have just awakened from a dream. I see a mother, a father, as well as a brother and sister smiling at me.  Each one is new to me. Each is the member of a family I have wanted to belong to all my life.

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Flowers still Brighten Up my New ‘Home’

     A spectacular combination of yellow and purple graced my eyes as I traveled yesterday to America’s first home, the City of Brotherly Love, in Philadelphia. There, on a counter with cups and a large “coffee” pot with hot water for my tea-toddling friend, were a bunch of flowers that greeted everyone and spiced up a small corner of the room at the Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia.

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Gratitude Given Freely Can Grow on You

Want to feel good? Pick out five things each day to show your gratitude. Write ’em down. But, don’t try to fake it. You really gotta look for some thing in your life, some person, some reason that, deep down inside, you can say “makes me grateful.”

That’s a message I got from a fellow named Bill Stauffer who addressed a group of like-minded people who were seeking some spiritual insights this morning. Continue reading

Life’s daily details creates a colorful you

     Here I am, walking on the high wire. No net below. My big mouth got me up here, and here I’ll stay for 30 days.

     Unless I fall. Or someone pushes me off.

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Saigon lady serves up smile & forgiveness

 You never know when Fate will offer a blessing in disguise.

     Saw an Asian woman handling the checkout at a nearby Target store and joked with her about a gift I was getting for my son’s birthday three months from today. It was a holiday box with no writing on it, nothing to suggest it was from Xmas.

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Words of wisdom on not following doctrine

For another view, see Second Opinions Sought for My Salvation

     Should one follow religious doctrine simply because it’s written in the “book,” or that it comes from special teachers’ “teachings” (including Dharma)?

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Second Opinions Sought for My Salvation

     Psst! Hey you. Yeah, the good-lookin’ one with that Spiritual Glow about ’em.

     Ever seek a second opinion on how to get into heaven? No, I’m not talking about waiting until you’re dead. I mean, right “now.”

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Warmth flows to where heart’s needed

     My heart opens more with a warm cup of coffee in my left hand than my right.

     You got that?

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Dalai Lama Fulfills My Holiday Wish List

Please See original Story My Xmas Wish List to the Dalai Lama

     My three wishes have come true.

     Each manifested differently; I didn’t realize all were granted until the end of the day, the time in which I asked for them to come true.

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Bartlows’ dinner drives away all the blues

     “I remember once when mom made a delicious snack dish,” Amy said at a Christmas dinner I attended with my in-laws last night.

     “Only Once?” someone cried out

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Police nab attention whenever One roams

     Saw a police force van and immediately slowed down while driving.

     I do it all the time, even if I’m well within the speed limit. Habit, I guess. Always feel that I’ve done something wrong. Guilt seems to rise to the surface whenever I see police.

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Home visit will provide internal answers

   

So many choices. So many books to read, words to digest. How do you know where to begin?

Each claim to have the answer, the “truth.”  Each offers an inviting path to follow, a way of life that will lead to where we all want to go home.

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Be Humble; Let Love Grow Inside Your Self

“Whenever I interact with someone,
May I view myself as the lowest amongst all,
And, from the very depths of my heart,
Respectfully hold others as superior.”

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Snow & Zen Usher in Winter of 2009-2010

     A white cap of snow covers the head of the Buddha statue in the side yard of my Conshohocken home. Snow blankets his shoulders, his lap and that part of his robe that crosses his chest from the top left shoulder to the mid-section of the belly on the right. His arms, partial chest and kneecaps remain bare and uncovered by the snow — as if to dramatically challenge the white fluffy stuff to hide the bold charcoal black statue parts beneath.

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A Flower Blooms then Rests in the Buddha

Can I give a flower to a Buddhist?

To show the impermanence of beauty.

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My Xmas Wish List to the Dalai Llama

Revised Xmas list:

       Your Holiness:

      Please grant me three wishes the next time I visit a Buddhist Center:

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Think Buddha ever signed new members?

(Part IV, Continued from Life’s Journey)

QUES: What did Buddhist want on ordering a hot dog?     ANS:   “One with everything.”

QUES: What did he say when asked for any change?            ANS:   “Change must come from within.”

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Life’s Journey leads me to a Tea Ceremony

(Part III, Continued from Meditation lets my energy flow from within)

     Never been to a “Tea Ceremony” before. On hearing about it Sunday, I envisioned something out of “Alice in Wonderland,” with the Mad Hatter sipping a cup at a long white table, and the March Hare constantly glancing at his watch — just a bunch of silliness, per an animated movie.

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Meditation lets my energy flow from within

Part II, Continued from On road to Peace, I found some “Bhuddies”

How Do I Meditate?    Continue reading

On road to Peace, I found some “Bhuddies”

     For the first time in my life, I attended a Buddhist gathering knowing that I wanted to learn more about meditation and the teachings about compassion and loving kindness.

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Who’s Calling Me This Time? Oh, it’s YOU!

      Off to a Tibetan Buddhist Center in Philadelphia, PA. 

      Did not know there were so many. Buddhist Centers, that is. In the USA.

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The right brain activates love & awareness

If you view no other video the rest of your meditative life, please see this one about Jill Bolte Taylor.

If you view no other video the rest of your meditative life, please see this one about Jill Bolte Taylor.

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Pranic Healing Begets Mighty Meta Care

     I hear a young voice behind me. At first, I think it was a boy. Turns out, it’s Mary Kate, a 7-year-old girl. She’s crying. Not loudly, but softly, as if she’s hurting somewhere no one can comfort her.

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Meditation prevents brush with the law

     Meditation paid off in an unusual dividend today.

     It helped me obey traffic signs, thereby avoiding a ticket I would surely have gotten on another day.  Continue reading

Jew, Christian and Muslim Sheik Agree

      A small miracle is happening right before our eyes if we only open our hearts to see.

    A minister, a rabbi and a Muslim sheik put their differences on the line and walked away clearing an unobstructed path to God.    

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In the end, “being child-like” curbs aging

I finally did something I thought I would never do:

Look at the end of a book to see the conclusion.

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November 22, a day like no other USA day

     My 10th-grade mathematics teacher whispers the horrible news: “Somebody shot the president.”

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Unconditional Love = Warmth, Peace, Joy

    The following comments were exchanged with another WordPress Blog Writer about the subject of Attachment which can be seen below by clicking on the blue link.

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The Choice is Yours; Inner Peace Awaits

Hate to Choose Things.

     So much pressure is self-imposed, you can’t get away from making choices sometimes. Yet I want to decide which of the following has more bearing on my Soul.

     Want to choose for me?

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Glass half full with wine; half with juice

     What does morning orange juice and evening red wine have in common at my house?

     They’re served in the same glass, thank you very much.

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Finally, Light Shines on My Mutiny Quash

     I lied to my platoon to prevent a Mutiny from bursting to a head some 40 years ago.

     Today, I granted myself forgiveness. I cleansed a wound that never seemed to heal until now.

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Finally, Light Shines on My Mutiny Quash

I lied to my platoon to prevent a mutiny from bursting to a head some 40 years ago.

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Healing Technique Sparks Family Fall Out

     “Unclean spirits!” The words hit me like a ton of bricks. Across my face.

     Besides being rejected, I felt lightning had just stuck the ground beneath me. I detected fear and the raising of a drawbridge that would block out all light, no matter where the Source originated.

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Thanks for a Path that Preserved my Life

     Ever wonder what life would have been like if you made different choices years earlier?

     Choosing a Different Path May Have Hurt You 

I was 19 when I felt “separated” from most of the people I hung out with and called friends. I wanted to be so much like them; not to care about such things as “love,” “compassion,”  other people’s feelings.” That was “sissy” stuff; stuff that only a “wuss” would think about. I saw these aspects of myself as a “weakness.

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Acupuncture calms stress, a veteran’s woes

      Needles punctured my ears for the first time in my life this week.

Veterans’ Day Offers Acupuncture at WON Institute

     Acupuncture was being offered for one free session to veterans on Veterans’ Day, and I appeared at the WON Institute in Glenside, PA, to take advantage of the procedure. The practitioner, Ed Cunningham, was kind, offering me some cheese and crackers as we made small talk and I got ready for the event.

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PTSD Raises a Monster Head from a Toilet

Put a straitjacket on me.

Hide me in a padded room.

Get me away from people.

All those I can harm by PTSD.

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PTSD therapy often comes from survivors

War Zone Fears Not Easily Discussed by Veterans

Opening up” to a stranger is, at best, difficult to do. Confiding your “war zone” fears with a non-veteran can be worse, unless PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) serves as a bond between a brother and a sister.

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Will Vietnam PTSD trap ever set me free?

    What do anger, dreams, PTSD, and “Letting Go of one’s past have to do with each other? They’re all part of a discussion on vetting our emotions through dreams to deal with our conscious selves. Join me and another Michael J in our recent comments to his post: Practicing for the Bardo by Urbansannyasin 

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Torn between ‘Writing’ and ‘Meditating’

      Having more than an hour before getting breakfast, I wondered whether I should write something or seek refuge in a “sitting meditation.” 

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Despite Road Rage, Light Shines on PTSD

     Unable to curb my road rage today, I finally grasped a thread of my PTSD and traced it back to its source.

I Wish I Could Use This Action Whenever PTSD Arises

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Hope Floats On Bubbling Spa Waters

     Close your eyes, and you might see.

     See the weightlessness that your body becomes as you float on the waters of a nearby spa.

Floating can Elevate Peace and Calm

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‘One Step Back’ leads to ‘Two Forward’

   Advising Another Can be a Learning for You  

Ever learn about yourself while giving heartfelt advice to someone else?   

My kid served as a mirror this morning, as I discussed why he should not quit on his “tech” teacher at school.

     It ain’t easy admitting that you, the parent, may need the same sage advice as the child. Worse yet, is trying to reason with a 17-year-old. They are so smart, they know practically everything to know in this world.

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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?

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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

PTSD alert: don’t squander away your life

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?

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‘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.

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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.

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When 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.

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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.   

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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?

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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.

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