Flip The Dial

Fire can't be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men.

James Baldwin
*******************
Hello Ernie
*******************
I've spent much time and effort scraping through embers trying to find a spark to light up the spirits, other people's and my own. It's so easy to shut down the fire and settle for the hum drum. "Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear yo not?" (Mark 8) Why do we maintain the habit of looking at the world as if it was mainly uninteresting? Why do we not look for the invisible things, and listen to hear what may be inbetween the sounds around us? Have we forgotten or do we take for granted that we have a mind filled to abundance with thoughts, ideas, dreams?

Remember the radio with two stations? You don't? I bet you have the feeling right now that I am about to remind you. I wrote about it a couple of times. It's a Cabbalist idea. Imagine there is a radio and it plays only two stations. One of them broadcasts only good news, and the other one only bad news. Now image that you turn the radio on and set it at the good news station. But as soon as you turn your back and walk away it automatically flips over to the bad news station. When you realize it you have to go back and readjust the dial, until the next time.

Now imagine that this radio is your mind and the way it works. Right? How many hours a day do you listen to the bad news, the fear, worry, anger, resentment, doubt, depression, despair? Dial flipping is seriously needed there.

Believe me I know how difficult it is to get that dial pointed in the right direction, especially since the bad news station has given you something to worry about or to be afraid of. You don't want to let go of it. You would almost rather chew your head off than hear some cheerful news. You are enjoying the misery. And that's why you need an impulse, a reminder, a kick. And that's where the vagabond comes in.

I have just about typed my finders to the bone stirring up the embers, trying to get people to stay tuned to the good news station and to remind them that the human spirit when armed with the everything of good thoughts and not the nothing of bad thoughts is a powerful force, and when focused on the ins and outs, the ups and downs and the backs and forths of life it can perform miracles.

Remember, the opposite of good isn't evil.
The opposite of good is good-and-evil.

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up

Hands Across The Net

Remember we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand.

Emily Kimbrough
*******************
" Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish,
here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish."
(Thomas Hastings)

I'm introducing a new journal. It has come to me that there are people out there who suffer from acute or chronic problems, physical, emotional, psychological, social, ethical and otherwise, who need to talk about them.. In many cases a person has no one they trust to talk to and it is more helpful to write things out.

I know it was palpably therapeutic for me to write out my fear and pain during my recent nightmare months of February and March. I also know that a lot of people avoided reading it because of various reasons. And it was semi public at the time.

But then I believe Guido had some success with his Calls For Prayer. My new journal is not asking for prayer but a place to weep, rage, complain, beg, plead, and give up (temporarily) if you want to.

If you have the option to write anonymously, please do that if you want to, no one will erase your entry.or refuse it. Give me your trouble, your wounded heart, your terror and your anguish. Let your words flow into the warm hands of those who care. I'll take all your good news also and celebrate with you.

The new journal is called Hand of the Vagabond and it's at http://vagabondhand.blogspot.com/

Vagabond Journeys will keep posting things of the inane, insane and germane for our reading pleaser, yours and mine.

DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*********************