The future is much like the present, only longer.
Dan Quisenberry
*************************
Hello George
*************************
Measurements are good for designing clothes, building sheds and figuring how long it will take to drive to Aunt Martha's house. Measurements are very poor and often destructive things when it comes to life. Things take as long as they take. What difference does it make to look back and see how long it took for something to happen. The past isn't important anyway. It's over. It doesn't exist.
If the future is like today then it stands to reason if you want a certain future you should be living it as much as possible today and learning thereby how to live it more. We must make plans for the future, of course, but the best time to begin that improvement program is today, not tomorrow.
I once knew a fellow who at the age of about 30 calculated at what point in his life he would be coming down with certain diseases and infirmaries. He even tried to include me in his calculations as if it was the natural course of everyone's life. I didn't buy it. I saw him years later and it seems he had successfully programmed himself into a walking advertisement for disaster. He was a mess. And he was surprised to see me so sprightly and limber. We were the same age.
It's not a difficult thing to discipline thought. We do it all the time when we need to. It's when we don't seem to need to, when the mind is wandering, day dreaming or generally unoccupied in serious thought that the negatives might start to take over, the fears, worries and depressions. Those are the thoughts that don't belong to us. They come along with the breeze and stick to the fly paper of our minds. Then we have some cleaning up to do. Heaven forbid we should discipline our thoughts to measure how long it will be before we become sick and infirm, like the poor fellow I knew. Whereas if we keep a bright, warm beacon focused on the rights not the wrongs, the hopes not the fears, the desires not the doubts, we eventually bring those realities from today into the future, as we bring the future into today. And it doesn't matter how long it takes.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
***************************
Showing posts with label today. Show all posts
Showing posts with label today. Show all posts
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Stop The Clock
When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. .Look forward to your next objective.
General George Marshall
*****************************
Hello Arlene
*****************************
I've been thinking about the subject of time. Time, one of the nastiest apples ever plucked from the tree of good and evil. I'm not sure if I have time to write about it this evening, It will take some time and even though I have time on my hands, it may be time to do something else. But since it's a timely subject I'll take the time to address it.
I'm beginning to believe as many forward thinking and prophetic philosophers and scientists have said, time doesn't really exist. There is no time. Time hasn't run out. It was never there in the first place.
"Stand still ,you ever-moving spheres of heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come."
(Christopher Marlowe)
We are tyrannized by our clocks and calendars. While time is really only a human measurement of how long it takes something to move. we shape our lives around it. And the worst part of it, the most toxic part, is that we put events into a time slot of future, present and past. But I've come to realize that there is no past. The past is gone, so it doesn't exist and therefore it doesn't require my attention nor do the memories that cloud around it.
"Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking."
(Gustav Mahler)
And so they should be though one could hardly call Mahler's life wasted and sterile. But what is cracking is gone and will do what all past does, fall back into it's essence and create the present, and the present will create the future. The future, like the past, doesn't exist and it never will because all there is is the present and the present doesn't exist in time.
"And the angel...lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware...that there should be time no longer."
(Revelation)
If Mahler's life was wasted and sterile than everyone's life was also. but only if we didn't take advantage of the now. We have always been and always will be in the present moment because there is no other. Now is the only time. "Now is the day of salvation."
(Corinthians II)
Well, I can see from the old clock on the wall that it's almost time to post this. Today is the only day. Do good things today and keep on doing them.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
*****************************
General George Marshall
*****************************
Hello Arlene
*****************************
I've been thinking about the subject of time. Time, one of the nastiest apples ever plucked from the tree of good and evil. I'm not sure if I have time to write about it this evening, It will take some time and even though I have time on my hands, it may be time to do something else. But since it's a timely subject I'll take the time to address it.
I'm beginning to believe as many forward thinking and prophetic philosophers and scientists have said, time doesn't really exist. There is no time. Time hasn't run out. It was never there in the first place.
"Stand still ,you ever-moving spheres of heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come."
(Christopher Marlowe)
We are tyrannized by our clocks and calendars. While time is really only a human measurement of how long it takes something to move. we shape our lives around it. And the worst part of it, the most toxic part, is that we put events into a time slot of future, present and past. But I've come to realize that there is no past. The past is gone, so it doesn't exist and therefore it doesn't require my attention nor do the memories that cloud around it.
"Behind me the branches of a wasted and sterile existence are cracking."
(Gustav Mahler)
And so they should be though one could hardly call Mahler's life wasted and sterile. But what is cracking is gone and will do what all past does, fall back into it's essence and create the present, and the present will create the future. The future, like the past, doesn't exist and it never will because all there is is the present and the present doesn't exist in time.
"And the angel...lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware...that there should be time no longer."
(Revelation)
If Mahler's life was wasted and sterile than everyone's life was also. but only if we didn't take advantage of the now. We have always been and always will be in the present moment because there is no other. Now is the only time. "Now is the day of salvation."
(Corinthians II)
Well, I can see from the old clock on the wall that it's almost time to post this. Today is the only day. Do good things today and keep on doing them.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
*****************************
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Growing Up
I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink into a grain of sand.
Og Mandino
*********************
Hello Ken
*********************
What style of a mountain are you? Or are you just a grain of sand like millions of others on the remote and secluded beaches of the world? I fear I'm becoming that grain myself One unfortunate but undeniable truth which perforates a hole in a person's sense of themselves is that if you think you are a humble grain of sand other people will treat you that way, crushing you under foot as they move along their pretended mountain trails.
I personally feel that I'm becoming more like a grain of sand everyday. I've lost some friends and readers. I owe so much money I can't afford health insurance so I live with my infirmaries. I live in a place where there is nothing for my talents and abilities except at the keyboard. I seem to have some readers at various places around the world: the US, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Asia.. But I don't know who they are. I sure would like to hear from some of them. Thee may be mountains out there I don't know about.
Well I'm not a grain of sand yet, in spite of the grinding down I've been subjected to in my life. The right and possibility to grow back into the mountain direction is the best cure for sand mentality. So how does one achieve mountainhood? I think there are at least two seemingly opposing geological techniques. One is to persist in doing the best one can do, never giving up. And the other is not repeating oneself, doing the same thing over again, no matter how good it is. Appetizing inspirations generally go stale after a while if they aren't subjected to constant renewal. Persistence and innovation. Those are the two horses hooked up to the wagon.
After one gets those two beasts of burden going in harmony, then it's time to decide on where you're going. Mark down mountain on your map of buried treasure and then draw lines to it labeled "talent," "imagination," "passion,' and one of the most important lines called "today."
Now why do I want to be a mountain? Because a mountain is a mighty and inspiring thing. It's slopes, meadows and streams provide sustenance, some people will always want to climb to your summit to learn what you know and a mountain also provides shade to the grains of sand below.
I am not a grain of sand, I'm not just another pebble on the beach, I'm not a stone wall, a pile of rocks or even a boulder. I'm hitched up, with map in hand and on my way at growing into a mountain. Join me?
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*************************
Og Mandino
*********************
Hello Ken
*********************
What style of a mountain are you? Or are you just a grain of sand like millions of others on the remote and secluded beaches of the world? I fear I'm becoming that grain myself One unfortunate but undeniable truth which perforates a hole in a person's sense of themselves is that if you think you are a humble grain of sand other people will treat you that way, crushing you under foot as they move along their pretended mountain trails.
I personally feel that I'm becoming more like a grain of sand everyday. I've lost some friends and readers. I owe so much money I can't afford health insurance so I live with my infirmaries. I live in a place where there is nothing for my talents and abilities except at the keyboard. I seem to have some readers at various places around the world: the US, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Asia.. But I don't know who they are. I sure would like to hear from some of them. Thee may be mountains out there I don't know about.
Well I'm not a grain of sand yet, in spite of the grinding down I've been subjected to in my life. The right and possibility to grow back into the mountain direction is the best cure for sand mentality. So how does one achieve mountainhood? I think there are at least two seemingly opposing geological techniques. One is to persist in doing the best one can do, never giving up. And the other is not repeating oneself, doing the same thing over again, no matter how good it is. Appetizing inspirations generally go stale after a while if they aren't subjected to constant renewal. Persistence and innovation. Those are the two horses hooked up to the wagon.
After one gets those two beasts of burden going in harmony, then it's time to decide on where you're going. Mark down mountain on your map of buried treasure and then draw lines to it labeled "talent," "imagination," "passion,' and one of the most important lines called "today."
Now why do I want to be a mountain? Because a mountain is a mighty and inspiring thing. It's slopes, meadows and streams provide sustenance, some people will always want to climb to your summit to learn what you know and a mountain also provides shade to the grains of sand below.
I am not a grain of sand, I'm not just another pebble on the beach, I'm not a stone wall, a pile of rocks or even a boulder. I'm hitched up, with map in hand and on my way at growing into a mountain. Join me?
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*************************
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Moving Day Two
I will take care of today and let the future take care of itself.
Unknown
*********************
Hello Stuart
*********************
Life is unfinished business, I have often said. It's a refreshing thing to realize that the thing you took care of yesterday you don't have to deal with today, and the thing you deal with today you won't have to face tomorrow. And tomorrow's tasks are the things of tomorrow, not today. And so each day unfolds with it's separate challenges and deeds. Today is the day you live. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow.
I was talking last night with two friends who, like me, just moved into a new home. We were comparing the processes of discovery, that strange and magical moment when you open a box and find something you forgot about or maybe even thought you lost. Then comes the head scratching dilemma of finding the thing you know you kept and packed somewhere. But all cardboard boxes and shopping bags look the same, they don't announce what's in them. If you were smart you labeled the boxes "summer clothes" or "kitchen stuff." But you probably didn't. Then when you finally uncover last years' tax returns you wonder how they got packed with the kitty litter.
There's an old saying you've no doubt heard "It takes o' heap of livin' to make a house a home." One of the joys of moving into a new place is knowing that one day soon it will be the place where you can comfortably start that heap of living. As you stare at the chaos you can know that it will get harmonized one day into a living space.
I've noted that every important decision I make, every step in the learning ladder of life experience, every realization of a previously unknown truth presents an upheaval of my thinking, a minor or major mental chaos. I've learned not to expect an instant straightening out of the mental mess or immediate answers to some of the questions. It is enough for me to know that eventually, some time in the future, it will get sorted out if I deal with as much of it as I can today and not worry about tomorrow.
That is not to say that people shouldn't have hopes, dreams and plans. But even those must be dealt with one task, one day at a time. They will never be fulfilled unless they are. But for today the dream is unfulfilled, like your home, like your life, it's unfinished business.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*************************
Unknown
*********************
Hello Stuart
*********************
Life is unfinished business, I have often said. It's a refreshing thing to realize that the thing you took care of yesterday you don't have to deal with today, and the thing you deal with today you won't have to face tomorrow. And tomorrow's tasks are the things of tomorrow, not today. And so each day unfolds with it's separate challenges and deeds. Today is the day you live. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow.
I was talking last night with two friends who, like me, just moved into a new home. We were comparing the processes of discovery, that strange and magical moment when you open a box and find something you forgot about or maybe even thought you lost. Then comes the head scratching dilemma of finding the thing you know you kept and packed somewhere. But all cardboard boxes and shopping bags look the same, they don't announce what's in them. If you were smart you labeled the boxes "summer clothes" or "kitchen stuff." But you probably didn't. Then when you finally uncover last years' tax returns you wonder how they got packed with the kitty litter.
There's an old saying you've no doubt heard "It takes o' heap of livin' to make a house a home." One of the joys of moving into a new place is knowing that one day soon it will be the place where you can comfortably start that heap of living. As you stare at the chaos you can know that it will get harmonized one day into a living space.
I've noted that every important decision I make, every step in the learning ladder of life experience, every realization of a previously unknown truth presents an upheaval of my thinking, a minor or major mental chaos. I've learned not to expect an instant straightening out of the mental mess or immediate answers to some of the questions. It is enough for me to know that eventually, some time in the future, it will get sorted out if I deal with as much of it as I can today and not worry about tomorrow.
That is not to say that people shouldn't have hopes, dreams and plans. But even those must be dealt with one task, one day at a time. They will never be fulfilled unless they are. But for today the dream is unfulfilled, like your home, like your life, it's unfinished business.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*************************
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