Wooden Water

Before enlightenment
..you chop wood and carry water.

After enlightenment
...you chop wood and carry water.

-namasdave

Con Text

These are a few of my favorite things
When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad...

...and proper context.

Exhale

Ever notice that you're constantly thinking about breathing in and out, in and out?
No!? You don't!?

That's right, because people rarely notice or appreciate things when they're going just as they should be, but that doesn't mean they aren't important/vital.

(Apply as needed.)

-namasdave

Party Time

Just keeping it real...

It's not about parties, it's about people.
The world would be a far better place if we could keep that in mind and stop wasting our time on propaganda to serve a party,  and start using that time to serve  people.

I don't usually post about politics but this shit is getting ridiculous.

-namasdave

Getting Caught In the Rain

I don't understand anymore...everyone seems angry and looking for a reason to show it.

Quick to judge, assuming the worst of others, jumping to offense and defense without knowing the full scope of a situation or the heart of the other.

Gossiping, slandering, backbiting, just being nasty in general because we can't see eye to eye at every point, because we seem hell bent on "being right".

Attacking seems easier than understanding or explaining, and I'm hard pressed to find many folks who seem to talk more about what they're for than against.

Our perspectives are askew, our priorities out of order, and the problem it seems is almost everyone else except us. (Ironic I know. I'm not any better)

We treat and speak to each other horribly, both the people we know and don't. I don't know which we treat worse.

Common courtesy, consideration and kindness seems to be dwindling, as we flaunt our arrogance and thumb our noses at God, who I'm sure must be weeping for us all...at least for now.

Is this the world my children will grow up and live in?

Where's the love people?

Where's our compassion?

Our grace?

Our mercy?

Did we leave it hanging on a cross?

Be good to yourselves sure, but much more so, for the love of God, be good to each other...

d(-_-)b
This is on my blog as well, but this place is where I see and feel so many of these issues. You can yell at me here or there...or both, but it had to be said.

What I lack in good looks and charm I make up for with incompentency and bad fashion sense.

What do Dubstep and the rainfall in Tempe have in common? They can both be measured in drops.

A man wishing to be unhappy finds many ways to prove his course.

-namasdave

Wonton

We want what everyone else seems to have, but we have what everyone else seems to want...and no one seems to know what either is.

- namasdave

Hope Less

I drink so I don't care as much.
I smoke so I won't have to care as long.

-namasdave

Tell Me

Tell me only what you love and I will know what you hate.
Tell me only what you hate and that is all I will know.

-namasdave

Out Come the Wolves

The wolves love fresh blood and tender meat, and how much better when the sheep come willingly into the den.

Don't confuse a pre-heating oven for a warm greeting.

- namasdave

The Student and the Master

The student retains the memory of the teacher far longer than any single lesson, for the greatest lessons are not always what was taught, but the method by which it was taught.

- namasdave

The Bad Samaritan

The reason that Jesus condemned the Good Samaritan was because he didn't properly vet the stranger beside the road before helping him. After all, he might have killed him.

Always the Wrong Time

It's always surprising to me how quickly a lack of effort can replace a lack of conviction when it comes to just doing the right thing at the right time. 

- namasdave

Evidence of Things Unseen

The question was,"What would it take to restore your hope." 
My answer was,"What would it take to restore my hope? That's a question I cannot answer.

When there is nothing but hope to hang onto, hope can be a very difficult and elusive thing to grasp."

The toughest part of believing in God is that God is not tangible in the sense that humans are. 
That God is not doesn't mean He is any less real, but it would truly be a lovely thing at times to be able to reach out and touch God in a very physical sense. 

I suppose that's where faith comes in, but I deeply wish there were more than that at times, to fill the void at moments like this.

“The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Fake It Till You Break It

If the old adage "fake it till you make it" is valid at all, then it seems one could also "fake it till they break it".
The former meaning acting as though you want what you don't until you do, and the latter meaning acting as though you don't want what you do, until eventually you don't.
If time can change one certainly time can change the other.

Connecting the Dots

If you're unhappy in your current situation, remember there are much better situations in which you could also be equally unhappy in. Happiness is not an attitude we will find as the result of being in a situation, it is the attitude we have regardless of the situation. We will be happy only by the measure of our hope, and we will have hope only by the measure of what we place our faith in. You can connect the dots from there. d(-_-)b

Life Lessens

We like to tell ourselves that the difficulties in life are our test, but that is a half truth, a lie.
Everything, EVERYTHING is a test.

The tragedy and the celebration, whatever we do in that moment, we are choosing to make ourselves something (if only slightly so) different than we were just moments before.

The greatest test of who we are is what we become when we have no time to think before we act.
When we are faced with gut reaction as our only timely option.

It is then that we should step back and reflect on just what it is we have shown ourselves to be in actuality, what we have made ourselves.
Step by step, little by little.

There is always something to learn in any situation for the willing student.

While no one can make us feel or do anything, what we feel and do should be embraced with deep introspection and speculation as a testament to our character, either by default or design.

We should question, always, what we have done that has brought us to this place, good or bad.

Consider this...
No one who knew the date that they would have to run for their lives would wait until the day of the race to train.
But life is a series of situations, however easy or difficult, that is in reality a training of sorts in preparation for run of our lives.

Sadly most of us (not excluding myself) live like we can train on the day of the race and claim that we did our best however we may finish or not.
We are only denying to ourselves what we and everyone else can see.
It is a solid testament to the fact that the easiest lies to believe are the ones we tell ourselves, and we do so most often for our immediate leisure, hoping that when the day comes that we know we should be one thing or another we might become that thing in the moment.

THAT is training on race day and It doesn't work like that.
It is a lie believed by our most gullible audience, ourselves.

This is probably the shortest lesson from all of this I can possibly share, but valid none the less.

I am learning more ugliness about myself than I ever would have desired.
Thanks for sticking with the once terminally optimistic me.

The purity of innocence is too easily exchanged for corruption of knowledge.

How quickly we forget the needy when they cease to make their needs known.

How quickly we grow complacent toward the needy who actually do make their needs known.

Please stop interrupting our meals to speak of your hunger.

I'm not in the mood for Christmas music and I'm not sure I will be. That could change I suppose.

I think that undertakers probably don't make many friends because they're always trying to put people into a box.

Aa You Wish

I showed you freedom
You showed me boundaries

I taught you to sing
You told me to be silent

I told you to speak
You told me to listen

We were alone and together
We were together and alone

Just Keep Swimming

There are those times when nothing seems to go our way, when nothing goes as planned or we just don't get what we want.
Only later to realize just how screwed we would have been had our wishes been granted.
It happens all the time for me.
Thank God for giving me what I need rather than what I want, as much as I may lament it in the moment.
It's tough for the finite to know sometimes, if getting what makes us content for now might just wind up making us miserable for years to come.
So when everything seems totally fucked, hang in there.
Your misery may only be one step in the process...
...then again, maybe you really are totally fucked.
Who knows?
You just gotta wait and see, I guess.