Musings from Deeptime

 2/4/24 February 4th, 2024 Sunday Morning Meditation Finding your voice… My morning Bible Meditation found me reading II Corinthians Chapter 4 and my eyes fell on  “...I believed in God, so I spoke…(v13), and that kind of jumped out at me.  As I sat, I reflected on how that would apply to myself, a believer, and a person never short of words.  The older you get the more history you have to judge by, the truer the image fits reality.   My prayer journal shows bursts where my prayers lean heavily in one direction then in another,  a good indication my faith is not rooted and my spine weak and I am panicky as I try to control events.  But if one pulls back a bit, a longer trend shows a steady move in one direction.  Think of it as how a tree grows towards the light, the winds of the day may buffet, but overall the tree seeks the sun and as it matures it is less and less influenced by the winds… When I was younger, when I spoke my ego wrote the script and was prejudiced towards making sure

  January 14th, 2024 Just like that Every once in a while you experience what is called a “teachable moment”.  A teachable moment is when you experience something that has a great lesson for life wrapped in it and that experience opens your eyes to that great truth, and here I might add, you learn the lesson by observation and enlightenment without always having to pay the costs of learning the lesson the hard way.  Here’s an example from my own life; When I was 16, I owned a Honda Sport motorcycle, and like any 16 year old male, I loved speed and the feel of acceleration.  Just top off the tank with pure testosterone, twist the throttle, and “let’er rip ‘til the valves floated out”- instant Nirvana!!  To make a long story short, one Saturday in I think September, I was working on tuning the engine and after making some adjustments, hopped on it and started to head out of town to see if it made any improvement.  Before I hit the edge of town I found myself behind a VW bug that insisted

  12/26/23 “Bettering Ourselves” Addendum .v3 Sunday Meditation While I was working on the concept of “bettering ourselves” I came across a song that fit the subject matter like a glove. Since the post was already getting too long, I withheld mentioning the song and filed it away for another day. The song seems so appropriate I’m posting it as an addendum to the Sunday post. The song is “In the Blood”, written by John Mayor, a prolific songwriter. The best cover of the song is by the acapella group, Home Free, was released in 2017. I strongly encourage you to listen to Home Free sing their cover here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1TqpH6PZBo Here’s the lyrics; Home Free -In the Blood How much of my Mother Has my Mother left in me How much of my love Will be insane to some degree What about this feeling That I'm never good enough Will it wash out in the water Or is it always in the blood How much of my Father Am I destined to become Will I dim the lights inside me Just to sat

 Sunday Meditation -Addendum-v2 Typical Extended Family Sunday’s (12/24/23) Meditation was about using the beginning of the new year as an opportunity to become a “better person”.  I think that it is an honorable goal that can be (and should be) pursued regardless of color, sex, or creed, rich or poor.  I posited that one of the better ways to do this was to look at family line history, looking at repeating behaviors, such as run-ins with the law, alcoholism, domestic violence, failed marriages.  When you find these types of events popping up generation after generation after generation in the family line, one has to ask; Is the family passing down the culture which in fact encourages these types of negative behaviors from one generation to the next?  I stated that these negative behaviors are not uncommon, but uncomfortable to talk about, and have historically been swept under the rug and either expunged from family oral history or glorified, thereby making each generation's failu

 Sunday Meditation December 24st, 2023 New Year's Resolution and Passing on the Good   We  look at the start of a new calendar year as a good time to “better ourselves”,  by resolving to make changes in our habits,  relationships, boundaries,and aspects of our daily routine.  Much of what is written after these resolutions are made is how we fail so miserably at these attempts.  One could easily conclude we are forever stuck in a rut we are incapable of climbing out from.  That conclusion is wrong. It should be our desire to grow continually, right up until we die.   Whatever your age, the commitment to “be a better person” on the day of your death, than you were the day prior, has the makings of a great new year resolution.  We do not know the circumstance nor the day of our death, that should provide impetus to stick with it.  As a better person, I can like myself and treat myself better.  I can understand  and treat those around me more humanely. As a better person, I contribute

What follows is an editorial piece in the WP by Robert Kagan.  I have not edited it at all.  I think it is prescient in its view of what lies ahead for America. bobb A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending. By Robert Kagan Editor at large November 30, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EST Robert Kagan, a Post Opinions contributing editor, is the author of “Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart — Again,” which will be published by Knopf in May. Let’s stop the wishful thinking and face the stark reality: There is a clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and it is getting shorter every day. In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. In the RealClearPolitics poll average (for the period from Nov. 9 to 20), Trump leads his nearest competitor by 47 points and leads the rest of the field combined by 27 points. The idea that he is unelectable in the general election is nonsense — he is tied or ahead of President Biden