When You Know A Fellow - Edgar Guest 1916

WHEN YOU KNOW A FELLOW

When you get to know a fellow, know his joys

and know his cares,

When you've come to understand him and the

burdens that he bears,

When you've learned the fight he's making and

the troubles in his way,

Then you find that he is different than you

thought him yesterday.

You find his faults are trivial and there's not so

much to blame

In the brother that you jeered at when you only

knew his name.

You are quick to see the blemish in the distant

neighbor's style,

You can point to all his errors and may sneer

at him the while,

And your prejudices fatten and your hates

more violent grow

As you talk about the failures of the man you

do not know,

But when drawn a little closer, and your hands

and shoulders touch,

You find the traits you hated really don't

amount to much.

The Vicious Cycle - Changing Directions in Life

The Vicious Cycle

PARTONEOFTHREE

Stagnate is a pungent word. When I hear it, my mind conjures thoughts of a slimy pool of putrid smelling water, motionless with a translucent film covering the brownish green ingredients. As if we were describing a neglected birdbath, we often use the word stagnate to describe our job, relationship, even life itself.  It's when we feel the need to stir things up, add something fresh hoping to take away the stench, or at least mask it.  However, like the neglected pool of water, unless we continue to agitate it, do something different, it will soon return to its former state.  It's a vicious circle, or perhaps vicious cycle is a better phrase.

The vicious circle or cycle that inevitably creates the path leading to stagnation, will never change unless we do.  Unless we transform ourselves, the best we can hope for is to occasionally stir up the muck just enough for us to endure the stench.  Unless we change the way we think, each journey we embark on leads to the same destination.  When we continually find ourselves returning to the same place, regardless of the path we've decided to embark, we'll forever live in the past, reliving familiar circumstances again and again.

We are both consciously and unconsciously making decisions based wholly on our memorized emotional response to our experiences.  With our subconscious in primary control, each step we take has a predicted outcome, always leading us to stare into the brownish green soup of the same stagnate pool.

If thinking has repeatedly lead us to the same lackluster destination, doesn't it make sense that thought can also shepherd us somewhere new and different; a place we're meant to be, minus the toxicity we've needlessly endured?

Before a new course can be charted, we first must understand that life doesn't happen to us, we happen to life.  We weren't placed here to live as a mere pinball to bounce about, left to the fate of bumpers, levers, and bells that decide to bat us about.  We absolutely must take responsibility for our current place in life, wherever we are, whatever destination we've arrived at, lays directly at our feet. When the need arises to point our finger at the blame for our current circumstance, we need only look in a mirror; we are the only ones with the ability to plot a course that leads to sustainable change. 

Be the catalyst to cause an effect, don't live as a victim of cause and effect.

Watch for PARTTWO of the Vicious Cycle...  Buy danKENDRICK's latest book Sex Sells but I'm UGLY on Amazon.com or at RedGymShoes.com.

What Happened to Happy

What Happened to Happy - A Poem

If God Can Do This...

If God Can Do This...

I stepped out into our garden this morning and found two mushrooms that popped up overnight. 

This is something I've seen countless times, but today for some reason I was awe struck when I really took time to look at it and ponder the complexity of creation. 

Isn't it amazing what God can create in just a few hours.  Considering the intricacy of this creation that miraculously appeared in the shade of our little pear tree in the garden; I don't think we can truly understand what miracles can happen in our lives and in the world. 

IT ISN'T COSTLY

IT ISN'T COSTLY

By Edgar Guest 1916

Does the grouch get richer quicker than the

friendly sort of man?

Can the grumbler labor better than the cheerful

fellow can?

Is the mean and churlish neighbor any cleverer

than the one

Who shouts a glad " good morning," and then

smiling passes on?

Just stop and think about it. Have you ever

known or seen

A mean man who succeeded, just because he

was so mean?

When you find a grouch with honors and with

money in his pouch,

You can bet he didn't win them just because

he was a grouch.

Oh, you'll not be any poorer if you smile along

your way,

And your lot will not be harder for the kindly

things you say.

Don't imagine you are wasting time for others

that you spend :

You can rise to wealth and glory and still pause

to be a friend.