Saturday, March 5, 2011

Music





Music...
gives wings to the mind,
a soul to the universe,
flight to the imagination,
a charm to sadness,
a life to everything.
-- Plato



We cannot change the directions of the wind, but we can adjust our sails.

Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.
... B-)

Christ In Us




Christ in us does not negate our unique personality,
nor does he eliminate our singular contribution to the human experience.
The opposite is true:
Christ in us enables us to be the fullest and most authentic versions of ourselves.
— from Spirituality You Can Live With



We cannot change the directions of the wind, but we can adjust our sails.

Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.
... B-)

Resentment




I must face the fact that the resentment process is not only fruitless, it is self-defeating.
Justified or not, the resentment, and my efforts to bolster its justification, will eat away at my peace of mind and my enjoyment of life. Meanwhile, the person I resent couldn't care less.
Here I am burning to a crisp over something he or she may not be totally aware of, something I can't change.
At the root of my resentment is a compulsion to change things I cannot change -- to wit, another person.
So maybe what I need to do is to take a look at changing myself.
- The Best of the Grapevine [Vol. 3], p. 107

Resentment is like acid, eating away at the vessel it is stored in.



We cannot change the directions of the wind, but we can adjust our sails.

Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.
... B-)

Friday, March 4, 2011

The Electric Fence ... B-)




We have the standard 6 ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city.
To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence.

Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had, made for 26 miles of fence.
I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 feet into the ground.
The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works.

One day I'm mowing the back yard with my cheapo Wal-Mart 6 hp big wheel push mower.
The hot wire is broken and laying out in the yard.
I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger.
I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way.

It seems as though I hadn't remembered to unplug it after all.
Now I'm standing there, I've got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand.
Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover.

Time stood still.
The first thing I notice is my pecker trying to climb up the front side of my body.
My ears curled downwards and I could feel the lawn mower ignition firing in the backside of my brain.
Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head.
I was literally at one with the engine.

It seems as though the fence charger and the piece of shit lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.
Science says you cannot crap, pee, and vomit at the same time.
I beg to differ.
Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second.
It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you're all leaned back and BAM BAM BAM you just crap your pants 3 times.
It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together it was like exhaust pulses from a big block Chevy turning 8 grand.

At this point I'm about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire.
My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can't let go.
I grew up on a farm so I know all about electric fences ... but Dad always had those piece of shxx chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled.

This one I could not let go of.
The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the permadamp Ark-La-Tex river bottom soil.
At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawn mower runs out of gas.
'Damn!,' I think, as I remember I just filled the tank!

Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough.
It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it.
Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest I think 'Oh God please die .... Pleeeeaze die'.
But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from its owner's right foot.

So here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill me.
God did not take me that day.... he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created.

I honestly don't know how I got loose from the wire .... I woke up laying on the ground hours later.
The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas.
It was later on in the day and I was sunburned.
There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it.
I assume I finally had a seizure and in the
resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire.

Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:

1 - Three of the fillings in my teeth have melted.
2 - I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right).
3 - Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think.
4 - My left eye will not open.
5 - My right eye will not close.
6 - The lawnmower runs like a sumbitch now.
Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that.
7 - My nuts are still smaller than average yet they are almost a foot long.
8 - I can turn on the TV in the game room by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don't understand this???).

That day changed my life.
I now have a new found respect for things.
I appreciate the little things more, and now I always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow.

The good news, is that if a burglar does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I mow.

You Complete Me

Jesus shows us how to be fully human.
All deity and all human, he shows us that a truly complete person is one who is in a life-giving relationship with God and others.
— from Spirituality You Can Live With



We cannot change the directions of the wind, but we can adjust our sails.

Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.
... B-)

What seeds are you planting?

We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives,
so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy and doubt,
that peace and abundance may manifest for all.
-- Dorothy Day




We cannot change the directions of the wind, but we can adjust our sails.

Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.
... B-)

Today




You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today: for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow. -- Harriet Martineau

The word "sanity" is derived from the Latin word sanitas, which means "health." In our group, we think of health as wholeness of mind, body, and spirit.

One way to achieve health and wholeness is by living one day at a time.
To do this successfully, we need to realize we cannot undo a single act we performed or unsay any harsh words spoken in the past.
No matter how much we may regret or re-feel yesterday's painful experiences, there is nothing we can do to change what happened.
The past is forever beyond our control.

The same thing is true of the future.
No matter how much we may worry and fret over it, very few of us can predict what tomorrow will bring.
We can only prepare for a hope-filled future by living fully and confidently today.
-- from The Reflecting Pond by Liane Cordes



We cannot change the directions of the wind, but we can adjust our sails.

Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.
... B-)