A more excellant way, illuminated

Water is pure when it falls and where the light reflects seems purest.



How could a person ever become what they are not thinking?



This picture seems to invite good thoughts. On the other hand no one is in the picture with any other thoughts than the one looking at it. The only influence on thoughts would come from within the one looking at the picture.



What is it that makes us better?


The issue is not what we have done but what we have become.

What we have become is more than meets the eye. It is not just the result of what we have done but it is the result of our attitudes, our motives, and our desires.

Often I find that younger folks just starting out in their careers spend a lot of time reading “positive thinking books”. Good thing, I suppose. I remember being younger and I remember reading these same books over and over. After all if is true that “as a man thinketh, so is he”, then why not give some focus to what we think about?

Jimmy Carter sort of “tripped over this” when he in an interview said that he had “lusted in his heart”. When he said it he was not bragging about it but he was admitting that he knew that lusting in ones heart was not good to do that and that he knew that better thoughts made for a better man. Odd how he seemed to be made fun of for something that should have made folks appreciate his “good heart”

A “good heart” I would suggest is one that cares, and one that is pure, or trying to be pure.

Water seems it’s purest as it flows over rocks and drops through the air. Standing still it can be anything but pure. Action seems to purify the water. I would suggest that compassion is the moving purifier of thoughts, motives, and desires. The motive for the compassion then might be the next question.

The Apostle Paul said the highest of all motives for compassion is “the pure love of Christ”. He called this the more excellent way.
In the book, “The Mansion”, by Henry Van Dyke, it was illustrated what selfless giving, and compassion without motive for personal gain, really were. The book said, in answer to the question “what is it that really counts”, “Only that which is truly given. Only that good which is done for the love of doing it. Only those plans in which the welfare of others is the master of thought. Only those labors in which the sacrifice is greater than the reward. Only those gifts in which the giver forgets himself”

Plenty to say but who will listen

Yorick’s Skull had no ears but then Hamlet had plenty to say. With all that he had to say he just struggled to know what to do. Sometimes words are not enough.






Yet without words the most spectacular scenes are empty.











“My Words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”


Earlier today I went to the grocery store to get Zach’s passport picture retaken. It takes about 10 minutes to get it done and while we waited I walked by some books all out with a nice discount on them. I noticed one that said something about “Words”. The message was that it was not so much a matter of what they were as it was about what the meant to those that heard them. Inside I noticed a chapter about controversy. It said that the President probably knew this principle very well. The more complicated the controversy that was being discussed the better it is to use “short sentences” to comment about it, the chapter claimed. I did not read the chapter, after all it was just 10 minutes total time that we had to kill. I did not see, as I flipped through the chapter, the idea that the listener would be better able to fill in the blanks and draw their own conclusion about what a short sentence means if the response was very short. Keep the readers minds on the problem rather than ones lack of solution.

Add to this "deep insight into words" the idea that my own blogs are somewhat full of words but often the picture is really what I am thinking about.


Nietzsche was a German writer and “thinker”. He thought that by the time that a thought made it into words it more or less had lost much connection to the original thought. Words for him were just reflections of thoughts already more or less gone. Dead was how he put it.

Shakespeare, on the other hand, seemed to create ideas in the reactions to his words. Ideas came from rather than being the cause of his words. He seems to be at his best in the dialog he created. His language seemed to portray character better than anyone before or since has done. People listen closely to the words spoken in his plays. They seem to overhear themselves and the shock sometimes leads to real change but always seems "real". He showed that with the use of words one can most clearly see character and personality. The words are not just an ideal or a poster board for a point of view but really seems to what we find in ourselves and others. .

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go."

These words suggest a picture. The King on his knees prays, not so much for forgiveness for his "rank" offence in killing his brother, but rather that he will get away with it. Hamlet enters, unseen by the King, and considers killing the King at prayer. He does not, however, fearing that the King will then go to heaven. The King rises from prayer, never having seen Hamlet, and utters the words above, revealing his own knowledge that his prayer is invalid, and consists of words but no true feelings of remorse.


Words can be empty or full. With true feelings and remorse or without. They can reflect our inner thoughts or just make a connection happen. Sometimes it helps to see the picture.

I believe and therefore I am

“I will know what you are if you tell me what
you think about when you do not have to think”.

This is a quote from a book called “True to the Faith”, by David O McKay. A man is a reflection of what he thinks about. As a man thinketh so is he, Thoughts are things. See yesterday’s blog. I will know what you are if you tell me what you think about…………..
when you don’t have to think takes the idea of thinking creating who we are to a specific place. It shows the importance of idle or random thoughts. Those are the ones that really define us. “Specific Random Thoughts”

The source to find thoughts or subjects is infinite. The Universe or even its Atoms can be the subjects of thought.

Stephan Hawkings, speaking of the Universe, said that the question of why it is that the universe and we exist was worth thinking about. He said that if we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God. Einstein is reported in a well-known story to have said of his physics career, that everything he had done, he had done in an effort to know the mind of God.

Makes you wonder what Hawkings and Einstein thought about when they didn’t have to think?

A thought about birds. I like to think about the birds that fly in formation. See Sunday February 18th blog. Makes you wonder which bird is doing the thinking. One would assume that the lead bird is thinking for all of them or maybe the one alone in the middle has a role. The lead bird takes the most wind resistence. The ones behind have the ability to ride the flow and when the lead bird is tired he or she can fall back and let another take the pressure and the formation allows for rest for some. This is some good stuff to think about when looking up birds flying this way. Wonder what the birds think about.

I guess one sure thing is that if we knew what the birds were thinking about in this situation we would know what they were. That was the quote we started with.













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Faith

The assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Heb:11:1



To make the effort to obtain knowledge and wisdom and even intelligence, rather than to just fill ones thoughts with idle and random things is an act of faith.
Knowledge begins with the belief that it can be gained. Who we are begins with faith.

Thoughts are Things

Thoughts are things. Man alone of all creatures of earth, can change his thought pattern and become the architect of his destiny. This means that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he. That may mean that as he thinketh, so does he. Easy to see how it leads to architecture. What you do results in what you become.

Blaise Pascal said that the heart has its reason the reason knows not of. Makes one wonder how a person would not understand his or her own heart. Trying to reason it out
Might indeed lead to a void of understanding since motives might be unclear but it looks like motives reside in the heart rather than the reason.

I like sitting where I now sit because the room is full of books. The majority of the books in this room would not lead to bad thoughts.

No question that thoughts have consequences. It seems so simple and yet it can be such a challenge.


Thoughts are Things


I hold it true that thoughts are things;
They’re endowed with bodies and breath and wings;
And that we send them forth to fill
The world with good results, or ill.

That which we call our secret thought
Speeds forth to earth’s remotest spot,
Leaving its blessings or it woes
Like tracks behind it as it goes.

We build our future, thought by thought,
For good or ill, yet know it not.
Yet, so the universe was wrought.
Thought is another name for fate.
Choose, then, they destiny and wait.
For love rings love and hate brings hate.

why not believe in forever

An artist must have conceived of this idea about flight

A few days ago I thought about how different the past seems, with a few years of experience to filter what happened, as I recall those past times through new eyes. Events change. They are not always so perfect as this flight pattern when they first occur.

Knowledge changes what events really were and are later as they are reconsidered. What we think about makes a great deal of difference. I read somewhere that a famous artist said that he would never allow himself to look at a inferior drawing or painting, or to do anything low or demoralizing, lest is own familiarity with it would taint his own ideal and thus be communicated to his brush.

In some ways the artist is just an idealist. Pretty hard to not experience the bad as well as the good in this world. Both experiences when measured against each other lead to a better perspective.

This artist thinks that to create the best art he needs to control his thoughts. What we think about defines us.

So a thought, reap an act;
Sow and act, reap a habit:
Sow a habit, reap a character:
Sow a character, reap your destiny.
I was listening to a great song today on my “run”. “We still believe in forever:” were the words. Sounds like a painting that is intact. One that is not tainted with inferior influences. One built on positive thoughts……………………………..

Today shows us yesterday and tommorrow

Tomorrow brings yesterday closer.

Today makes yesterday alive. Each day that passes lets yesterday be different.

I think the reason for these conclusions is that what we see and experience is defined by what we know. Looking back has within it the potential of being much better able to really see. Better to see with new eyes

It seems difficult to understand how the future could be seen before it happens, but if knowledge makes the past more than it was then” all knowledge” might open doors not thought of.

Why learn? To better know yesterday and to see tomorrow.

I am convinced that the past gets better with more knowledge to see it with.

The events that happened and the ones remembered might be the same but they are just really different.

A better world and simpler time is as much a matter of comparison as it is having had experiences with what is not so good.

Look at the leaves and the color of the woods and when winter comes they seem brighter. A time on a deck over breakfast at a lodge looking off of a deck into the trees is a memory for me. This picture brings it back. The value of the companion and the preciousness of the event and the time took back then make this setting one that is different now than it was. Better with the added knowledge.

Just us perhaps

**
*
I like a poem by the poet Proust………….. What I like about it is the idea of “seeing differently”. The poem suggests that you can see new places, new lands, but that you can see them in a different way. Maybe what we would see, if we could see differently, is more than new places. We might see all the places and things that we have seen before but “ in a new way”.

It is like this when we look back. Experiences seem difference. Looking back takes all your experiences with you. It filters what you saw before..

It is like going through life is a trip of course. The longer it lasts the more you discover about where you have been.

Then again what if we could go back. Really go back. What or where would be the best choice as to where to go or who to be with? What if you could go back and be with your best friend when you were both young and see together with new eyes. All things would seem different. Or the same.


The real voyage of discovery consists
Not in seeking new lands but in seeing
with new eyes……………Proust

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing

Just keeping in the true spirit of the “Day after Valentine Day Holiday” I felt that the best thing to do was to really get to the” heart” of the matter regarding this day.

For many here in our area it might be a day to go out and pretend like it was yesterday. Snow fell yesterday, you see, and schools closed and lots of stuff probably did not happen.

We on the other hand did have a valentine day. . I wrote about my special person on the blog yesterday. We didn’t get snowed out.

Keeping in the spirit of the “random blog”, I am mentioning again the “day after Valentine Day Holiday”. I still have not seen any little candy hearts. I may just have to
settle for the picture here. This may seem like a small thing but I just don’t remember
a Valentine day without having seen these little candy hearts.

Then again I remember a dinner on North Main in Pocatello. It was in the late 50’s or no later than 61 or 62. Just North of Hoppers. Hoppers was a sort of dinner, soda fountain. Stouffers was the name of this” restaurant soda fountain”. A block south of Hoppers was the Woolworth store and inside was a lunch counter. All three were a short walk from High School. Iron Port can still be found. It is close to Dr Pepper. A cherry cream ironport was pretty neat. A cherry phosphate was ok. Even then they had little candy valentine hearts by the way.

We had a neighbor a few years back that had a soda fountain in his basement. It was worth remembering, just as much really, as the ones from way back when.

Green chile has been as much of a unique food fine as anything every found in a soda fountain.

Running under the blue sky looking at the clouds is timeless. The air and the warmth of the sun are timeless. Experience only adds to the memories. Knowledge gives the memories definition. Know what you know is as much about finding out what you don’t know.

Today is always better than yesterday.

A friend and I talked this weekend. We caught up. Emails were exchanged. His email to me had this at the bottom “Remember: The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”.

Yesterdays Valentine flowers are today already a blurred memory

Just us................Feb 14th

Maybe the secret little printed note is on the back?

Valentine’s Day

February 14th.

This day is one that goes back at least into the 19th century. I remember going to grade school, only the last century on this, and everyone in the room gave everyone else a valentine. That was grade school. Us boys probably did not really "get it" (still don’t I guess) but it was just a card for everyone from everyone, at least that is what I thought then. I don’t know when I figured out that some of those getting and giving the cards had thought a lot about each other. The intent is that "lovers express their love" for each other. Ironic, I guess that the name, Valentine, comes from a couple of guys who were martyrs. Even so the day is about romantic love.
I remember the little candy hearts. In fact this may be the very first year I can recall that I have not seen one little candy heart. They seemed to have great promise always printed on them. “ I love you” or “kiss me” or "whatever" printed right there.
Have not seen one this year.
This Valentine Day I have a picture of “us”.

Just the “two of us”.

“Just us.”

Posted here I will have a valentine for her and I will give her a valentine.

Thoughts about her, things I have noticed that are unique

She reads a several newspapers a day
She likes to buy things, a little at a time. Roosters popped up over several years. The letter K might be the current collectible item.
She has the nicest handwriting of anyone I know
She has the best overall taste of anyone I know
She is a very interesting person to visit with.
She was voted best dressed in high school.
She rated out her boy friend in high school telling the school authorities that he had skipped school. He still loves her.
She was taller than me when we got married. Not anymore
She has not watched Peggy Sue got married as many times as I have
She was far more popular than I was in high school. Still is.
She did a much better job of thinking of 60 things on my birthday than this will turn out to be.
She hated to fly for most of our marriage. She got me into a helicopter and likewise got me into a balloon and the was so anxious to go back a second time that she went without me.
She might have actually read more books than me if we total it all up.
She liked the book “Gone with the Wind”
She likes all Paul Newman movies

She is my best friend.

Connected to the sky

The experience today had a common thread with others like it. Today began with a previous day. An expectation of another day is still here.

Air moved through my lungs and it seemed as though my body floated. Arms swinging, floating falling, legs much the same, the weight of my body sort of rocking, as it rolled off of one foot then another.

I could close my eyes. I could go forward and be content to just feel the repetition, for perhaps an hour, before I know my legs would become tired. If I did that, and it is always tempting I would miss so much. Sometimes even with eyes open my thoughts wander. Above is blue and white and yellow. The white is shaded. It folds and blends into grey and seems thicker in places. Some of the white seems transparent. A brighness shines through. Blue shows through and surronds the white. The white carries the promise of heat.

I have just turned back to the south. Off ahead a little to the right is yellow and at the core, white, blue, and more white. Maybe red at the edges. The heat falls on the top of my head and the right side of my face. My hand raises to touch my head and then my face and finally my chest. My shirt on the front of my chest is warm from the warmth of my body. On the outside of the shirt it is warm on the surface sharing the same heat from the yellow.

The sky by itself is somehow bigger here. The sky, the white, the blends of color seem to create a direction and an excitement. I love the blue.

Today I connected

My body and the sky.

A connection not really made but missed

A Common thread yet still we are different

Seems to me that we need to connect with each other. It isn’t really about me, because if it were it wouldn’t be about connecting. In some ways this thought is in conflict the whole approach to maintaining a blog, or doing a blog or the existence of a blog. Is the blog just a continuous ramble about the person who types it up each day, or could it be, or is it really, a “connection”?

Let me tell you about a blog that was for me a connection. I have checked this favorite blog now each day looking for life this week. In addition I checked it as often as a few times a week for almost the last year. Each time I would look in if felt like I had connected. . The blog was all about a guy and his viewpoints and his thoughts. It was about the points of view that just happened to be on his mind. For him it was about him.
Then again since I didn’t make my own contact or leave a message it just left it about him by him. His favorite books. His favorite pictures and quotes. If I would have just said hello I could have saved him from himself. He was in the upper Midwest. He posted his picture once for a couple of days. I felt connected.

Sounds like my blog.....................

Do we need to connect with others? I think so. First and foremost we have our best connection in our family. No question on that. Still maybe we all connect. Maybe we really share our existence and are part of a common thread. I felt connected to my blog “sort of contact, almost friend”, except that a week and a half ago the blog stopped. No postings since then. Then today it pops up as if no blog exists at that address. I need a time to get past this lost friend. I should have logged on and said hello. I watched and I read but I didn’t go past that. For me it was a lot like reading rather than connecting. I miss the blog. It’s gone and I learned that about an hour ago.

Reading of course has been a big thing for me. It is in some ways opposite of connection. A book I read about reading said that ‘the pleasures of reading are selfish rather than social. It said that you cannot directly improve anyone else’s life by reading better or more deeply”. I guess I proved that. I read my favorite blog for months on end. Today it is gone. Only I benefited by what I read and no connection was made but it is missed.


One has to wonder what is worth “connecting to”. What does each day have in common? Who and even what is a “common thread” of the day and the days. Then again if now one reads the blog in the forest how can it be missed? On the other hand I already found out that without a connection I still could miss a blog.

Favorite things

My wife’s voice
My children’s growth
Special chocolate cookies
A walk with my best friend
A good book re read
A long time friend who makes contact
Sun on my face
Air moving through my lungs as I run
The colors of the earth
Mountains
Leaves
Answers found in the scriptures
Friends
Seeing an unselfish act
A long run

People who care about others.

The light is spreading, Nuts.

Light Spreads..................just like good ideas











Greatness is catching. Success spreads. Good things rub off. Light spreads and others see. Maybe this book is really about excellence. Thoreau sort of summed up one view of excellence when he said "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

A number of years ago I was managing a large company. The owner came in and gave me Jim Collins book, "Good to Great". I was hesitant to put the time into the book mostly because I had sort of worn out reading business books. Even so it was a good book. I suppose it was suppose to help me make the company I worked for better that motivated the owner to give me the book. Recently I was given this book for Christmas by someone in my family. Again I hesitated for the same reasons. The difference in the books is that Southwest always has been a great company. The owners didn't pass around books but he really did put people first and had a fierce loyalty to his employees. It was exciting to read this story because it celebrated doing the right things for the right reasons.