Thoughts on the world of open source
I get a regular email from Gratefulness.org. Today’s was very timely for me.
You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.
–Sarah Ban Breathnach–Simple Abundance
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.–Reinhold Neibuhr
Where do I get the wisdom to know the difference? Where does that come from? This has been a tough week for me. I’ve given up on American democracy. It doesn’t exist anymore. Continue reading “Wisdom to know the difference”
I was bummed out today by the WobbleyCrats taking a dive, but tonight I got to drive along one of my favorite areas in our area. It’s a road called “the Five Mile” by area residents. Continue reading “Five Mile”
I noted in tonight’s paper a headline that proclaimed “Democrats have to sell their new strategy to liberals.” In other words they’ve caved in to the “Decider in Chief.” Continue reading “Death of Democracy”
Out of many one. This is one of the original mottoes of the United States of America. It doesn’t get much attention these days as politicians seek to divide us. It occurred to me that politics can be yet another form of violence and terrorism. Continue reading “E pluribus unum”
Paula has tagged me for a three book meme. That’s easy and difficult at the same time because I easily have three favorite non-fiction books but should everybody read them. Well, here goes my presumption. Continue reading “Three book meme”
Today I picked up the wrong lunch on my way out the door. I was on the road for my day job and I picked up a brown sack with what I thought contained two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Continue reading “Soldiers”
Whenever a civilization perishes, there is always one condition
present. They forgot where they came from. –Carl Sandburg
I read the this quote and I thought of it’s application to many areas of my life but also our lives as people and as citizens of the world and our particular countries. Failure to remember when can cause us both individually and corporately to relive failure or peril.
Sunday was one of those beautiful days of mid spring that abound in Western New York. May is a time here when Mother Earth comes back to life. Continue reading “Living for others”
I first read this a year ago and it is true or truer now than then.
Nonviolence invites us:
* To learn to recognize and respect the sacred in every person, including in ourselves, and in every part of creation. The acts of the nonviolent person help to free this sacredness in the opponent from obscurity or captivity.
* To accept oneself deeply, “who I am” with all my gifts and richness, with all my limitations, errors, failings and weaknesses. To live in the truth of ourselves, without excessive pride, with fewer delusions and false expectations.
* To recognize that what I resent, and perhaps even detest, in another, comes from my difficulty in admitting that this same reality lives also in me. To recognize and renounce my own violence, which becomes evident when I begin to monitor my words, gestures, reactions.