The more things change the more they stay the same

A New Day.

A New Song.

Take a hike.

Take a walk.

With people and strangers who used to be friends, who may turn out to be the same as the enemy you never thought you knew. Do you ever feel like you, yourself and you are running around in circles? Feel like less is more but more might be “nice.” Minimalism exists for you, yourself and you. Not for others, because it is too “easy” to tell a quick lie over a hard truth?

We’ve all been there. Blaming this or that or him or her. Them. The Club. The Group.The Team.

Do you feel as if you are always settling? Settling for less of the more that is bad rather than the more that is good? So what do we do? When we are stuffed to the brim with either rage or excitement and do not know where to put it.

We blow. Up.

We stare. Down

We bury it. Deep.

Sometimes. Along with the truth.

We run from here to there and there to here. Sometimes desperately attempting to pull the wool over eyes we meet along the way and in the moment.

What to do. What to do? In all the quiet, quietest of moments when the truth starts ringing in the ears with a buzz of intolerance. We think. We ponder. Drats, rats and ugh. Everything was moving along so swimmingly…I must have been right. Right?

Until. It wasn’t. It didn’t turn out the way we planned.

We come to terms with the way we were reared and raised.

And. Then what?

Re-boot the familiar because it “works.”

A lie has speed but the truth has endurance. We never really can outrun the truth. Whether in a groups of strangers, old friends or acquaintances, neighbors. Thank God, truth always comes along for the ride.

Someone Sees You

“Once upon a time a man decided to sneak into his neighbor’s fields and steal some wheat. “if I take just a little from each field, no one will notice,” he told himself, “but it will all add up to a nice pile of wheat for me.” So he waited for the darkest night, when thick clouds lay over the moon, and he crept out of his house. He took his youngest daughter with him.

”Daughter”, he whispered, “you must stand guard, and call out if anyone sees me.”

The man stole into the first field to begin reaping, and before long the child called out, “Father, someone sees you!”

The man looked all around, but he saw no one, so he gathered his stolen wheat and moved to a second field.

”Father, someone sees you!” the child cried again.

The man stopped, and looked all around, but once again he saw no one. He gathered more wheat, and moved to a third field.

A little while passed, and the daughter cried out, “Father someone sees you!”

Once more the man stopped his work and looked in every direction, but he saw no one at all, so he bundled his wheat and crept into the last field.

”Father, someone sees you!” the child called again.

The man stopped reaping, looked all around, and once again saw no one. “Why in the world do you keep saying someone sees me?” he angrily asked his daughter. “I’ve looked everywhere, and I don’t see anyone.”

”Father,” murmured the child, “Someone sees you from above.” (wjb)

The thing about newness, and the rapid speed with which a story be told, is the potential for rabid damage control.

Yes.

Damage control.

Some are immune to the effects of the having to do it. Some are adept at it, too.

Boys will be boys.

Girls will be girls.

Pinocchio’s nose will keep on growing until he trips over the consequences.

No one likes, prefers, to be an afterthought.

Crummy stuff.

Elizabeth Turner, Rebecca’s Afterthought.(wjb)

Yesterday, Rebecca Mason,

In the parlor by herself,

Broke a handsome China basin,

Placed upon the mantle shelf.

Quite alarmed, she thought of going

Very quietly away,

Not a single person knowing

Of her being there that day.

But Rebecca recollected

She was taught deceit to shun;

And the moment she reflected,

Told her mother what was done.

Who commended her behavior,

Loved her better, and forgave her.

Maybe that is the key.

Love better.

Seek truth.

How?

Seek honesty in yourself before you seek it in your neighbors.(wjb). Include the strangers, old friends, new ones, too. While engaging, ask yourself…..

The Question

“Were the whole world good as you—not an atom better—

Were it just as pure and true,

Just as pure and true as you;

Just as strong in faith and works;

Just as free from crafty quirks;

All extortion; all deceit;

Schemes it’s neighbors to defeat;

Schemes it’s neighbors to defraud;

Schemes some culprit to applaud—

Would this world be better?

If the whole world followed you—followed to the letter—

Would it be a nobler world,

All deceit and falsehood hurled🤮

From it altogether

Malice, selfishness, and lust,

Banished from beneath the crust,

Covering human hearts from view—

Tell me, if it followed you,

Would the world be better?”

Walk on. The bestest better world awaits your conquering. Maybe then, running down a dream may not feel so desperate, so death defyingly strategic. You see. Mixed in with all our stories, including the ones we tell ourselves, is a concoction of here’s, theres and everywhere’s. Schemes we make up or try to break up others with.

One day, we run into an old friend and everything returns familiarly normal in a second, and we come to the realization we had and have been foolishly trying to outrun truth for days and years, and decades even.

Exhaustion.

Makes little difference if the strangers are friends or the friends really are strangers.

Consistency is the key. The constant.

Today. Is a new day.

Little did you know when you embarked on your day today, that you are the leader, the boss of you. Whoever or whomever you may encounter may just follow your example your thoughts, your words, your kind actions.

When you think no one may care, they do. Even in the ugliest of moments between the boundaried smiles and scowls. Truth is still truth. Honesty may take a back seat for awhile, a moment.

Someone is watching. In a good, non-creepy way🤓.

More importantly, either way you chose to go, walk, run or stumble, you allow only yourself to pick up where you left off. Choose which way to go. Remembering along the way mistakes are what teaches us right from wrong. Take heart in knowing.

Someone sees you.