Category Archives: Thoughts For the Day

As the year began, with tradition, so it ends; with reflection and anticipation. A lot of good things happened in 2014, and a lot of bad things happened.  I’ll not judge the year on the basis of either, because that … Continue reading →

Get past the container and straight to the milk. Listen to what your thoughts are telling you.

Exploring emotions is just as satisfying as exploring intellect, perhaps more so.  Intellect can run rough-shod over emotions; but naked emotions are raw and unharnessed reality. It’s too bad we have to hide so many of our emotions, the ones … Continue reading →

If honesty were not so damn dangerous, we would be more forthright in our dealings with everyone from the power company to the people we love, and even the people we loathe.

Words harbor such innuendo. Hunger, thirst, passion.  Innocuous words, yet barely concealing the boiling cauldron of lust upon which they rest.

Whether sitting alone, but in need of companionship—or sitting among other people, but in need of privacy—arguments that those needs harbor selfishness are specious.  

Regardless of one’s personal religious beliefs, or lack thereof, today of all days is a perfectly fine day for giving everyone a break; let people believe what they want to believe without ostracism or criticism. Let them enjoy their personal … Continue reading →

I am convinced that some writers of fiction and philosophy and poetry have frangible hearts.  Their sensitivities to the world can dash them against the rocks of emotion; that susceptibility to heartbreak shows in their writing. Other writers are just keen observers, people who … Continue reading →

Personal revolutions are best planned during periods of quiet reflection. Inside, where the fear resides, is where the explosions start. I was saddened to hear, yesterday, that Joe Cocker died. His duet with Jennifer Warnes, singing “Up Where We Belong,” was spectacular. … Continue reading →

Smiling at the demons is an act of defiance. But it guarantees nothing, doesn’t assure safety or freedom or periods without pain.  It just shows defiance.  Defiance is the only remaining weapon in a war that can’t be won, a war whose loss can … Continue reading →

It’s so nice being around some people that it makes one giddy.  That’s a good feeling. Giddiness, that is.

Billy Preston, the only musician to be credited alongside the Beatles on a Beatles recording, is also credited as the originator of the expression, “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”  There’s an odd … Continue reading →

Some of the rules really were meant to be broken.  Only by breaking those rules does one’s fundamental nature as a good human being truly surface.  The hard question, of course, is which rules demand breakage; harder still, is why the … Continue reading →

I remember how I felt as a young man when I realized a young woman in whom I had a romantic interest had no interest in me. It felt like a kick to the gut; it hurt somewhere deep inside … Continue reading →

A tender embrace, a touch, can sometimes say far more than words.

The dangers are not in igniting the flames of emotion that fly in the face of conventional acceptability. The dangers lie in failing to fan the flames, allowing them to suffocate as they choke for oxygen, never giving birth to the beauty of what might have … Continue reading →

Some people grow. Others mature. Many age. More than a few ripen.  Too many decay. It’s not just age that does it; it’s acceptance and an attitude of inevitability. While burning the candle at both ends may hasten the end, mightn’t it also make the … Continue reading →

Understanding is a far better teacher than experience.

Believe it or not, I’ve never belonged to an outlaw motorcycle gang.  Consequently, I have no way of knowing whether the brotherly love between the members, as depicted on Sons of Anarchy, is the real deal. I suppose the only … Continue reading →

I’ve read that imagining a future in which dreams are realized is an exercise in futility; that living in the moment is all that matters. The pragmatist in me might grudgingly be willing to entertain that dreary perspective, but the dreamer who resides … Continue reading →

I came home one day, not too long ago, and found sentence fragments all over the keyboard. I spent hours putting them back together.  It’s a good thing I know how to type.

In the past, but not so much lately, I have seen replicas of eggs—chicken eggs—made of agate or other stone.  Typically, I’ve seen them in gift shops or in individual homes; they are on display.  Just there to look at. … Continue reading →

We have a lot of choices to make, if only we take the opportunities. For example, I might choose to learn a new word each day or try a new recipe every month or meet a new person each week.  I could … Continue reading →

I can offer hundreds, perhaps thousands, of solutions.  The problem is that most of them appear to have no corresponding problems.

The frenzy of youth melts slowly into the inertia of old age. Every step taken to slow the process even more is a step in the right direction.

Withdraw from television news, newspaper headlines, and manic-talk radio for a week.  Or a month.  Or half a year.  Focus, instead, on the people around you; their happiness, their comfort.

It is so easy to get caught up in emotional responses to events of the day.  It’s easy, and it’s dangerous.  Intelligent people should recognize when their personal biases and opinions are permitting emotions to trump intellect; they recognize it and … Continue reading →

All it takes is just a little discomfort to burnish the appreciation of comfort to a high shine.

Drawing the shades often is the right thing to do, for a lot of reasons, but the decision merits considered thought. When you draw the shades, you block the view in both directions.

A person who feels vulnerable or fragile is not the best audience for sarcastic jokes.

Take care of those nagging doubts as soon as possible; their disappearance from the back of your mind will leave a lot of room.

After today, there will be no more November left for this year.  The last vestiges of the month will depart at midnight, never to be seen again except in memory. Eventually, memories of the month will fade and finally vanish.  There will … Continue reading →

Intent is merely a loose feather in the wind; action is the wing in flight.

This is the only November 28, 2014 you will ever experience.  Celebrate accordingly.

There’s always reason to appreciate what we have, who we have close, the good fortune that befalls us, and the misfortune that doesn’t, as clearly expressed below: “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a … Continue reading →

Love is everywhere.  It is the soft squeeze on the shoulder.  It is the peck on the cheek, the unexpected hug.  It is the cryptic text message and the laughter at a silly joke.  It is right here, right now.

When trees shed their leaves, they reveal beauty inaccessible in full leaf.  People do the same when they shed their clothes. It doesn’t matter whether the tree is gnarled and imperfect, any more than whether the person is wrinkled and worn. … Continue reading →

I think it’s in our best interests to accept all hugs and kisses that come our way, because they tend to engender reciprocity, which in turn does the same.

I continue trying to defy failure, to insist it cannot control me. Some days, it understands the depth of my defiance. Some days it resists, challenging the legitimacy and strength of my commitment. One day, the championship will no longer be … Continue reading →

I wonder what pure silence is like.  I’ve never experienced it, at least not that I recall. And, frankly, I think I would recall it if I ever experienced it. Even in the quietest room, with sound-deadening walls, a person hears the sound … Continue reading →

I have a theory. The more time a person accumulates through life, the more compact that time becomes, filling the mind with experiences that grow denser and denser.  That increasing denseness causes time to be experienced in “fast forward.” Time is like a black hole … Continue reading →

Open invitations are understood to be without expiration, but an occasional dusting keeps them bright and shiny.

“Practice makes perfect” is an adage we wish were true, but is not.  “Practice tends to improve,” though, doesn’t have quite the ring to it.

Sunrises are reasons enough to rise early. But getting up before 2:00 a.m. is stretching it.

There’s a connection in my dreams to my conscious reality, but sometimes it’s flawed.  It can be a bit like picking up multiple broadcast radio stations on the same band; lots of static and competition between music and news.

If all of us, at every level in the social strata, would accept the legitimacy of the customs and practices of people one level up and one level down, we’d all be a lot happier.  And we’d be happier, still, … Continue reading →

The key to having a good attitude, I’m coming to understand, is to acknowledge the lunacy of trying to convince highly opinionated and stunningly uninformed people to share one’s enlightened perspective.

You have to get inside another person’s head to look at the world through his or her eyes.  Often, though, you find there is no room for you there.

Some days, I wake up and realize I am among the most fortunate of men.  Most days, in fact.  I don’t know what I have done to deserve being married to my wife, but whatever it is, I am grateful … Continue reading →

Some colors are just not worth talking about.  Others deserve more attention than we can possibly give them.  The vast majority are unremarkable but at least they are innocuous.  Consider, for example, cobalt blue, amaranth, and caput mortuum. Into which … Continue reading →