Do you know where you're going to
Do you like the things that life's been showing you
Where are you going to
Do you know?
If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
You can thank me for the earworm later if you are familiar with the song.😊Good Morning Friends & Digital Neighbors! Happy Wednesday already?!?! Weeks just slip by way too quickly.
The song haunts me because too many dedication songs on call-in radio used this as one of the breakup songs. "Billy dedicates this song to Sally, thanks for 2 years of blah, blah, blah." A rather melancholy song and one that makes me cringe a bit, I think I may have to listen to some hard rock before the morning is finished. I mean it could be "Alone again, naturally" one of the few times I wanted to encourage a jumper. 😉 Of course I am joking. There is no end to the writing of sad songs and the pain of being discarded. It can make one question their destination as it were and wonder about the path.
Discarded or accompanied, are you content with the direction your train is moving? I am a fan of changing trains anytime in life, no one is sentenced to a doomed ride. While we probably all say we don't mind change, it is one of the seeming constants for much of humanity, THEY HATE CHANGE. I don't think anyone with half a brain want to subscribe to change for the sake of change. And most of us when we say we like change, we imagine things pretty much the same, but perhaps a little better. We subscribe to that kind of change.
As Pastor Bonhoeffer mentions - running down the corridor of the moving train does not change the destination. Changing the train does. Ruminating about the past may help us to understand and integrate it our current life, or it may trap us in a quagmire of disappointment and a feeling of hopelessness. Screw that crap! Learn from the past, appreciate it, let it serve as a teacher for a better tomorrow, but we can't live there anymore than we live in the wishful future. However a wishful future can become a possible future with the right steps in minds. It would be great to know all the steps between now and the imagined destination, but I am content if I am given the next step or two towards that destination. If I need to change trains in life, I pray I have more courage to change and less comfort in endless complaint. I'd hope to place more trust in the unknown hopeful than in the known miserable.
Quo Vadis? It helps to ask that question from time to time, where are you going? Even a fearful destination can be faced with courage if one has hope. What we hope to become or who is waiting for us at that destination can make the trip more than worth it. Happy Wednesday fellow passengers on the ride! I hope you enjoy your train and its destination.
Vintage Winter Barn Photograph by Peggy Franz. I don't know Peggy, but Duck Duck Go does and lead me to this.
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Happy National Best Friends Day Y'all!
I strongly suggest combining celebrations for this with National Name Your Poison Day and National Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day. Think I'll have to wash a custard doughnut down with a cold beer later.
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.