The world and I grow weary,
so it is easy to wake up on the wrong side of the bed,
to see my chipped china cup as half empty,
feel myself small against the curtain of the sky.
Why cheat myself with adages passed down
when I can take that cup
fill it half full with pungent soil,
plant a bright yellow marigold
set it on the worn wicker table
over which the lilac blooms,
where early morning birds sing in the day
and I hold the joy of hands dusted with dirt.
- Joyce Lombard
Good Morning Digital Neighbors from across Locals - Bigots, Refugees, Phamily & Friends! Dawn Patrol & Early Birds, Later Dayers & Day Walkers, Conversants, Lurkers, Supporters, Members or just curious visitors to the Locals experience. Rubin Report, Phetasy & Triggernometry and Padre's communities with their own vibe and feel. There is much I appreciate about all of them and the good people I have met there in my voyages on the inter-webs. Not all those communities will be you cup of coffee, and in fact none of them may be, but I bet you will find a place to visit on Locals that suits your interest. If you become a Supporter, your ability to interact with these communities may allow you to connect with a yet unknown associate or potentially new friend. I am not shilling for supporter-ship at any of these Locals sites, just stating the benefit I have found by joining them.
Community is what you make it, what you give and what you receive in the interplay of humanity. Sure it is fraught with frustration and potential disappointment, you won't find a single perfect soul among us, but you may find another companion soul, like you and yet different, someone whose expression of thought and self resonates with yours. You may discover someone very different in thought and experience, so varied that you think you have next to nothing in common, but you find the threads of commonality, the very fabric of a potential friendship. You will probably find plenty to disagree with if you take the time to really have meaningful interactions and conversations. Those disagreements will either serve to broaden your appreciation of thought or end the relationship. The disposing of things, people, relationships is far too easy and the landfill of failed relationships for some is massive. Those things and people you have worked with, stayed with, loved in their imperfection are worth far more to you than the pile of failure and disappointment. All of this is probably stating the obvious, but I have to spell it out for myself if no one else. 😉 Happy Saturday dear neighbors!
Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief. - Cicero
The joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you. - John Greenleaf Whittier
Abandoned Barn by Peter Herman
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 ...
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.
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
