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Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Thursday ADD Irregulars, Refugees, Phamily, Ealy Birds, Later Dayers, Dawn Patrol, Day Walkers, Conversants, Lurkers and all the rest of ya's!!!

I think I forgot such salutations in my greetings yesterday, probably for the better when it become too routine and contributes to the "glazing". You see it a lot as a priest, preach or public speaker. Some people automatically glaze over within seconds of beginning a sermon, others tend to have timer, be it 5 minutes or 10 and few last much longer than that unless you are really engaging and wording your passion and humor well in a homily/sermon. The "glazing" is real and when you see it happening to the assembly it is usually time to wrap it up. I don't mean the pre-glazed, they can't pay attention to anything that doesn't appeal to obvious self-interest. I mean the willing and normally engaged. When the glazing starts spreading the speaking should be ending. I always have the dozen of so people I call the obvious engaged and if they are still following along, I am on track, when they start listing & lurching in the pews it is a sign of not connecting.

But we ain't here to talk about the glazing, but rather another quote or two to tumble around in our thoughts. Eyes wide open (grab more coffee) and a mind that is curious and seeking makes the venturing into life and even the internet fruitful.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

Try it, you'll like it! I suspect if you are on Locals you are already among those who are prone to realize that stewardship and mastery over your feelings is part of maturity & responsibility. I know there isn't a lot of bling and zing in maturity & responsibility, but your life will be more complete when those two attributes are part of your life portfolio. It doesn't mean you always act with maturity & responsibility, but that is a good base attitude on which to built a life and personality that is healthy and happy.

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

Life is worth living. Don't be afraid of mistakes or being wrong, the more you can take yourself lightly, see the humor & beauty in you passage through life, the more likely you are to stumble across unexpected happiness and growth. If you go into life knowing you will face trials, will experience injury, will misunderstand and be misunderstood, you will be better prepared for life. If you do that you will also stumble across meaning in your life. If you manage not to stumble over meaning and keep on floundering, it might prompt you to seek more meaning, or at least wonder if there is more meaning in the life you have been missing. Meaning beats fun & distraction every time. It is difficult to convince people of that in the midst of their distracting fun. And it doesn't mean that fun is gone, just moderated and perhaps a little more deliberate and discerned.

Meaning. In its absence is boredom. It is corruption is madness. My inner curmudgeon wants to go Walt Kowalski as I see the national neighborhood going to crap. When you can't address the madness, but rather indulge it, expect more wreckage of human life and society. No one seeks healing or wellness until they accept the reality of their illness or poor health. Sorry this is sort of black pilling, but the white pill is that such souls without meaning are not as common as you think. They are fringe. That's doesn't mean we get to pass on being charitable to them, showing patience and attempting understanding, but we don't have to indulge them. We all know that the failure to indulge them means potential ruin. Lawyers and mobs, real and virtual, may haunt your life in your failure to indulge the meaningless. Fighting back is possible, and they (the meaningless and their enablers) count of you folding. They have no stomach for a real fight, they depend on the mob to cower you and pressure you into silence if nothing else. Be inspired by the likes of Jordan Peterson in his recent dust up with Twitter. Better to draw your line and stand at it with no compromise. The Wokenstiens NEVER compromise, nor should you. They don't know the existence of meaning, don't join their madness. Thanks for indulging this curmudgeon, and I hope you aren't too glazed over to continue your voyages on the inter-web today!

July Clouds Over Kansas Wheat Sunset

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Voltaire's birthday 11-21-1694 - A brief essay by Steve Weidenkopf

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 ...

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2026 Teams Talk @ Padre's

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. 

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Good morning, digital neighbors! Happy and blessed Sunday to all!
A simple reflection on simple pleasures and the blessing of everyday life. I am abundantly blessed in life—so many things too often taken for granted. Every now and again it is good to take a moment to count all the modern conveniences: plumbing, electricity, air conditioning, refrigeration, a comfortable bed, abundant food ready to prepare, and the list goes on and on.

That doesn’t mean we won’t have trials. If you are going through some right now, I pray you know God’s strength and peace and have support. Life-crushing trials can challenge our faith. God is good, but life is not always easy even with all the normal blessings of modern life. Prayers and good friends can help us keep perspective and focus. Have a prayerful and blessed Sunday, my friends.

SIMPLE PLEASURES

I took a hot bath last night.
As the tub filled, I marveled at the process.
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Garden of the Beloved - read by Lady Clare - Chapter 10
The Beautiful

 

The Beautiful

 

Said the Disciple to the Lover, “Sir, before I left the world I heard certain men who were held in high esteem and thought to know the will of the Beloved say that those who loved the Beautiful did not love the Beloved but loved idols, yet in the Garden of the Beloved we are ever striving to create beauty for the pleasure of the Beloved.  Were they then speaking the truth?”

The Lover answered, “Those who said this had never glimpsed the form of the Beloved nor ever truly sought Him, for all beauty is but the reflection of the beauty of the Beloved, although seen very dimly as in a dark and faulty mirror, even as all goodness is a dim reflection of the goodness of the Beloved.  So it is that those who love beauty and goodness recognize dimly in them the form of the Beloved and though often in ignorance those who are seeking the Beautiful and the Good are seeking after the Beloved.”

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Garden of the Beloved - read by Lady Clare - Chapter 9
The Comforting of the Disciple

The Comforting of the Disciple

Now the Beloved often came into the Garden both because of the great joy He had in the Garden and because of the great love He bore the Lover and the Disciple.  Often He talked with the Lover, but the Disciple because he was not yet perfected in Love could neither hear nor see the Beloved, though he often felt a strange joy, he did not know why.  Therefore he was sorrowful, for it seemed to him that on account of his sins he would never find the Beloved.  So weeping he came to the Lover and said, “Sir, I know that I am a very sinful man and I much fear that though I search all my life yet on account of my sins I shall never find the Beloved.”

In reply the Lover smiled gently and said, “My son, when you first came into the Garden do you remember what sort of day it was?”

“Yes,” said the Disciple, “I remember it.  It was dark and gloomy as if no sunlight ever entered the Garden.”

“When you began to strip off your rich robes,” the Lover asked, “what happened to the day?”

“It seemed,” said the Disciple, “as if the sun had suddenly broken through the clouds and the whole Garden shone with glorious and celestial light:  such light as shines daily in the Garden.”

The Lover replied, “Know that the Beloved Himself is the light of the Garden, so that when you began searching for the Beloved even then you found Him, for how can any know the desire to search for the Beloved if He had not already without his knowing revealed Himself to him.”

So the Disciple was greatly comforted by knowing that although he could not see or hear Him he had already found the Beloved, and he labored the more joyously to do the service of the Beloved.

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Garden of the Beloved - Read by Lady Clare
Chapters 8 (Which I I forgot to post one for Independence Day Weekend!)
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