Good Morning Digital Neighbors! FAT Tuesday ADD Irregulars, WSN Contributors, Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Late Dayers, Conversants & Lurkers, PHAM & Misfits and all the rest of wanderers on the Local's.

I guess we have to reconsider calling this day Fat Tuesday and call it Body Positivity Day? For most people it just another day to over do it on the eating, the boozing and the other hedonistic joys of being human. If there is one thing America likes to make part of the melting-pot (I can feel the Woke cringing at that old image that was far better than what we have now) are celebrations with booze and frivolity. Social gatherings, with or without alcohol and other drugs can build bonds of communion among strangers. It is a good thing, and most of those types of bonds have been under attack by the CABAL and its militant cultural arrogance.

My brother Jerry had some of the best friends, pot brought them together, but they found out that they had much in common apart from smoking, Too many people malign the destructive nature of alcohol and drugs, but forget the interesting fellowship that it can create. The real test is how the friendships survives if the uniting substances fades into the background. It is one of the more difficult trials of being a young adult as you experience the inclusion and exclusion of people on your journey of life. Some mature and change with you, others remain stagnate and often depart. There is a sadness for me in some of the friends I just slowly lost through the passage of time. The flip side are the new ones that have come along, in the the end it has more than balanced out for me and I am profoundly blessed for good people to share may path.

How about a prayer for waking up to the day from a dabbler in Celtic spirituality? I have often returned to John O'Donohue for his wisdom and insight, his perspective on life and its dance. I am always looking for ways to awaken the inner senses of my person to see, listen and experience the subtle and humble workings of the Master, of my neighbor, of my own mysterious inner self that is at best partial known and too often left unattended. Happy FAT Tuesday all of you fine souls! Wake up to reality and see the beauty of life all the while wrestling with its ugliness and brokenness. Push against the darkness rather than yielding to it. No Pollyannaish wishes from the Friar, just the hard and satisfying work of wrestling with reality and discovering gratitude and laughter as hidden gems along the path. Thank you for being part of the gems I have found.

FOR THE SENSES

May the touch of your skin
Register the beauty
Of the otherness
That surrounds you.

May your listening be attuned
To the deeper silence
Where sound is honed
To bring distance home.

May the fragrance
Of a breathing meadow
Refresh your heart
And remind you you are
A child of the earth.

And when you partake Of food and drink,
May your taste quicken
To the gift and sweetness
That flows from the earth.

May your inner eye
See through the surfaces
And glean the real presence
Of everything that meets you.

May your soul beautify
The desire of your eyes
That you might glimpse
The infinity that hides
In the simple sights
That seem worn To your usual eyes.

To Bless the Space Between - John O'Donohue