Insidious Adaptation

The connection here should be fairly obvious, the message rather clear, however the end game, the product developed in each mind that reads it, may require some adaptation. The innate ability for each person to first, see something that intrigues, click on the link, read the material, and internalize a message says more about what a person was looking for than the answer they found. If I am looking for something to reinforce a bad day, anything can provide the ammo. If I am looking for something to bring me joy, then I can choose to find joy in even the most mundane. If I want to eat something sweet, then, I can determine it to be sweet or not. Try out, "the baby diet," where we eat only what th body knows it needs. Nothing more, nothing less, just enough, and the right stuff. Disclosure: I made that "baby diet" up. Yes, "determine something to be sweet or not," probably something starting to sound a bit heady, but one must consider what sweetness i...

I'm supposed to write something here. Something that is to help either me or others. This, not an expectation for myself, however, an obligation, for otherwise why exist? Why would a person exist, of only to experience life for himself, gain, for himself, hold all knowledge, for himself? What is that good for?  The thoughts consume me after I disappointed myself. After an evening where I was interacting with my daughter, trying to brush teeth at bed time, only to have her subtle defiance get to me for the last time. As she sat just at the right angle, refusing to lift her mouth up and open for me to brush, and my 3rd or 4th prompt was getting shorter, she became frustrated, she threw a book to the side, it hit me in the face, and I became angry. I slid the book with force across the floor, yelled close to her face, stood up, picked her up, and put her on her bed and told her, "You made me angry!" "No, you wanted to be defiant and now I am angry!" This as my...

I wrote the title before I thought of the words. I figure if this is something to be published, they will come to me. If not, then the words fall to the ultimate delete button anyways and at this point could write whatever I want. "I secretly love the texture of cardboard and wish more foods were like it." Nonetheless, let me start by saying that "white privilege" as I mean here is not from the perspective of advantage as it relates to the world's view. If anything, it is a detriment many discriminatory people fall into that prevent seeing the bigger picture. I feel "white privilege" in our perspective and growth in the world is equivalent to trying to see the curvature of the earth by standing on the deck of your house. Sure, we might see something depending on how close the next door neighbor is from us or a building in our view, but we don't have all we need to see what is ultimately there. However, if I want to truly see the curvature of th...

At one time it was one of the most viewed YouTube videos; a boy and his baby brother playing around and then the baby brother, Charlie, really bites down on his older brother's hand. Watch it Here. Much like in my own experience, a baby's first teeth, and the unexpected force of the jaw are something that go from a pleasure, to a pain, too quick to plan for. Unlike the teeth of a puppy, the razor sharp daggers that break through the skin and an unexpected chomp on a arm, resulting in a smack to the face or butt as a reminder not to bite, we cannot do the same with kids. When a child bites us we have to be so aware of our bodies that we don't smack the kid as a response to stop pain. How many times are we hurting from a child to have a knee jerk reaction to hurt them to save us. Our intent would not be to hurt them, as much as we are trying to avoid pain ourselves. A mother's nipple as a child latches on, and as the pain of breastfeeding only worsened by the form...

Play. I had half a mind to leave the page blank, allow for artistic interpretation to the emptiness that very few things offer these days. To have some sentence at the end about what to make of your own blank page, your own life's purpose etc. However, I decided instead to provoke. When was the last time you allowed the mind to wander? When was the last time you didn't stop or try to control the thoughts? When was the last time you were allowed to actually daydream? I feel sometimes that the phone, the thumbprint, the scroll, the 5-10 minutes wasted, and then the rush to catch back up on work or be present with children, or try to catch back up on the conversation you were missing, prevents us from doing so. I feel as though the mind's ability to be, and explore, no longer exists as it once has. Now, sitting, dreaming, and getting nothing accomplished are not warranted in this world either, nor would that be fulfilling, but everything in the world now seems a way to...

(beep) (beep) (beep) Hurry, where is that button, I don't want to wake the house up.  My first thought of the day is about how I inconvenience the others in the house. My wife lays sleeping next to me even though I would assume she heard. My daughter in the next room, sleeping, as indicated to me by the lack of a lit-up screen notifying me of her every move. I check the phone. The light of the screen pierces my eyes. An abrasion that my logical mind reminds me is bad for me. Nonetheless. Jeeze, she moves around so much. My thoughts as I look to the notifications stacked on my screen from throughout the night. I sit up on the side of the bed, say my prayers for the day and a brief thought enters my head of how if my wife did wake up, she would see me just sitting here, probably looking still asleep. Or, maybe she knows by now. As the feet hit the floor, the debate is over. I am up now. The thick carpet supports my sore feet. The muscles in the legs all get the...

What is achievement other than a never-ending goal? What is success, but something defined by those outside? What is hunger defined by those who need? What is love desired by those who are lonely? On one side of a door, there is wood paneling, on the other, an entire room, unless of course you are on the inside, then there is an entire world out there. The possibilities behind any door, any thought fulfilled, any thing you've ever wanted available right here. (Points to one's head) I don't want it though. The pleasure, for I don't feel I am worthy. I have to keep working, striving, trudging through because I am not going to hold it properly. There are the times I want to give up, give in, quit, but then I remember that this is the gift. The entire reason I exist it to serve, and how can I serve if I achieve? How can I be washing feet when I have nice things? My entire life up until now, has remained in this current thought process. I am going to fail. I have t...