Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain
— Stanley Adams

Okay. To be fair, the full difference wasn't made in just twenty-four little hours but I really like the song and it speaks to the larger point. It's remarkable how your entire perspective can change in a very short time due to one thing.

A year ago — six month ago, even — I felt like I was just going through the motions of life. I was stable and functional. I wasn't in a particular depressed funk for the most part. But I just didn't [……]

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.
— Paulo Coelho

Sometimes the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn't mean to take.
— Angela N. Blount - "Once Upon an Ever After"

But maybe someday, my weird will be somebody else's perfect. And it will be absolutely amazing!
— phydeaux - "The Pursuit of Happiness"

A lot of the time, life is kind of predictable and gives you exactly what you expect. Sometimes…… not so much.

Occasionally, you're just walking along, minding your own business, and notice something out of [……]

Nope. I'm not dead. Not yet, anyway. When I posted my last entry back in January, I decided to just chill and take a break for a while so I could focus on some aspects of my life that I've been neglecting. This was intentional and in accordance with the discipline that I wrote about in that post. I needed to spend some time examining my life, my motivations, my desires for the future, and, more importantly, how all of those (and more) align with God's will.

It's amazing, though, how easily days turn into weeks which turn into months until [……]

Discipline teaches us to operate by principle rather than desire.
Saying no to our impulses (even the ones that are not inherently sinful)
puts us in control of our appetites rather than vice versa. It deposes
our lust and permits truth, virtue, and integrity to rule our minds instead.
John F. MacArthur Jr.

Since I first heard about it, I've always liked the idea of choosing a specific word to help define and focus your thoughts and actions for the year. I've not, however, actually done so. Until now. For so long, my focus — my purpose — was my family. [……]

My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.
Woody Allen

I haven't felt like writing anything for a while. This is mainly because I haven't felt like myself lately. For about a month now I've just been going through the motions in my daily life mostly because I simply haven't had any energy at all. There have been days where I've actually fallen asleep at my desk for a few moments and have to get up and walk around for a bit to clear my head. This has affected others to a small degree since, after surviving [……]

Ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so.
— John Stuart Mill

If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time.
— Edith Wharton

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
— Blaise Pascal

Sometimes you have to give up what you want in order to get what you need. [Ed. note — Gee, I guess I could have used a Rolling Stones quote for this one, huh? But that would have been pretty low hanging fruit and lately, I've been expecting a little better of myself. ;-) ] Anyhoo, what [……]

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
Mark Twain

We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from
place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a
place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do
very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.
E.M. Forster — "A Room with a View"

On Monday of last week, I was among the — what was it, hundreds of thousands or maybe [……]

• It's not enough to care about people or to understand them. They have to feel understood and cared for. If they don't, you're not doing it right.

• "A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly." -- Pablo Neruda

• Apparently, being sappy has made me a sap. But that's a tale for a different time.

• You know that guy who always parks at the far end of the parking lot for no reason? That's me. I've been doing it for nearly

The only source of knowledge is experience.
Albert Einstein

La La, How the life goes on
John Lennon & Paul McCartney

You know, I'm gonna stop apologizing for taking so long between posts. Apparently, I'm immune to my own shaming so it's kinda pointless. Suffice it to say, however, that this time it was due to some technical difficulties and leave it at that. (That said, I really do want to post more frequently.)

This one's just going to be a quick life update but, during the aforementioned delay, I've been formulating my thoughts for a meatier (meteor?) post which will happen soon. [……]

I might as well go up and talk to a wall
'cause all the words are having no effect at all.
It's a funny thing. Am I all alone?
What are words for when no one listens anymore?
Missing Persons — "Words"

I was never a big Missing Persons fan back in the day but I didn't dislike them either. Their videos would show up on MTV now and then and they were generally part of the background din that was so much a part of the early 80s. (For any younger people who read this, MTV used to stand for [……]