As we lay around our houses like cantankerous cats In the cold winter months, it's easy to gain fat Each of us finding refrigerated delicacies late night Entertained as we snuggle by the television light
In our January resolutions we swore that we'd beat This sinister urge that each winter makes us want to eat The cookies and treats are enticing to our appetites And so we lose ground and gain inches, night after night
It was somewhere in our happiest younger days That each of us learned our sedentary ways Now some want to make America healthy again It is somehow strange to find gluttony is our sin
But each nibble we take from the goodies we bake Turns out to be our Valentine's biggest mistake Here under skies blanketed with thick clouds It becomes hard to limit ourselves to what's allowed
Instead, we find that sweet treats make us want more Brownies and chocolate chips by the frequented score Lead us to candy hearts and chocolates on Valentine's Day How dour would we make efforts at pushing these away
Then in the morning, we weigh ourselves on the scale Wondering at the gains that seem to always prevail Discipline is needed in the middle of winter to win That is if we wish to look healthy for summer again
(c) February 10, 2025 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend.” – Alexander Hamilton (1788)
“What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth.” – Boris Pasternak, poet, novelist, Nobel laureate (10 Feb 1890-1960)
Listening in on a deep conversation I was maybe a little disturbed by my fascination Speaking on Paul's mission It's interesting how grace and peace breed compassion
Here as we sit and openly think Paul's reasoning brings us to the brink Of understanding how hopeless life is without grace Knowing we live best within God's embrace
The struggle we have returns us to His love Like a flourishing Eden under God above Life-giving and life-affirming, we return After all life's lessons that we learn
Jesus is a calming influence over us We know that it is because The beauty of the Lord is wonderful His blessings are always bountiful
Grace takes away our desire for control That is what is best for our damaged souls Giving God His way is from the inside out This clear path removes our clouds of doubt
God's peace still has conflicts for navigation We best approach this with grace and circumspection Peace isn't always what is most comfortable But what makes us grow into being most capable
All the good in the world cannot close the gap It's an impossibility; mankind isn't even on the map Even if we have a religion of utmost intention Only God's grace merits us any of God's attention
The attention that it is that we need It cannot be obtained with ritualized words or deeds After all, churches are not simply schools Instead, churches help us to navigate what we pass as rules
Fundamental to our growth is the necessary change We look around and connect as life continues to rearrange All of us live our lives conditioned by and under sin All the love and mistakes challenge us again and again
Healing the wounds is only a correct half-step Still, there is so much more that is left It goes far beyond being merely skin-deep If it is God's peace we intend to keep
God's love is not only about religious worship God's love is about developing right relationship There is a rawness in this perspective and light It makes us transparent even in the night
The night that revolves to bring us darkness It so often clothes us in its harshness But comes down to surrender and acceptance God's grace and love is what leads us to repentance
Let us not be among those remaining deceived Instead, let God's grace be duly received Taking a look at our legalistic conceptions And instead, returning to the Garden's perceptions
Functioning with the right relationship With our creator as more than symbolic worship The remedy for our wrongs is to learn the right We must focus on what pulls us into the light
This is not a matter to escape our note That love of God is not grasped through rote A wrecking ball is needed for ceremony and ritual Coming close to God is heartfelt and becomes habitual
Through this choosing to keep God's heart Closer to ours walks in kindness from the start All this is possible because of the cross It was our gain and every bit of Satan's loss
When we become motivated to obey By this love, there can be no better day When we move beyond managing our sins And through forgiveness, we come to living freely again
There, in this garden, grows peace and grace It waits for us to lovingly embrace Knowing that all of us fall short of God's glory This return to love is the fullness of the story
Living justified is as if it was just as if you and I Had ever sinned, covered by Christ, and that is why What's wanted isn't ritual but trueness of connection It's only this that turns us in the right direction
Dunking these nuggets for all their godly wisdom Leads us to the keys of our Father's holy kingdom We know and feel this with great gratitude Ready to face our coming weeks with our best attitudes
(c) February 9, 2025 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“A man may commit sin and yet be ignorant of it, and fancy himself innocent when he is guilty… We shall do well to remember that when we make our own miserably imperfect knowledge and consciousness the measure of our sinfulness, we are on very dangerous ground.” – J.C. Ryle
“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” – Romans 3:20
In this workaday world, we barely muddle through We worry about our own lives more than justice due Our duty is more toward the good of our own family Than to worry about every nuance of society
If another man must hang by taking our guilty place It is counted as fate and accepted in muddled grace Better that someone pay the price for avarice and vice Than to become susceptible to a noose-like vise
This is the way society rolls as it's being defined Guilt and innocence are simply constructs refined Into discussions found within a philosopher's book What does truth matter if nobody genuinely looks?
Beneath the veneer and just below society's surface Is the fact that each of us is viewed for purpose Truth, justice, and even mercy become mere constructs As our world around us first magnifies then destructs
If we reflect silently, we will hear the voice That tells us all that love or hate is our choice This choice defines what will be our final outcome Hell on Earth, or our father's kingdom
(c) February 8, 2025 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of the pruning knife.” – Thomas Jefferson (1821)
Your people came to my people With all of their demands Before we knew what coexistence meant We had lost all our sacred lands
We were offered the peace That can only be called brutality As we were savagely rounded up By your people quite capably
However, you date your people's arrival Since then, it has been a fight for survival You presented this as manifested destiny As you tried to write my people out of history
You claimed your foot on the necks of my people While you worshipped your God under the steeple Exterminating the people of this conquered wilderness Taking from us our last shattered wildness
As you made my people starve and bleed You used this story as a basis to teach and read As if this was the message to be spread As if this was the story of a people now dead
But we will shape our own story No different than any other people in history We began with wampum belts to share our glory Stories of winters spent became our oral story
Frederick Turner Jackson must have been blind In his visions of my people being left behind Today, the imprint of Native America is evident And into the future, we will remain relevant
Inheritors of traumas and children of legacy To believe us destroyed is your own dramedy Though vast in its perceived dimensions The true story is two-way in its precision
Purposeful actions are needed to restore our dignity As a people in search of redeemed sovereignty It's this recovery and in our needed revitalization That the first peoples will restore our traditions
In recovering our proud sense of native community We will again be part of the Great Spirit's family Finding ourselves by pushing past a sense of conquest To an extraordinary people who survived their test
(c) February 7, 2025 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
Heading out of Australia to escape this Aussie winter. First stop Japan, then UK/Ireland and if work doesn't call me back, onto Chicago. I will make it up as I go along
ALOHA PROMISES FOREVER 