“There is no normal life that is free of pain. It’s the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.” – Fred Rogers
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Thought For the Day: There Is No Normal Life That Is Free of Pain. It’s the Very Wrestling With Our Problems That Can Be the Impetus For Our Growth
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Fred Rogers, Free of Pain, Growth, Impetus, Normal Life, Problems, Thought For the Day, Wrestle
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Learning To Survive
Learning To Survive
by Michael Doyle
She whispered about her dreams
In suitably stifled screams
Twisted sheets and chandeliers
Made everything larger than it appears
Thinking can hurt your chances
In this world of broken romances
You're expected to follow the rules
Learned inside the forbidden schools
Here under the privileged roofs
That propositions given without proofs
Traditional values have a different meaning
Where there is a redefinition of human beings
Habits bring about forced isolation
Across the recast of the nation
Where people become afraid to speak
And the unarmed strong falsely fake they are weak
In corruption, it's a necessity to survive
Spying on each other to stay alive
Praised be what the proclaimed ones reveal
Even if its the real truth that is concealed
Waling in oppression along the river
Wishing for the freedom it might deliver
The struggle becomes its own fragility
Where hedonism as diminished virility
Blessed, it seems, are the meek
Who have become afraid to speak
Afforded now to be seen as extraordinary
The fear felt is now the ordinary
Keeping their heads down low
Eye to eye, the would no longer know
What it is to know and live freedom
There will be no individuality in their kingdom
Praise be for the evil that is done
But surely the feigned purity is not for the Son
For the Bible Tells us truth sets souls free
And in this darkness, that will never be
Please God, let the lingering memory
Be that which remembers love and family
Taught lessons are found in twisted cruelty
Found in the merciless beatings of brutality
(c) April 14, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Appear, Chance, Chandelier, Dream, Human Beings, Learn, Meanding, Poetry and Poems, Proof, Redeintion, Rules, Scream, Sheet, Survive, Think, Whisper
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First Principles: Of the Many Influences That Have Shaped the United States Into A Distinctive Nation and People, None May Be Said To Be More Fundamental and Enduring Than the Bible
“Of the many influences that have shaped the United States into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible.” – Ronald Reagan
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Enduring, First Principles, Fundamental, Influences, Nation, People, Ronald Reagan, Shape, The Bible, United States
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Thought For the Day: Of the Twenty-Two Civilizations That Have Appeared In History, Nineteen of Them Collapsed When They Reached the Moral State the United Sates Is In Now
“Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.” – Arnold J. Toynbee
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Arnold J. Toynbee, Civilization, Collapse, History, Moral State, Thought For the Day, United Sates
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My Heart Grows Heavy (I’m Dipping In)
My Heart Grows Heavy (I'm Dipping In)
by Michael Doyle
My heart grows heavy in the sadness
As I look at this world of madness
And know that love is the needed legacy
As it should be walked as its meant to be
No Matter what the haters say
This is the path that I pray
With the words of the Father on my heart
Imprinted as they have been from the start
Palm Sunday and I'm dipping in
As deep as I can to fight against sin
Our DNA is shown in our giving
Pushed on with hop in our Father's forgiving
Sometimes you have to look back to go forward
That is if you want to keep pushing toward
The "Therefore" in Romans one through seven
We trace the foot prints to find Heaven
All the way back to the garden of good
Eden showed God's will to be understood
Until that is man's feeble will was spoken
And suddenly God's will was broken
From this, were the whispers of the hurting
That put on mankind our harshest burdens
Death and resurrection pointed the way
In our lack of shame, we've learned to pray
Personal theology is often love without condition
God's love is the reason behind our explanations
The truth of the glory is there is no shame
Look around you and know that there is not blame
Radical love is found in the Jesus way
As we mind our words in all we do and say
All of the world isn't a set of rules, but relationship
Practicing love is the truest pattern of worship
The world surrounds us with many choices
As we search for and find our Christian voices
Putting aside the flesh, we put on the spirit
Living Christ's holy way as best that we might hear it
Peace of the spirt is the pace that walks us through
These days of life, our flesh wants us to do as we must do
And instead of our false ways, put on God's holy ways
Until at last, our gifts bring us to our better days
We walk now as God's children and as His family
Heirs as we are to the the solid days of glory
This the deepest meaning passing as our story
Especially, when we do our utmost to live in fidelity
We prepare our hearts in this passing holy week
Listening close as the paster humbly speaks
It all comes down to faith and being nice
In living our lives this translates as the best advice
It's there in the priestly message without hesitation
Listening close we find our life's truest direction
For His is the Kingdom and with it all of the glory
This then is the crux of our Easter story...
(c) April 13, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Back, Bible, Book of Romans, Broken, Burden, Christianity, Death and Rsurrection, Dipping In, DNA, Eden, Faith, Foot Prints, Forgive, Forward, God, God's Will, Haters, Heart, Heart Heavy, Heaven, Hurting, Imprint, Jesus, Legacy, Madness, Palm Sunday, Personal Theology, Poetry and Poems, Pray, Sadness, Shame, Sin, Spoken, The Garden, Walked, Whispers, World
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Thought For the Day: A Disciple Is One Who Thinks, Feels and Acts Like Jesus Christ. It is Being Conformed To the Image of Christ
“A disciple is one who thinks, feels and acts like Jesus Christ. It is being conformed to the image of Christ as Romans 8:28-29 states-that God’s No.1 purpose in our lives is to make us like Jesus.” – Rick Warren
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Acts, Christ, Conform, Disciple, Feels, Image, Jesus Christ, Like Jesus, Lives, Purpose, Rick Warren, Romans 8:28-29, Thinks, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: If Christ Is In You, Though the Body Is Dead Because of Sin, Yet the Spirit Is Alive Because of Righteousness
“If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” – Romans 8:10
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Body, Christ, Dead, First Principles, Righteousness, Romans 8:10, Sin, Spirit
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Beneath the Skin
Beneath the Skin
by Michael Doyle
There just beneath my skin
As simple as you please
Is the real me that begins
With the will not to appease
But to be just who I am inside
Behind my appearance, I hide
Disguised by the roles I play
Is the real me that stays
In all the tales that I've told
About the blues felt on the road
A thousand voices speak at me
Telling me all there could be
If only I would play the star
They feel my heart on this guitar
The notes that fall out as I play
All the little things I dare to say
Life is too often defined
Not by the individuals refined
But by our demanded roles
Never mind the depth of our souls
Husband, wife, son, and daughter
Holy mothers and rascals for fathers
It turns out that relational ties
Are too often the worst of our lies
In all the tales that I've told
About the blues felt on the road
A thousand voices speak at me
Telling me all there could be
If only I would play the star
They feel my heart on this guitar
The notes that fall out as I play
All the little things I dare to say
Even at this dreaded sense of distance
I hold on to my shattered insistence
That real intimacy is somehow possible
It's something I want to be capable
Real, rote, or false, we live for relationship
It's the idol that we live and worship
Ruminating on the muse of the infighting
Found in the words that others are writing
It's the radical love felt by our preference
As leap frog forward in our experience
Looking for something for our songs to say
To make ourselves deeper than the games we play
If only I would play the star
They feel my heart on this guitar
The notes that fall out as I play
All the little things I dare to say
Even at this dreaded sense of distance
I hold on to my shattered insistence
That real intimacy is somehow possible
It's something I want to be capable
(c) April 12, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Appearance, Appease, Beneath, Blues, Disguise, Fiction, Guitar, Heart, Hide, Horror, Inside, Poetry, Poetry and Poems, Real Me, Road, Roles, Short Story, Simple, Skin, Str, Tales, Thousand voices, Writing
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First Principles: The Secret of Freedom Lies In Educating People, Whereas the Secret of Tyranny Is In Keeping Them Ignorant
“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.” – Maximilien Robespierre
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Education, First Principles, Freedom, Ignorance, Maximilien Robespieere, People, Secret, Tyranny
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Thought For the Day: One Day You Will Ask Me Which Is More Important? My Life Or Yours? I Will Say Mine and You Will Walk Away Not Knowing That You Are My Life
“One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.” – Kahlil Gibran
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Important, Kahlil Gibran, Know, Life, Mine, One Day, Thought For the Day, Walk Away, You Are My Life
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