“Don’t educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy, so they know the value of things, not the price.” – Victor Hugo, poet, novelist, and dramatist (26 Feb 1802-1885)
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Thought For the Day: Don’t Educate Your Children To Be Rich. Educate Them To Be Happy So They Know the Value of Things, Not the Price
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Childre, Educate, Happy, Price, Rich, Thought For the Day, Value, Victor Hugo
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We Manage To Stand
We Manage To Stand
by Michael Doyle
Sunset captures fear's reflection
As the kitten meanders in the right direction
Unhungry and not seeking some timid mouse
But rather the warmth of the familiar house
Once the hunter, now the prey
The game of life has danger in its play
With a bounding leap, the chase is on
The kitten hides in shadows until the hounds are gone
With greater danger and nowhere to stay put
It was the perfect day to be trampled underfoot
But instead, there was a flood that kept coming
Until there was no point in trying the outrunning
Strange semi-friendships were formed on this day
This is the truth found along survival's way
Alone, there is a misery's need for company
Deeper water brings life's uncomfortable sympathy
Layer by layer until there's nowhere left to go
Life is forced forward by the water's flow
Until we've found nothing more to do
But to do our best at being me and you
Finding no oar, we simply drift
Hoping that our fortune might shift
In the interim, we sail along the canopy
Finding ourselves stuck like monkeys in the trees
In uncertain times, life rushes by
We're only sure that we are unsure, but we still have to try
Scary things come along to fill us with dread
The best that we have is to do our best to duck our heads
Swimming to safety as best that we can manage
Out here in a world that is often savage
Hitching a ride wherever it is that we can
Alone but not alone in this world, we manage to stand
(c) February 25, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Chase, Company, Danger, Drift, Familiar House, Fear, Flood, Fortune, Game of Life, Hunter, Kitten, Manage, Meander, Misery, Mouse, Play, Poetry and Poems, Prey, Reflection, Right Direction, Stand, Sunset, Survival, Sympathy, Trampled Underfoot, Unhungry, Wamth, Water's Flow
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First Principles: The Greatest Gift A Parent Can Give A Child Is Unconditional Love
“The greatest gift a parent can give a child is unconditional love. As a child wanders and strays, finding his bearings, he needs a sense of absolute love from a parent. There’s nothing wrong with tough love, as long as the love is unconditional.” – George W. Bush
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Absolute Love, Bearings, Child, First Principles, George W. Bush, Greatest Gift, Parent, Tough Love, Unconditional Love
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Thought For the Day: Love the Animals, Love the Plants, Love Everything. If you Love Everything, You Will Perceive the Divine Mystery In Things
“Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged A World of Difference, Animal, Brothers Karamazov, Divine, Embrace, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Love, Perceive, Plant, Spiritual, Thought For the Day
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Silently Feeling
Silently Feeling
by Michael Doyle
In this world that shifts and shatters
Miracles happen most when they don't matter
It feels a bit like cosmic confusion
But it's really just a humbling illusion
All these thoughts of constant intrusion
Come in layers of complex conclusions
Even these things we thought we hate
Seem so urgently missed and cannot wait
The miracles can be so beautiful
If we redefine what is wonderful
Each of us wants what we want and feel we need
It's what sustains us when we bleed
Silently fading into the nightscape
It's up to each of us to make our escape
Finding out how to make our own ways
We are the makers of our own days
It's a good sign to get lost along our way
The ocean shore brings us back to play
If we don't live our moments we're already dead
A kiss takes the place of what might have been said
The miracles can be so beautiful
If we redefine what is wonderful
Each of us wants what we want and feel we need
It's what sustains us when we bleed
It's a loss of always when we lose control
Separating our bodies from our souls
Pseudo-messiahs fake their better places
It's the trick of the tale that love embraces
Knowing that over is never really over
Like the luck of a four leaf clover
We push on looking for the miracles that matter
Breaking hard against the edge until it shatters
The miracles can be so beautiful
If we redefine what is wonderful
Each of us wants what we want and feel we need
It's what sustains us when we bleed
(c) February 24, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Always, Beautiful, Better Places, Bleed, Body, Breaking Hard, Complex Conclusions, Constant Intrusion, Cosmic Confusion, Dead, Edge, Embrace, Escape, Fake, Feel, Four Leaf Clover, Good Sign, Hate, Humbling Illusion, Kiss, Layer, Lose Control, Loss, Lost, Love, Makers, Matter, Miracles, Missed, Moments, Need, Nightscape, Ocean Shore, Our Own Days, Our Own Way, Over, Play, Poetry and Poems, Pseudo-Messiah, Push On, Redefine, Said, Separate, Shatter, Shift, Silently Fading, Silently Feeling, Soul, Sustain, Takes the Place, Thoughts, Trick of the Tale, Wait, Want, Way, Wonderful, World
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Thought For the Day: Whatever We Plant In Our Subconscious Mind and Nourish With Repetition and Emotion Will One Day Become A Reality
“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.” – Earl Nightingale
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Earl Nightingale, Emotion, Mind, Nourish, One Day, Plant, Reality, Repetition, Subconscious, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: The Less Government Interferes With Private Pursuits, the Better For General Prosperity
“The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.” – Martin Van Buren
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Better, First Principles, General Prosperity, Government, Interfere, Less, Martin Van Buren, Private Pursuits
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An Illustration of Faithfulness
An Illustration of Faithfulness
by Michael Romani
In this space of human reality
We live an eternity of our morality
While We approach this with humility
It can easily seem that life is brutality
Grace plus anything is grace deficient
No plus or minus can be sufficient
We cannot do anything that God hasn't done
It's only through the cross that our salvation is won
Consider Abraham in the Bible's illustration
He and David owe faithfulness for God's nation
Circumcision and law are signs of belief
But are not the justification that brings our relief
Law reveals, but it doesn't remove the stain
That's why the Book of Romans quietly explains
Forgiveness is extended to heal the eternal rift
And it is give to us sinners as a heavenly gift
Our debt is paid and our place set right
Though the outward signs might seem slight
Still, our walk is blessed by His grace
It's the truth that we believe and embrace
Certainly, it's God's and not our own grace
That provides salvation that finds us in Heaven's place
Jew or Gentile it truly matters not
It is through God, not man, lest that ever be forgot
We are justified by faith, grace, and God's power
Securing humanity as God's family in our eternal hour
This is nothing to do or that needs to be done
But to place our faith in the saving grace of God's son
In knowing this, we live and die without sorrow
Trusting the Lord for our place in His tomorrow
We have looked into God's loving face
And live each day through His godly trace
(c) February 23, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Abraham, Cross, David, Faithfulness, Gift, Grace, Humility, Illustration, Justification, Morality, Poetry and Poems, Rift, Salvation, The Law
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Thought For the Day: Faith Is To Believe What You Do Not See; the Reward of This Faith Is To See What You Believe
“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” – Saint Augustine
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Believe, Do Not See, Faith, Reward, Saint Augustine, See, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: It Was Not Through the Law That Abraham and His Offspring Received the Promise That He Would Be Heir of the World, But Through the Righteousness That Comes By Faith
It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” – Book of Romans 4: 13 (NIV)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Abraham, Book of Romans 4:13, Faith, First Principles, Heir, Offspring, Righteousness, The Law, The Promise, The World
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