“Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.” – Arthur Koestler, author (5 Sep 1905-1983)
Flickr Photos
Thought For the Day: Courage Is Never To Let Your Actions Be Influenced By Your Fears
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Actions, Arthur Koestler, Courage, Fear, Influence, Never, Thought For the Day
1 Comment
First Principles: Neither the Wisest Constitution Nor the Wisest Laws Will Secure the Liberty and Happiness of A People Whose Manners Are Universally Corrupt
“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” – Samuel Adams (1749)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged First Principles, Happiness, Laws, Liberty, manners, Neither, Samuel Adams, Secure, Universally Corrupt, Wisest Constitution
1 Comment
The Gift of Darkness
The Gift of Darkness
by Michael Doyle
Life
Gave me the gift of darkness
Strife
In a world filled with harshness
It was a gift
Though it took years to understand
Thoughts shift
As you travel the years and the land
Darkness
Is as important as light
It takes harshness
To develop true sight
The shadows
These teach us to truly see the light
What experience knows
Is sometimes needed to get things right
It took knowing my own darkness
To truly learn wrong from right
It took staring into the starkness
To begin to share a little light
Darkness
Is as important as light
It takes harshness
To develop true sight
Like a candle burning
I began to defy and refine
Through life's learning
There was madness to define
In this world of doubt
I seek to trap ignorance inside
Learning what life is all about
There was no place left to hide
Darkness
Is as important as light
It takes harshness
To develop true sight
So many justify anger
But hate cannot drive out hate
This world is no stranger
To this lesson learned too late
I make my own promise
In this darkness to be a light
There's no longer time to compromise
We need to get this right
Darkness
Is as important as light
It takes harshness
To develop true sight
(c) September 5, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Photographs & Memories
Tagged Anger, Burn, Candle, Compromise, Define, Defy, Doubt, Experience, Gift of Darkness, Harshness, Hate, Hide, Ignorance, Inside, Justify, Know, Land, Learn, Lesson, Life, Light, Madness, Need, No Place, Poetry and Poems, Promise, Refine, Right, See, Shadow, Share, Shift, Stare, Starkness, Stranger, Strife, Teach, Time, Too Late, Travel, True Sight, Understand, World, Wrong, Years
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day: Health Is the Greatest Gift, Contentment the Greatest Wealth, Faithfulness the Best Relationship
“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.” – Buddha
First Principles: Without Freedom of Thought There Can Be No Such Thing As Wisdom; and No Such Thing As Public Liberty, Without Freedom of Speech
“Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” – Benjamin Franklin (1722)
To Delight In Becoming Complete
To Delight In Becoming Complete
by Michael Doyle
We thank you for the glory you let us live
All of the sins that you found to forgive
By your Spirit, I think on things I’ve said
I thank you for where your path has led
One by one, I feel my wrongs undone
This generation owes much to the Son
There is so much to be said in devotion
For the hearts felt as deep as an ocean
Clothed in God’s garments, we prepare
To find righteous ways to avoid the snare
Of Satan’s temptations that come our way
I think on this as I bend my knees to pray
Christ Jesus died on the cross to restore
All the righteousness that God outpours
The cool of the day is spent in fellowship
As we enter into our holy relationship
Peace approaches and knocks on our door
God’s desire is to know us beyond worship
We find words of joy that are replete
Come across the Word to make us complete
From the coastline, we see God’s saving light
Shining there throughout the dark of night
It’s a delightful thing to find this everyday
As God shares His love and glory in every way
It takes commitment to do this right
Keeping our relationship with God our fight
Repentant and always guarding against sin
We run this race daily, again and again
(c) September 4, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Clothed, Complete, Delight, Devotion, Forgive, Generation, Glory, God's Garments, Knees, Led, Live, Ocean, One By One, Outpour, Path, Poetry and Poems, Pray, Retore, Righteous Ways, Said, Sins, Snare, Spirit, Temptation, The Son, Wrongs
Leave a comment
First Principles: We Have Staked the Future of All Our Political Constitutions Upon the Capacity of Each of Ourselves To Govern Ourselves According To the Moral Principles of the Ten Commandments
“We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.” – James Madison
Thought For the Day: There Are Conditions of Blindness So Voluntary That They Become Complicity
“There are conditions of blindness so voluntary that they become complicity.” – Paul Bourget
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Blindness, Complicity, Condition, Paul Bourget, Thought For the Day, Voluntary
Leave a comment
Unburdened (A Quest For Inner Peace)
Unburdened (A Quest For Inner Peace)
by Michael Doyle
Unburdened by what is in the past
So many things that couldn't last
The way of life is to carry on
Beyond what we survive and is gone
In all the parts that are rearranged
Not everything in life can be changed
But still, it is that it must be faced
And all that comes must be fully embraced
The world is encircled with imagination
Each part approached with fascination
As we come to find what is life
All of it entirely in peace and in strife
Inner peace is the goal we seek
Down in our valleys and summited peaks
Our inner smile speaks to our arrival
Reaching this goal in our survival
So much of life is a matter of chances
All the many things of circumstances
At the deepest level, we come to realize
Who we really are behind our peering eyes
Always looking more outward than inward
Sometimes looking back instead of forward
Better than a thousand words is one of peace
The message heard that brings its release
By candle and mirror, the world is brought light
Some things are more precious in my partial sight
I see in you a bit of my own sense of reflection
And in this, there it is that I find our connection
Peace is not a dream but something of compromise
Built slowly, sometimes brutally, before our eyes
A million tiny victories danced on a needle's head
Each of them brought by things done, and those said
The world, our world, becomes from little bits of good
Those that we share enough until mutually understood
It's a storm of this world overwhelmed by cool breezes
When you and I find the path of peace that pleases
(c) September 3, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Arrival, Back, Bits of Good, Brutal, Candle, Chances, Changed, Circumstances, Compromise, Connection, Cool Breeze, Deepest Level, Dream, Embraced, Faced, Fascination, Forward, Goal, Gone, Imagination, Inner Peace, Inner Smile, Inward, Last, Life, Light, Matter, Message, Mirror, Outward, Overwhelm, Parts, Past, Path, Peace, Peak, Peering Eyes, Pleases, Poetry and Poems, Quest, Realize, Rearanged, Reflection, Release, Seek, Slow, Storm, Strife, Survival, Survive, Thousand Words, Unburdened, Understood, Valley, Way of Life, World, You and I
Leave a comment
First Principles: No People Can Be Bound To Acknowledge And Adore the Invisible Hand, Which Conducts the Affairs of Men More Than the People of the United States
“No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.” – George Washington (1789)
