I know that my place is reserved By grace, Heaven is now deserved For a sinner who once did wrong I have changed, and now I belong
While it is that all around This wicked world is shaking I cling to the grace I've found There's no mistaking
My tears of joy will not wait As I open up the floodgate Overcome in my sweet repentance Fear has become replaced with acceptance
That the grace of God has been given This comes with knowing that I'm forgiven And I meditate on what I've received As I stand acquitted, no longer deceived
I've found my strength comes From the love of my sweet Lord Shielded by the holy kingdom With the Word yielded as my sword
My tears of joy will not wait As I open up the floodgate Overcome by my sweet repentance Fear is now replaced by acceptance
In taking on this adversary My life's steps have been contrary Until this path, I willingly embraced And in my mirror, I have faced
The truth of taking on the enemy With the Lord present as my friend Shielding my guilt so tenderly The Lord's grace waited patiently
My tears of joy can no longer wait As I open up the floodgate My guilt is replaced by repentance Forgiveness came with my acceptance
(c) February 11, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”- Daniel 12:3 (NIV)
Every traveler is a hero in their own story Imperialists and kleptomaniacs after a slice of glory Culturally misappropriating cultures for the taking Collecting treasures boxed away to the point of breaking
Contesting the pragmatic bounds of lopsided sentiments As though stealing the culture of others is relevant This raises the obvious questions of the underserved Never mind whether or not the destruction is deserved
Are the purposes of a unidirectional sense of path One that adds up to the self-correction of a fuzzy math That progress is made undistracted by the curiosity That turns a blind eye to every theft and atrocity
It seems that all roads lead to a sense of semi-familiarity Cousins of Western tradition woven into tattered consistency Us versus them still tatters the edges of the storyline That pretends humanity's throne is owned by one bloodline
The truly discerning eye, if it dares to openly enter An accurately astute observation finds there is no center Instead, the eye finds a widespread story splendor and decline As if there never truly was any sense of grand design
To see the world as it is is to leave assumptions of power And know that wealth and animosity rarely define an hour Past the force of opinion impressed on others through blood And that the real truth rests in the murk and mire of mud
That mixes all paths, coming as it is from all directions The willing mind finds itself open to historic corrections Bread baskets built the empires by which we know the past But these are the empires that expanded but could not last
It seems that all roads lead to a sense of semi-familiarity Cousins of Western tradition woven into tattered consistency Us versus them still tatters at the edges of the storyline That pretends humanity's throne is owned by one bloodline
Saint Augustine was a Berber and yet was a Roman citizen The differences between the similarities make us all cousins Examination of the good life evidences that truly all life Seeks the peace of more things similar than a contest for strife
Archeology has proven only so certain in defining authority It's more slapdash, haphazard in its complicated intersection There is no absolute truth knowable, only its interpretation This is the discovered beauty of all that is our known history
It seems that all roads lead to a sense of semi-familiarity Cousins of Western tradition woven into tattered consistency Us versus them still tatters at the edges of the storyline That pretends humanity's throne is owned by one, single bloodline
(c) February 10, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
Aloha Promises Forever wishes all its readers the greatest contentment and success in this new year of the wood dragon! May all of your aspirations be met with the fullest success!!
The time spent quietly comes to its end It's been another year of pleasant enough living Having found my best habits and friends And it has been another year of peacefully giving
But in truth it has been yet another year gone past As yet, the new one worries some as it begins We prepare to sail this journey before the mast And my eyes mist up as I steadily study the winds
We've arrived at the Year of the Wood Dragon It arrives with the mists of a morning's gentle rain It is a spring's mist that comforts my imagination I look forward with peace on the future it contains
It brings rise to a weary world's natural confidence It arrives with creative determination spent in diffidence Almost infinite in its self-worth, it comes with diplomacy Like life's tree reaches for the sky and builds its legacy
This is the fifth of the 12-year-long cycle of cosmology With its five elements serving as a balanced philosophy The green dragon brings forth both expansion and power While we chase our dreams past the turn of the hour
The dragon is an emblem of benevolent divinity It is the nature deity that dominates Chinese mythology The dragon is the most desired of the Chinese bestiary Through its rebirth, it comes as a self-fulfilling prophecy
Dragons rise and phoenixes take to their flight Bringing rain to the earth's center through the night It is the fifth cardinal direction bringing a perfect harmony Let us rest between the yin and the yang for all of eternity
(c) February 9, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws — the first growing out of the last. … A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.” – Alexander Hamilton (1794)
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
