Living the Glory

Raven Craig Art Center-  The Heated Dance of Life
In the Father's Care
by Michael Doyle

Through Christ, I live the glory
Playing my part in the story
Lifting my hands up to the sky
I know I never have to question why

Comfortable in my humble praise
I walk in the faith of my days
Listening to what God has to say
And letting this light my way

This house of miracles is my house
I know that I am never alone
God works all things for the good
And I believe as I know that I should

Thankful for all that's done
In the name of the Father and the Son
Every day is an answered prayer
Spent in love and in the Father's care

(c) May 1, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Seasons Change at Peaceful Dreams - Crossing Bridge

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First Principles: All Men Have An Equal, Natural, and Unalienable Right To the Free Exercise of Religion According To the Dictates of Conscience

“That religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others.” – Patrick Henry

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Thought For the Day: I Live In the World Rather As A Spectator of Mankind Than As One of the Species

“I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species.” –Joseph Addison, essayist and poet (1 May 1672-1719)

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Transition Versus Change

Der LebensRaum 2020 (The Changes That Have Come)
Transition Versus Change
by Michael Doyle

The Lord knows that it's hard to grow
The paths taken are hard to know
In the midst of life's transitions
It takes a long time to make right decisions

That change our lives as we need
When we find our lives taking seed
The learning curves can be steep
When the processes run are deep

Each change is a matter of letting go
Wheat loses it chaff as the wind blows
To process its way to its fuller meaning
This the process lived by all human beings

The past clings longer than its useful to hold
It's the time to go forward an become bold
Conflicts are the dynamics of living resolution
It's a navigation of the good fight's contribution

Every loss drops its bottom clawed into every soul
But in life there is so much out of our grasping control
As we fight to reach for when we snuck in to survive
As we wrestled and grappled with God just to stay alive

Wrestling is a contact sport having its own set of rules
Each of these in theology is God taking us to school
Each strength fairly given and taken toward a win-win
A thousand hours of preparation before the contact begins

Life is full of this grappling with the heavy questions
Needed to be taken on full-flow without any hesitation
We learn as we go that the need to control is born in fear
Based on the sense of insecurity that creeps in closely near

As life is lived we learn it takes disturbance of what we knew
Since the whispers of the Garden of Eden fell and humanity grew
It's been a series of relationships left behind by our choice
That led to humanity finding its footing and its own voice

Along the way we learn to let go of anger and loosen control
Vengeance is the Lord's and never good for our souls
In our anger, we must give way to Satan and his foothold
Instead we must let go and Let God continue to slowly unfold

As the things that happen and must be brought into the light
Bringing truth forward to make the corners of life made right
Each step toward redemption struggles to find its own space
With the revealing of a need for healing in love's embrace

(c) April 30, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Seasons Change at Peaceful Dreams - Love Pagoda

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First Principles: Trust In the Lord With All Your Heart, and Do Not Lean On Your Own Understanding. In All Your Ways Acknowledge Him, and He Will Make Straight Your Paths

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make straight your paths.”  – Proverbs 3:5-6

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Thought For the Day: I Had A Terrible Vision: I Saw An Encyclopedia Walk Up To A Polymath and Open Him Up

“I had a terrible vision: I saw an encyclopedia walk up to a polymath and open him up.” – Karl Kraus, writer (28 Apr 1874-1936)

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Funny How Time Slips Away

Impact Mental Health - Spotlight On the Broken Arrows of Time
Funny How Time Slips Away
by Michael Doyle

I was thinking just the other day
Isn't it funny how time slips away?
Somewhere between country and rock
There's need for living by straight talk

Life has its beats and tribulations
Times of sadness and of jubilations
Indulging in moments of retrospection
Even the outlaws know introspection

Three chords played in simple composition
It's pattern of loss but also acquisition
Evocative and enduring across generations
These well worn paths known their veneration

From silky groove intonation to too-cool croon
It takes us by the heart under sun and moon
Canonical versions may live by their authority
But that won't do for those living incendiary

Burning it down to be reborn in imagination
It's the living wealth in every incantation
It's funny how life lived seems to slip away
What was new yesterday needs to change today

Funny and jilted and jazzed in a lovelorn serenade
The emotional impact throws its punch in the shade
Somewhere between well made plans and their end
As these fall apart in a heart that contends

It will live as it must be by our every voice
As we turn from cold and back again without choice
Life knows its turns and bends, nuances and meaning
And it's the same way for nearly every human being

Isn't it funny how it feels like time slips away
Weren't we in a hurry to be older, only just yesterday
Now we want time to slow down to rock another round
Surprised that in the end it's what we've found

Jaded narration runs headlong into the flickered flame
What seems eternal only a moment ago is no longer the same
Heartbroken earnestness is scathed with self-deprecation
While the rest of the world bobs and weaves in appreciation

Too often we are knocked off balance in life's conversation
Sometimes a little confused as we eavesdrop in vindication
Of all the dreams we held to tightly only just yesterday
Thinking, isn't it funny how our time and lives slip away

(c) April 29, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Bunyi 2022 - Gold Dust

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Thought For the Day: Taught From Their Infancy That Beauty Is Woman’s Sceptre, the Mind Shapes Itself To the Body, and Roaming Round Its Gilt Cage, Only Seeks To Adorn Its Prison

“Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.” – Mary Wollstonecraft, reformer and writer (27 Apr 1759-1797)

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First Principles: I Think All the World Would Gain By Setting Commerce At Perfect Liberty

“I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson (1785)

The socialistic, over regulation of the economy has the stifling effect on economic recovery and often leads to higher inflationary rates as is being experienced under the Biden Administration. It is better to set the economy to being regulated by the unseen hand of supply and demand for the most part and allowing the economy a much freer rein. Anyone who believes otherwise should review Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. Neither Marxism nor the Frankfurt School set of theories are good for a healthy, vibrant economy.

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For Harry Belafonte (RIP: 3/1/27 – 4/25/23)

Hashima Island  - The Long Journey Home
For Harry Belafonte (RIP: 3/1/27 - 4/25/23)
by Michael Doyle

Using song as a tool for transformation
His soundtrack helped to change the nation
Now Belafonte has died at the age of ninety-six
His life having affirmed the need of too much to fix

So many, too many, wrongs to truly set a price
For the songs birthed from a Caribbean island paradise
Swirled in with the colors of just affirmation
The calypso beat provided its own sense of confirmation

The tangle of the banana boats provided the joyful ride
Of a Mississippi Goddamn that was taken in its stride
Inclusive in bringing us through injustice and brutality
Ballads and work songs breathed revolutionary banality

Offering the world a twist lost, taken low in limbo
Wondering how low life can go when seen through a window
A musical life lived within its own senseless ransom
A song sung rings the liberty bell that compels freedom

Jumped in the line, it was a joyful mix from another time
That brought the struggles out between a popstar's rhymes
Filling the whole of the bucket in a black man's representation
Belafonte stayed the course from the front of this nation

There was never a hint of any sense of hesitation
That he would risk it all for a vision without question
To bring about a better world, representative of us all
And a melody's lingering in the winds of a life recalled

(c) April 28, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Asian Dreams Zen Garden and Orsisen Spa - Drops In A Bucket

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