“Set your minds on things above not on earthly things.” – Colossians 3:2
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First Principles: Set Your Minds On Things Above Not On Earthly Things
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Above, Colossians 3:2, Earthly, First Principles, Minds, Set, Things
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Thought For the Day: Everyone Discusses My Art and Pretends To Understand, As If It Were Necessary To Understand, When It Is Simply Necessary To Love
“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.” – Claude Monet, painter (14 Nov 1840-1926)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Art, Claude Monet, Discuss, Everyone, Love, Necessary, Pretend, Thought For the Day, Understand
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A Father’s Love
A Father's Love
by Michael Doyle
A young girl hurts
With the soul of a woman
Why doesn't anyone understand
A father listens, alert -
Doing the best that he can
Silently, he offers his hand
She dries her eyes
While he simply listens
To the questions on her mind
He can't protect her from the lies
Or the fool's gold that glistens
But he promises to understand
It's hard coming up in the world today
So many challenges to withstand
He holds her as closely as he can
Sometimes there's so little to say
Instead, he simply gives her his hand
And promises, a father's love is forever
Deep in her heart, he sees her pain
Those once laughing eyes are a thing of beauty
If he could, he'd protect her forever
Instead, he does his best to try to explain
Because he knows it's his sworn duty
It's one bond that will never sever
The world can be cruel with its harm
Things are said that are undeserved
But her father's love is her sanctuary
Though he knows every folly and every charm
A father's faithfulness is never swerved
And he'll hold her as long as she feels necessary
Teaching her the ways to survive this world
And how to defend against those that she must
While giving her an example of who to trust
She was once his little girl who lay curled
Listening to his stories with love as he fussed
And now he's her one voice she knows she can trust
(c) February 19, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged A Father's Love, Beauty, Best, Bond, Challenges, Charm, Coming Up, Cruel, Curled, Deep, Defend, Explain, Eyes, Faithfulness, Folly, Forever, Fussed, Hard, Harm, Heart, His Hand, His Stories, Hold, Know, Laughing Eyes, Lies, Listen, Listening, Love, Mind, Must, Necessary, Once, Once His Little Girl, One Voice, Pain, Poetry and Poems, Promise, Protect, Questions, Said, Sanctuary, Say, Sever, She, Silent, Simple, Soul, Survive, Swerved, Sworn Duty, Teach, Trust, Understand, Undeserved, Withstand, Woman, World, Young Girl
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First Principles: It Is the Manners and Spirit of A People Which Preserve A Republic In Vigor
“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson (1781)
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Tagged Canker, Constitution, Degeneracy, Eats, First Principles, Heart, Law, manners, People, Preserve, Republic, Spirit, Thomas Jefferson
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Thought For the Day: The Difference Between Successful People and Really Successful People Is That Really Successful People Say ‘No’ To Almost Everything
“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” – Warren Buffet,
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Tagged Almost Everything, Difference, People, Successful, Thought For the the Day, Warren Buffet
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Sins of My Father Remembered
Sins of My Father Remembered
by Michael Doyle
Shadowed in doubt
Trapped within roots
On a planet ringed by orbitals
Seeking, search for any way out
Looking for any solution that contributes
Toward escaping the controls
In the Hotel Nevermore
Is a bottle of tears
For all the lost ways
Watch a drop of whiskey as it pours
A shot glass full of empty years
Of moments, into hours, of days
Honor is a binary code
Promises made and rendered
Cashed in on when chips are down
Speaking softly of debts owed
Cashed in promises like debts tendered
For a touch of my feet on the ground
Stepping into my father's shoes
I've often found they don't fit
Sometimes that is good; sometimes bad
In a life lived like the clickbait of a million views
And society's sarcasm passes as wit
Mostly, I've been too busy living to be sad
There are screams into the night
That I've kept suppressed inside
The horrors of comfortable nightmares
Abiding inside the thoughts not quite right
Seldom shared and with no one in whom to confide
My dreams rise to escape these snares
Every time that I have been gorgonized
Turns the very core of my soul to stone
With only my purest love to cling to
The ambitions of emptiness makes me hypnotized
With the knowledge that I must atone
Quietly carrying the sins of my father will no longer do
(c) February 18, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Ambitions, Atone, Bad, Binary Code, Bottle, Carry, Cashed In, Clickbait, Confide, Core, Days, Debts, Doubt, Dreams, Drop, Emptiness, Empty Years, Escape, Father, Feet, Fit, Good, Gorgonized, Ground, Honor, Horror, Hotel, Hours, Hypnotized, Knowledge, Living, Lost Ways, Moments, My Father's Shoes, Nevermore, Night, Nightmares, Planet, Poetry and Poems, Pours, Promises Made, Purest Love, Remember, Roots, Sarcasm, Screams, Search, Seldom Shared, Shadow, Shot Glass, Sins, Sins of My Father, Snares, Society, Solution, Soul, Stone, Suppressed, Tears, Thoughts, Trapped, Views, Whiskey, Wit
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Thought For the Day: I Don’t Care If Monday’s Blue, Tuesday’s Gray and Wednesday Too. Thursday I Don’t Care About You, It’s Friday I’m In Love
“I don’t care if Monday’s blue, Tuesdays gray and Wednesday too. Thursday I don’t care about you, it’s Friday I’m in love.” – The Cure
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Tagged Blue, Care, Friday, Gray, Monday, The Cure, Thought For the Day, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday, You
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First Principles: The Eternal Difference Between Right and Wrong Does Not Fluctuate, It Is Immutable
“The eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate, it is immutable.” – Patrick Henry
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Tagged Between, Difference, Eternal, First Principles, Fluctuate, Immutable, Patrick Henry, Right, Wrong
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Investing In Old Age
Investing In Old Age
by Michael Doyle
It has become as sort of a joke
But one that makes me slightly choke
The youngest of chronological age
Says as if with the wisdom of a sage
That her dad, me, is growing a bit old
She laughs as her witticism is told
But I am not sure how to ease this
I just smile and tell her of my happiness
That it was good that I knew of this test
And wisely chose long ago to start to invest
Not in the money that cannot buy happiness
But in those things that make for this bliss
The funny thing about life from length to length
Is that the things of joy bring their strength
That this then is the purpose of my final days
To enjoy the blossoming of her and her sister's ways
(c) February 17, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
First Principles: Guard With Jealous Attention the Public Liberty
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” – Patrick Henry (1788)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Approach, First Principles, Force, Guard, Jealous Attention, Jewel, Patrick Henry, Preserve, Public Liberty, Ruin, Suspect
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