“It is by a thorough knowledge of the whole subject that [people] are enabled to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper direction to the future.” – James Monroe
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First Principles: It Is By A Thorough Knowledge of the Whole Subject That People Are Enabled To Judge Correctly of the Past and To Give Proper Direction To the Future
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Correctly, First Principles, Future, James Monroe, Judge, Knowledge, Past, People, Proper Direction, Whole Subject
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Thought For the Day: There Is Nothing Noble In Being Superior To Your Fellow Men. True Nobility Lies In Being Superior To Your Former Self
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.” – Ernest Hemingway
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Ernest Hemingway, Fellow Men, Former Self, Noble, Superior, Thought For the Day, True Nobility
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The Anatomy of Process
The Anatomy of Process
by Michael Doyle
Listen carefully, God has something to say
Watch around you after you pray.
His hand and words apply to all life.
His is the path that pacifies our strife.
Dumpster fires are all around.
At moments, it makes your heart pound
In our existence for God, we live in each season.
Sometimes, it feels beyond all reason.
Angst and pressure come our way,
But the providence of God eases these as we pray.
Shifting our uneasiness from distraction,
We find some ease in our chosen reactions.
Sometimes, one hit after another comes our way.
It's then, it's best, to fall on our knees and pray.
The wings of God's angels carry us away.
The frustration finds its cure in what we pray.
Choosing anger over hurt results in much futility.
It's better to step back and have some humility.
Sometimes, we feel betrayed by those whom we love.
This is when we most need to rely on Heaven above.
It is in the worst times of all
That we need to take a moment to recall
That God will bring the changes to sustain
Whatever troubles come to bring one's pain.
All that we have to do is call from our cave.
We know, assuredly, that God will save.
The season around us might feel out of control.
Trust in Heaven for the good of your soul.
From God's sovereignty comes our salvation,
In faith and through hope, God gives us our destination.
Without God, we will not and cannot get through,
But through sanctification, we will get through.
The things we cannot handle can still be done
By placing these things back on the Father and Son.
What we have then is only a given moment.
It's through God that we survive every torment.
God will bring the winds to our steady sail.
We know that through Him we will prevail.
Whatever storms may come our way,
Our first and best solution comes as we pray.
(c) July 20, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Anatomy, Angst and Pressure, Bible, Christianity, Disttraction, Dumpster Fires, Faith, God, Jesus, Life, Path, Poetry and Poems, Pray, Process, Providnce, Reaction, Reason, Say, Seasons of Life
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Thought For the Day: Happy Moments, Praise God. Difficult Moments, Seek God. Quiet Moments, Worship God: Painful Moments; Trust God. Every Moment, Thank God
“Happy moments, PRAISE GOD Difficult moments, SEEK GOD Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD Painful moments, TRUST GOD Every moment, THANK GOD” – Rick Warren
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Difficult Moments, Every Moment, God, Happy Moments, Painful, Praise, Quiet Moments, Rick Warren, Seek God, Thank God, Thought For the Day, Trust, Worship
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First Principles: He Said To Me, “My Grace Is Sufficient For You, For My Power Is Made Perfect In Weakness
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9
Posted in First Principles
Tagged 2 Corinthians 12: 9, Boast, First Principles, Glad, Grace, Perfect, Power, Sufficient, Weakness, Weaknesses Christ's Power
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West Coyote Hills
West Coyote Hills
by Michael Doyle
I spent some time in Fullerton, hanging around.
It's there that West Coyote Hills can be found.
We wondered bits and pieces during the day,
And playing guitar at the Brea dam along the way.
The advantage of staying simple enough not to complain
Is that people will teach you how to avoid life's pain.
One night, the boys went to a haunted lodge to play.
No one knew we'd get tripped up along the way.
There's a lot of wisdom that is shared among the young,
If you listen really closely to the secret of the tongue.
There were secret passwords allowing each of our entry.
It's spoken somewhere between freedom and true liberty.
It was somewhere in the stumbling passage of rebirth
That I fell into the cracked heart of Mother Earth.
The derricks pumped oil weeping from shale stone,
It was from this blood that mankind needed to atone.
There was a lot of life for a strip of barren land.
On it, the oil men learned who was really in command.
Oil gushers had stained the characters of sacrifice,
To the point that the best explanation would not suffice.
In healing the tainted familial bonds lost to ambition,
This is a natural consequence of greed's naked aggression.
Games of power and domination assert our flawed supremacy,
But ultimately, all such assertions fail in their futility.
Between the contests of religion and crass materialism
Is the need of mankind to find the path of true spiritualism.
Shards of death hide behind the virgin's sacred veil,
Ready to drag the bravest of us down to the depths of Hell.
(c) July 19, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Ambition, Assertion, Atone, Barren Land, Bits and Pieces, Bllod, Brea, Command, Consequence, Contest, Cracked Heart, Depths of Hell, Derrick, Entry, Explanation, Familial Bonds, Freedom, Fullterson, Futility, Greed, Guitar, Gusher, Haunted Lodge, Life, Mankind, Materialism, Mother Earth, Naked Aggression, Oil Men, Pain, Password, Poetry and Poems, Power and Domination, Rebirth, Relgion, Sacred Veil, Sacrifice, Secret Tongue, Shale Stone, Shards of Death, Stay Simple, Stumbling Passage, Supremacy, True Liberty, True Spiritualism, Weep, West Coyote Hills, Wsidom, Young
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Thought For the Day: The Deep Sea Is the Largest Museum On Earth, It Contains More History Than All the Museums On Land Combined, and Yet We’re Only No Penetrating It
“The deep sea is the largest museum on earth, it contains more history than all the museums on land combined, and yet we’re only now penetrating it.” – Robert Ballard
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Deep Sea, Earth, History, Museum, Robert Ballard, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: It Would Be Better For Them To Have A Large Millstone Hung Around Their Neck and To Be Drowned In the Depths of the Sea Than To Cause One of These Little Ones To Stumble
“It would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble” – Matthew 18:6
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Better, Drown, First Principls, Large Millstone, Little Ones, Neck, Sea, Stumble
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Over the Ending of Years
Over the Ending of Years
by Michael Doyle
Sometimes as we travel over the lighter years
We find ourselves confronted by our dark fears.
Things come along that change our souls
And agonize at how much we are out of control.
It'd be something if we could defeat our deaths
For certain, we will fight it to our last breath.
It's worse if we see its approach as it's coming,
It's a sobering thought and often a bit too numbing.
We think such thoughts, and it becomes a philosophy
About the good and bad of whom we should strive to be.
We can only hope that we will find a way to live until,
We create a legacy that will live forever if it will.
It burns inside us as it gains the release needed,
As if the warning that we wish we had heeded.
Looking for something to might help us to defend
Against the grim reaper, who definitely isn't our friend.
Death, you see, is only a part of life that comes next.
It's the tricky part that scares us but actively connects.
This life is a metamorphosis as we wait for what we'll see.
The best we can do is to accept it with patient dignity.
When the elephants fight, it is felt among the leaves of grass,
But we know that whatever comes, this too shall pass.
We all know it is not the length but depth of life that matters.
It is only the foolhardy who grasp at the fallen tatters.
As if they could stop what is coming in the future of us all.
Perhaps, we all should take a moment to quietly recall.
It is from Heaven and for Heaven that we have served our purpose,
If we have lived out well in our Lord's holy service.
(c) July 18, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Agonize, Approach, Dark Fears, Death, Depth, Elephant, Ending, Future, Heaven, Holy Service, Last Breath, Length, Matter, Numbing, Pass, Poetry and Poems, Purpose, Recall, Soul, Tatter, Travel, Years
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First Principles: The Circulation of Confidence Is Better Than the Circulation of Money
“The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.” – James Madison
(See, Judicial Powers of the National Government, [20 June] 1788)
ALOHA PROMISES FOREVER 