“One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.” – Lewis Carroll
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Thought For the Day: One of the Secrets of Life Is That All That Is Really Worth the Doing Is What We Do For Others
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Doing, Lewis Carroll, Life, Others, Secret, Thought For the Day, Worth
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Conversation
Conversation
by Michael Doyle
If you understand what it is that I mean,
We're watching two shows on the same screen.
There are few safe discussions in this nation.
We have lost our part in decent conversation.
Stupid is as stupid does, and becoming plain.
That our ancestors would think us a bit insane.
A conversation requires listening to what's said,
Whatever the cause or whoever may be dead.
We prejudge to the point that it isn't allowed to be shown,
That there might be a thing or two that remains unknown.
I don't know what has happened to weighing evidence,
But I, for one, believe this still has the most relevance.
Instead of pointing fingers of twisted plastic blame,
It might be better to take a moment to casually reframe.
Life isn't supposed to be about blasting the ego.
But it is sometimes about thoughtfully letting go.
Things said can be stacked to find their way to the heart
If we only look at each other with love from the start.
Everyone thinks strength is found in being demanding.
I honestly feel it's more about finding understanding.
It's hard to hold a legitimate conversation, always talking.
If you feel that you must fight, maybe first try walking.
And while you're walking, move past the pain and fear,
You might be surprised if you're really willing to hear.
Would it be so funny if we really gave peace a chance?
Maybe there's something to this non-circular dance.
It's simply done by using two ears in proportion to one mouth.
If I'm correct, that halves the odds of things going south.
On the edge of sanity, life isn't about keeping score.
It's about increasing our love and life forevermore.
The weight of the world is measured by learning to forgive.
Less pain, more dancing in the rain, this is how to live.
It isn't in the me and mine that brings us to our.
It's in sharing our dreams that we will reach far.
The power of deep conversation rests on sympathy,
Listening more is the tool that builds our empathy.
I will seek to teach my daughters until my last breath.
And I will teach them to die well with my death.
There will be a smile on this old man's aged face
If I have taught them love and how to live in grace.
(c) January 13, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Ancestors, Blasting the Ego, Cause, Conversation, Dead, Decent Conversation, Family, Insane, Letting Go, Life, Listen, Love, Mean, mental-health, Nation, Our Part, Plain, Poetry and Poems, Pointing Fingers, Prejudgment, Reframe, Relevance, Safe Discussons, Said, Same Screen, Shown, Stupiid, Thoughtuflness, Twisted Plastic Blame, Two Shows, Understand, Unknown, Weighing Evidence, Writing
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First Principles: If Ever A Time Should Come, When Vain and Aspiring Men Shall Possess the Highest Seats In Government, Our Country Will Stand In Need of Its Experienced Patriots To Prevent Its Ruin
“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” – Samuel Adams
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Country, Experienced Patriots, First Prrincples, Government, Highest Seats, Need, Prevention, Ruin, Samuel Adams, Time, Vain and Aspiring Men
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Thought For the Day: Worship Is Not A Repetitious Exercise of Rituals and Formulas. These Create A Veil That Actually Prevents Us From Enjoying the Presence of the Lord
“Worship is not a repetitious exercise of rituals and formulas. These create a veil that actually prevents us from enjoying the presence of the Lord. Worship is the heart poured out in gratitude and awe, expressing our appreciation of who He is and what He has done for us by His grace through Jesus Christ.” – Dave Hunt
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Appreiciation, Awe, Dave Hunt, Grace, Gratitue, Heart, Jesus Christ, Presense, Prevention, Repetitious Exercise, Rituals an Formulas, The Lord, Thought For the Day, Veil, Worship, Worshp
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For the Love of Myth
For the Love of Myth
by Michael Doyle
Walking out past our prints in the Indiana snow,
My youngest confesses that it's hard to let it go.
Greek myths have an existential edge, so inevitable
Creative minds find themselves immensely incapable
Of letting go, the stories touch her young soul
As they come down to the interplay of control.
Her playful glare snipes at me when I say it's mythology.
She prefers to see it as a vibrant cosmology.
She finds herself conflicted with riveted attention
Struggling with fate and control's twisted tension.
As the gods play games with human vulnerability,
Her belief in free will clashes with that ability.
Too many frozen words are not a good sign.
Her brow wrinkles as I dismiss the divine.
I tell her the gods were always up to inequity,
The reply is that's how it was in antiquity.
It's fascinating to watch her mind openly engage
With thoughts that alternate between feeling rage
And the way these ancient tales eloquently unravel
Yet, they remain through the centuries - well-traveled.
Self-indulgent caprice makes for such a tangled mess.
That's my perception, I tell her as I readily confess.
The stories of heroes played for fools in adventure
Is as close as my heart and soul could ever indenture
To work passionately on tales that lacked any real truth,
I had discovered this early on while a wild-eyed youth.
Certain that my will would have pained the gods more,
She laughs, and I know that another day we have more to explore.
(c) January 12, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Ancient Tales, Antiquity, Attention, Caprice, Century, Conflicted, Control, Cosmology, Creative Mind, Daughter, Dismiss, Divine, Elegance, Existential Edge, Fate, Free Will, Frozen Words, Good Sign, Greek Myth, Human Vulnerabiltiy, Indiana, Inevitable, Inquity, Love, Mind, Mtyhtology, Myth, Oontrol, Perception, Poetry and Poems, Prints, Rage, Snow, Soul, Stories, Tangled Mess, Tension, The Gods, Touch, Unravel, Walk, Well-Traveled
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Thought For the Day: The Champions of Socialism Call Themselves Progressives, But They Recommend… Resistance To Every Kind of Improvement
“The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. Every man but one a subordinate clerk in a bureau. What an alluring utopia! What a noble cause to fight!” – Ludwig Von Mises
First Principles: We Cannot Be Happy, Without Being Free…We Cannot Be Free, Without Being Secure In Our Property
“Let these truths be indelibly impressed on our minds — that we cannot be happy, without being FREE — that we cannot be free, without being secure in our property— that we cannot be secure in our property, if, without our consent, others may, as by right, take it away — that taxes imposed on us by parliament, do thus take it away.” – John Dickinson
Let this sink in with respect to the proposals by the Democratic Socialists that they will wly nily take the private property of others to elevate those who are poorer. You don’t make our nation richer by dragging down the rich. Nor by taking away freedom from the rest of us.
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Consent, First Princiiples, Free, Freedom, Happy, Impression, John Dicknson, Min, Property, Secuure, Taxes, Truth
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Taken From the Beginning
Taken From the Beginning
by Michael Doyle
When you understand the story,
You know more about the glory.
Starting with the power of the Trinity,
We need to fully explore this mystery.
Still, as we go against sinning,
It's best to begin at the beginning.
From formlessness, God brought His creation.
Light from darkness - there is separation.
Day from night, water from land,
So that each kind is as we understand.
All of His creation, as it is understood
Is everything that is holy and good.
It's amazing, all of which we find.
Every creature and plant is separated by kind.
Until God, at last, created humanity
In His image is out of love, not vanity.
Everything with life's breath
Was given to live until their death.
Adam and Eve were to live in perfection
With God Himself, before disconnection.
It's this absence and lost connection
That points us to the need for our redemption.
There is an order seen in His good design.
It's God's glory and our understanding to refine.
In all creation, we see God's artistry.
It's there to experience; all of HIs creativity.
In all of this, we've yet to see as it reveals
That in created humanity, also granted free will.
In God's abundance, He brought marriage together.
The wedding of Adam and Eve made the world better.
Despite the struggles, it is for what we are given
And shapes the good morality by which we are driven.
From a meaningless void, God brought His creation.
It is this that we come to celebrate in our inspiration.
Sin is often what we can't have but feel that we must,
And in taking this autonomy, we broke God's trust.
The definition of good and evil is the moral authority.
It is represented by the expression of the forbidden tree.
Man and woman were formed in God's image and dignity.
Imago Dei then our duty frames the meaning of humanity.
Falling for the apple's temptation was a matter of being weak.
Our shame showed up before God elected to speak.
Accepting our fall away from what had been our integrity,
Still, God sought Adam and Eve despite His sovereignty.
It's our self-location that points to the vast road
That lays out the rest of the Bible as we are told.
Instantly, from shame, we sought to shift blame.
But there was ownership and responsibility in this game.
From God's beautiful creation arose the great mystery
That came with the fall from grace and into our misery.
And thus began the world we know and God's ministry.
The past, as they say, is a matter of history.
Made in the image of God, we know our identity.
It's a choice that will bring us through eternity.
Stepping into the fall is best faced with humility.
In the honest and the real, we are one with God's divinity.
(c) January 11, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Adam an Eve, Bible, Christianity, Creatioin, Creatoin, Faith, God, Jesus, Mystery, Poetry and Poems, Separatioin, Sin, The Beginning, The Glory, The Story, Trinity, Understand, Void
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Thought For the Day: Stay Strong! Your Test Will Become Your Test-Imony, Your Mess Will Become Your Mess-age
“Stay strong! Your test will become your test-imony, your mess will become your mess-age.” – Max Lucado
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Max Lucado, Mess, Mess-age, Stay Strong, Test, Test-imony, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: God Created Mankind In His Own Image, In the Image of God He Created Them; Male and Female He Created Them
“God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:27 NIV
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Creation, Female, First Principles, Genesis 1:27 NIV, God, His Own Image, Image of God, Imago Deo, Male, Manknd
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