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Almost Finished

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Almost Finished –

I started mowing the grass today around 10:00AM. According to the weather report, a front was pushing through our area near 1:00PM and it takes about 3 hours to mow and weed our yard. It was hot and humid when I began, the skies were blue with puffy clouds. It was warm enough to sweat even though I was on a riding mower. I stopped to drink some water when I finished the back and noticed a patch of dark clouds coming my way. I continued mowing and all of a sudden the wind picked up, the temperature dropped and the skies grew dark. I increased my speed and hoped to get finished in time. Fortunately, I did complete the mowing but the bottom fell out of the sky and I couldn’t squeeze the weeding in because of the heavy rain.

As the rain pounded on the tin roof of our porch I reflected on life and all that is done and left undone. We fill our lives with appointments, events, occasions. We think we have time to do everything which needs to be done. The sun shines on us, the blue skies and the beauty of being alive gives us the illusion that time is on our side. Then a storm of disappointment, disillusion, danger, and death reminds us that time is limited and we can’t take even a moment for granted.

#BenjaminFranklin said; “Be careful with every moment. For these are what life is made.”

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

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Tags: #according, #AlmostFinished, #appointments, #beautyofbeingalive, #Becareful, #benjaminfranklin, #blessings, #blueskies, #complete, #continued, #danger, #death, #disappointment, #disillusion, #done, #everymoment, #fillourlives, #finish, #finished, #Fortunately, #granted, #hoped, #illusion, #increased, #leftundone, #life, #lifeismade, #needstobedone, #noticed, #occasions, #pounded, #reflected, #reminds, #skiesgrewdark, #squeeze, #started, #stopped, #sunshines, #thewannabesaint.com, #think, #time, #timeislimited, #timeisonourside, #todoeverything, #way, #wehavetime, @BrianLoging, Events, moment

Second Thoughts

Apr 19

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Second Thoughts –

Earlier this afternoon there was a knock on our front door. Unfortunately, I was indisposed and couldn’t answer it and be decent at the same time. When I finally got to the door the person was gone and all that was left was a book on the evilness of Protestantism. I picked up the book, flipped through it as I walked into the house. I put it down in the foyer and continued on with my day.

However, as I was busy with other things a thought crept into my mind; “What if someone had brushed a coat of poison on the outside cover of the book? What if there had been dust inside and as I flipped through it floated into the air and on me?” I asked my wife; “How have we gotten to a place in the world where a book left on a front porch can cause us to have thoughts of terrorism and criminal intent?”

We live in a time where nothing seems innocent. We are suspicious, judgemental, accusatory, on high alert, expecting and preparing for the worst. How do we get back to a more innocent time? Was there ever such a thing?

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life, Mental Health

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Tags: #accusatory, #air, #answer, #blessings, #brushed, #busy, #cause, #coat, #continued, #cover, #crept, #criminalintent, #decent, #dust, #earlier, #evilness, #expecting, #flipped, #floated, #foyer, #highalert, #indisposed, #innocent, #innocenttime, #inside, #judgemental, #knock, #live, #outside, #poison, #Preparing, #Protestantism, #SecondThoughts, #suspicious, #terrorism, #thewannabesaint.com, #unfortunately, #walked, #worst, @BrianLoging, Book, Mind, Thought

Mush

Apr 11

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for brain mush

Mush –

My brain has officially turned to mush! After two full days of training in Nashville, my head organ can take no more! It is full of pieces of information, stories, facts, figures, graphs, bars, charts and more. I know in a few days when everything I received processes everything it will be worth the mental fatigue but right now it’s like my brain is in a blender set on high. My eyes are heavy from lack of sleep, my back hurts from sitting for two straight days in a non-reclining chair, my stomach hungry for homemade food and nothing pre-packaged. It’s amazing, or horrifying, that your body, mind, and spirit can be so out of sync after a couple of days.

This morning, on my way into Nashville, I listened to a prayer app and it has a time, after the invitation to pray, to pause and be silent. As silence filled the car I thought about how disjointed I felt, vowed to never work in Nashville and drive into the city every day, reflected on the difference between a room full of forty people plus four teachers and the quietude of the moment and then the app started playing scripture. I wasn’t ready for the noise. I said out loud; “Not long enough!”, then sighed and continued.

Silence is underrated.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Contemplative

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Tags: ##brain, #amazing, #back, #bars, #besilent, #blender, #blessings, #body, #charts, #continued, #difference, #disjointed, #eyes, #facts, #fatigue, #figures, #full, #graphs, #head, #heavy, #homemade, #horrifying, #hungry, #hurts, #information, #invitation, #lackofsleep, #listened, #loud, #mental, #Mush, #Notlongenough, #organ, #outofsync, #pause, #pray, #pre-packaged, #processes, #quietude, #ready, #received, #reflected, #scripture, #sighed, #Sitting, #spirit, #stomach, #thewannabesaint.com, #time, #training, #turned, #underrated, #vowed, #worth, @BrianLoging, Mind, moment, Noise, Prayer, Silence, Stories, Thought

Where You Step

Mar 23

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for cell phone watching

Where You Step –

Earlier this week I got up off the couch to walk from the living room to the bathroom. As I did my phone chimed with an email alert. I picked it up and continued walking while reading and scrolling through the message. Unfortunately, I did not see the dog who for some reason had decided he was going to sleep on one of the bathroom mats. I didn’t hurt him but did trip myself. Fortunately, I did catch myself. I had an immediate sense of shame as I help others to be focused, aware, mindful of where they step on the path of life and here I am stumbling over the pooch in my house. Sigh.

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote “Be careful when you step outside your door Frodo. You never know where your feet will lead you.” This goes for inside your house as well.

Where we look is where we end up. Our lives are often the sum of our choices and where we choose to fix our gaze. My gaze that day wasn’t on where I was headed but on a small screen with a message that could’ve waited a few minutes. Too many times we allow the illusion of urgency leads us to lack awareness and a place of unbalance.

Let’s watch our steps or there’s no telling where we’ll end up going.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #alert, #allow, #aware, #awareness, #bathroom, #Becareful, #blessings, #catch, #chimed, #choices, #Choose, #continued, #decided, #door, #earlier, #email, #endup, #Feet, #fix, #focused, #Fortunately, #gaze, #going, #headed, #help, #house, #illusion, #immediate, #inside, #know, #lack, #leads, #life, #look, #Message, #mindful, #minutes, #never, #often, #outside, #path, #phone, #picked, #pooch, #reading, #reason, #scrolling, #see, #sense, #Sigh. #JRRTolkien, #sleep, #step, #stumbling, #sum, #telling, #thewannabesaint.com, #trip, #unbalance, #unfortunately, #urgency, #waited, #walk, #walking, #watch, #WhereYouStep, @BrianLoging, Lead, shame

Keep Your Feet

Jan 17

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for icy sidewalk

Keep Your Feet –

Yesterday we had snow and ice fall in our area. As a result, today’s travel by truck and foot has been perilous. I drove extra slow around some of the country back roads that were hills and curvy. At each place I arrived, I carefully exited the truck and made sure my feet were on solid ground and not icy patches before fully placing my weight upon them. I walked slowly, deliberately and kept my feet where I could see them to be sure I didn’t slide, fall and hurt myself. This evening when I pulled into the driveway I checked the mail and walking to the house I continued my deliberate pace. Finally, once inside I put on a pair warm PJs and felt I could fully relax.

As I traversed the ice and snow today I remember the wise saying; “Keep your feet beneath you. Don’t let them wander off or there’s no telling where you will end up.” I kept my feet and they led me home.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #arrived, #beneath, #blessings, #carefully, #continued, #country, #curvy, #deliberate, #deliberately, #endup" #led, #exited, #extra, #fall, #Feet, #fully, #ground, #hills, #house, #hurt, #ice, #inside, #keep, #keptmyfeet, #myfeet, #Myself, #pace, #perilous, #placing, #relax, #remembered, #roads, #slide, #slow, #slowly, #snow, #solid, #solidground, #sure, #traversed, #walked, #walking, #wander, #wanderoff, #weight, #wise, #yesterday, #Your, Home, Travel

Caged

Jan 8

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

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Caged –

He paced back and forth like a caged tiger. I watched him as he went side to side, back to front. At first, he was on a phone call and then afterwards he continued his anxious pacing. I was sitting, waiting, in a room at our county jail which was mostly glass facing the pacing man. I knew what he was feeling because I was struggling with the same anxiety. My classroom wasn’t ready and I was asked to stay in one room until the other one was available. Inside I felt emotionally restless, ready to go, get the class underway.

However, unlike the man pacing back and forth, I noticed what I was doing and took a breath. I folded my hands together placed them on my knees, inhaled and exhaled again. When I was allowed into the classroom I was no longer anxious but settled. I organized the chairs, wrote my notes on the dry-erase board as the men began to come in and find their seats. A worker from the jail checked in to see if everything was okay and I assured her it was. She apologized for the wait. “That’s okay,’ I replied, ‘sometimes having nothing to do, being forced to wait is exactly what we need.”

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life, Mental Health

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Tags: ##struggling, #Afterwards, #allowed, #anxiety, #anxious, #apologized, #asked, #assured, #available, #back, #blessings, #Caged, #call, #checked, #classroom, #continued, #emotionally, #exhaled, #facing, #feeling, #first, #folded, #forced, #forth, #front, #hands, #inhaled, #inside, #need, #nolonger, #nothing, #noticed, #organized, #paced, #pacing, #phone, #readytogo, #restless, #settled, #side, #Sitting, #tiger, #underway, #wait, #waiting, #watched, breath

Support

Sep 30

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for leaf spider web

Support –

Today the Mrs. and I were working outside when I noticed a leaf from our Oak tree suspended in mid-air. I quickly put my hands around it and yelled for Beth. When she looked my way, doing my best magician imitation, I pulled my hands apart and waving my fingers declared it was; “Magic!” and wiggled my fingers as it moved in the breeze. To say she was impressed would be an overstatement.

As we continued to work I thought about the “floating” leaf and the invisible supports which held it in place. Even though the wind was strong the spiderweb, which held the leaf, was stronger. In each of our lives, it is important to have supports as well. Family, friends, co-workers, 12-step groups, mentors, sponsors, and other folks who will keep us afloat by helping us when the world and its challenges and difficulties weighing us down.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #12-step, #afloat, #blessings, #challenges, #co-workers, #continued, #difficulties, #floating, #folks, #friends, #groups, #held, #helping, #important, #invisible, #lives, #mentors, #place, #spiderweb, #sponsors, #strong, #stronger, #supports, #weighing, #work, Family, Thought, World

Undercover

Sep 29

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Undercover –

I was talking with a friend this week about the different masks we wear when we go different places. There’s a work mask, family mask, friend mask, public mask, and somewhere, often buried deep is our true authentic ourselves. The problem is that we become so accustomed to wearing masks we never take one off for too long or risk showing the world who we are under all the fantasy. The conversation continued and we wondered if any of the illusions we create could eventually lead us to allow others to see the genuine person.

The conversation continued and we wondered if any of the illusions we create could eventually lead us to allow others to see the genuine person. We are so accustomed to hiding the “real” us, the person we think people won’t like, that wearing masks become our default and our defense.

The question becomes how do we break free of this habit of wearing masks? Overcome the fear of our authentic selves not being good enough? How do we begin to discover who we are when concealing our true identity has been our goal for most of our life? This is the reason we are here now, the journey we are meant to travel, the discovery, not of a lifetime, but of life.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes.”
#MarcelProust

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #accustomed, #allow, #authentic, #break, #concealing, #consists, #continued, #conversation, #create, #default, #defense, #discover, #discovery, #fear, #genuine, #goal, #habit, #hiding, #identity, #illusions, #journey, #lifetime, #MarcelProust, #masks, #overcome, #person, #question, #reason, #seeking, #selves, #true, #voyage, #wearing, #wondered, Free, Travel

TheWannabeSaint.com

…..a place for sojourners on this spiritual path called life

Blog Archives

Almost Finished

Second Thoughts

Mush

Where You Step

Keep Your Feet

Caged

Support

Undercover

Brian Loging, OSBO

@BrianLoging

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TheWannabeSaint.com

…..a place for sojourners on this spiritual path called life

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Brian Loging, OSBO

@BrianLoging

Recent Articles

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