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Cracked

Image result for cracked eggs in carton

Cracked –

This morning I went grocery shopping. As one who doesn’t care for shopping, it’s odd to find me roaming the aisles. However, Beth hasn’t been feeling well so it was my husbandly duty. On the list was eggs so I found them and as I was putting them in the cart I remembered to open the carton and check to make sure none were broken. There wasn’t any so I gently put it into the grocery cart and went to find the next item on my list.

When Beth and I were first married we went grocery shopping together one time and were buying eggs. I picked up a carton and placed it in the buggy without checking to see if any were cracked. A kind elderly man standing near us said; “You might want to check those eggs to make sure none are cracked or broken.” We did and there were several that were in bad shape. We thanked the man, retrieved another set of eggs, and from that day forward haven’t forgotten to check the eggs or think about the man who taught us this valuable lesson.

The encounter with the older gentleman might many years ago changed the way we did things. His advice helped us look beneath the surface and double-check what we were taking home. After finishing shopping today I wondered; “Have I done anything this week to change anyone’s life longterm, for the better?”

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Smoldering

Mar 5

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Smoldering –

On Saturday afternoon I burned a pile of branches, old newspapers, and other miscellaneous items. The smell of the ashes and leftover debris lingered in the air the next day. I had forgotten to grab an old wooden rocking chair out of the reading room which also needed to be disposed of. When I noticed it Sunday afternoon I wondered if the smoldering ash would still be hot enough to do anything. I took the chair out, broke it into several pieces and put some under the coals, which were still a faint orange, and put the rest in a pile on top. I checked it after a while and noticed the smoke had increased. About an hour later the wood was ablaze with a good flame. It didn’t take long to consume it once the fire restarted. Not too long afterward the chair was gone.

I wrote last week about the struggles I have when February rolls around. Many years have passed but the layers of hurt, anger, and uncertainty still lay buried, ready to ignite when fuel is added. What I try to do, instead of dwelling on the past, is not feed the flames. When I am aware and notice my mind drifting back to the place of pain I find a place to breathe. I close my eyes and take deep breaths. I remind myself of the truth that I cannot change the past but I can be present in the now. Does it always work? No. Does it work? Yes. Maybe one day I will be healed, maybe not, but I don’t want to give up on living today because of the difficulties of yesterday.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Mindfulness

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Hearing is Believing

Feb 12

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for mule car ditch

Hearing is Believing –

A driver slid off the road during a snowstorm. His cellphone was useless and so he walked until he found a house with an old mule munching on some hay near a barn in the backyard. He knocked on the door of the house and a farmer answered. The man explained his predicament and the farmer said he’d help. The farmer put on a coat, exited the house and walked over to the old mule, put a bridle on it and the three walked back to the car. As they were traveling the driver of the car wondered if the old mule could be of much help. They arrived back at the car and the farmer turned the mule around, attached the rope it carried to the car and to the mule and began yelling; “Go, Joe, go, Fred, go, Jim, go Barney!” The old mule pulled as hard as it could and the car slowly came out of the ditch and back on the road. The driver was amazed and thanked the farmer profusely! Before he drove off he had one question he had to ask the farmer. “Why,’ he inquired, ‘when the mule was pulling the car, did you yell; Go, Joe, go, Fred, go, Jim, go Barney?” “Well,’ replied the old farmer scratching his chin and then petting the mule. ‘Ol’ Barney here doesn’t see too good and I knew if he thought he was pulling by himself he’d never believe he could do it. So, I made him think he was on a team so he’d have the confidence he needed to get the job done.”

Wisdom teaches us that we are never alone. Whatever the situation, it is never so dire that whether we can see it or not, the help we need is there to do what needs to be done.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #alone, #amazed, #answered, #arrived, #attached, #backontheroad, #believe, #believing, #blessings, #carried, #confidence, #dire, #explained, #hard, #hearing, #help, #helpweneed, #himself, #inquired, #never, #predicament, #profusely, #pulled, #pulling, #question, #see, #situation, #slid, #slowly, #teaches, #thanked, #think, #traveling, #turned, #walked, #wisdom, #wondered, #yelling

Often Wrong, Never in Doubt

Jan 27

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

dirty-money-poster

Often Wrong, Never in Doubt –

This afternoon I watched an episode of a Netflix six-part series on greed called; “Dirty Money” (http://collider.com/dirty-money-trailer-netflix-alex-gibney-martin-shkreli/). The series exposes a few of the most corrupt people and companies in the world.

The episode I saw today was; “DRUG SHORT.” It’s an exposé on Wall Street short-sellers and how they exposed a scam that regulators often overlook, mainly how Big Pharma gouges patients in need of life-saving drugs. It was heartbreaking and infuriating as it made the case that when Wall Street and pharmaceutical companies partner together corruption is sure to result. Greed, profits are why drugs can jump up in price from $15.00 a pill to thousands of dollars. Bottom line it’s about how much money is made for the companies and investors.

During the documentary, someone described another person as; “often wrong but never in doubt.” I’d never heard that phrase before but it’s stuck with me. I’ve wondered how often it pertains to me and to others. In the documentary is referred to investors and the difficulty of playing hunches in the stock market. It also included the companies and their desire to grow bigger by taking risky partnerships with unscrupulous people.

I reflected on our world and how many of us are so sure of our opinions and we never consider another’s point of view. We provide litmus tests for others’ beliefs and if they fail we shake our heads and move on to someone else who’s more like us. I heard another phrase this week that I’d heard before but it was no less potent and true; “If you’re the smartest person in the room. If everyone in the room agrees with you, you’re in the wrong room.”

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: ##DRUGSHORT, #agrees, #beliefs, #bigger, #BigPharma, #blessings, #Bottomline, #case, #companies, #consider, #corrupt, #Corruption, #described, #desire, #difficulty, #DirtyMoney, #documentary, #dollars, #doubt, #drugs, #episode, #exposé, #exposed, #exposes, #fail, #gouges, #greed, #grow, #heads, #heartbreaking, #hunches, #included, #infuriating, #investors, #jump, #life-saving, #litmus, #money, #move, #Netflix, #never, #often, #OftenWrongNeverinDoubt, #opinions, #overlook, #partner, #partnerships, #patients, #pertains, #pharmaceutical, #phrase, #pill, #playing, #pointofview, #potent, #price, #profits, #provide, #referred, #reflected, #regulators, #result, #risky, #room, #scam, #series, #shake, #short-sellers, #six-part, #smartest, #stockmarket, #stuck, #tests, #thousands, #true, #unscrupulous, #WallStreet, #wondered, #wrong, World

Why did the Cow Cross the Road?

Jan 24

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for black cow road

Why did the Cow Cross the Road?

There’s nothing quite like living in an agricultural community. You never know what strange experiences each day holds. This morning, on my way to an appointment, I was driving behind a car who suddenly hit their breaks, red lights shining brightly. I quickly hit my brakes and wondered why we were stopping and then noticed a big black cow standing in the right lane. We were on the crest of a hill and couldn’t drive around it for fear of being struck head-on by another vehicle. The driver in front of me beeped her horn, inched toward the animal, even tried shewing it but the bovine paid no attention. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the cow sauntered off the road and into the brush. Shaking my head, I carefully drove past it and wondered how and why it was in this place at this time.

Life’s road is similar to my experience this morning. You never know what’s going to cross your path, stand in your way, refuse to be moved. Many times we try to force, coerce, bribe our way around obstacles but they stubbornly resist movement of any kind. Sometimes the obstacle is the path, the lesson, which needs to be learned before it moves on. Other times life makes less sense and an obstacle is simply a barrier we must figure out how to move or get around.

Whatever the obstacle, no matter how big, imposing, or frustrating we should remember this too shall pass. All things are transient and nothing lasts forever.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Contemplative, Life

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Tags: #agricultural, #around, #barrier, #before, #big, #black, #blessings, #bovine, #breaks, #bribe, #brightly, #carefully, #coerce, #Cow, #crest, #drive, #experience, #experiences, #fear, #figure, #Finally, #force, #forever, #front, #frustrating, #getaround, #head-on, #hill, #imposing, #kind, #lasts, #learned, #lesson, #lesssense, #lifes, #living, #matter, #moved, #movement, #moves, #neverknow, #noattention, #nothing, #noticed, #obstacle, #obstacles, #path, #quickly, #redlights, #refuse, #remember, #resist, #road, #sauntered, #Shaking, #shallpass, #shewing, #shining, #stand, #standing, #stopping, #strange, #struck, #stubbornly, #time, #toward, #transient, #wondered, Community, cross, each day holds. This morning, I was #driving, on my way to an appointment

Cleaning Out

Dec 8

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for cleaning garage floor

Cleaning Out –

The last two days my mother and I have been working in my dad’s garage. It may be mom’s house but it will always be dad’s garage. We’ve been going through a lot of stuff which needed to be sorted. By the time we finished I had things to throw away, to keep and the garage was clean and organized.

It was a sad and enjoyable time rummaging through dad’s things. He loved tools and one could tell as we tried collecting them in one place. There was paint from projects long ago completed and recent work. Other items hadn’t been opened yet and we wondered; “What project was he thinking about when he bought this?”

The garage was a sacred space for my father. None of us would’ve dared gone in and rearranged it before his passing. My mom said this morning; “I know it needs to be done but I don’t want to do it.” I understood what she meant. There was a sense of invading another’s domain, eery and holy at the same time. There were items we kept not because they were important but because we just aren’t ready to part with them.

I think this best describes our walk down the path this week. We know we must go on without dad but we just aren’t ready to part with him.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #ago, #always, #aren'tready, #before, #blessings, #collecting, #completed, #dad'sgarage, #dads, #dared, #describes, #domain, #don'twant, #eery, #enjoyable, #finished, #garage, #goingthrough, #him, #holy, #house, #important, #invading, #kept, #long, #loved, #mother, #mustgo, #neat, #needed, #needs, #nice, #now, #one, #opened, #part, #passing, #path, #place, #projects, #ready, #rearranged, #recent, #rummaging, #sacred, #sacredspace, #sad, #sametime, #sense, #sorted, #space, #stuff, #thinking, #throwaway, #time, #tools, #tried, #walk, #week, #with, #without, #wondered, #work, #working, father

Similar

Nov 27

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for red pickup truck

Similar –

This morning, on my way to a meeting, I was driving on the main two-lane road in Columbia, Tennessee. I was about to switch lanes when I happened to look up to see a red truck all of a sudden swerve from behind me in the right to the left lane. He didn’t use a signal or proceed cautiously. He seemed in a hurry to get wherever he was going and I waited for him to pass before signaling and merging to the other lane. A few minutes later a white truck ahead of us both quickly jumped from the right lane to the left lane in front of the red truck and then turned on his signal to turn on to another road. The driver of the red truck had to slam on his brakes and I watched as he shook his head at the carelessness of the other driver. I wondered if it ever dawned on him that they had driving habits in common? Probably not. I reflected on the fact that we recognize bad driving in others but rarely notice it in ourselves. The rest of the way to my meeting I followed the driver of the red truck and pondered if I was also a bad driver but hadn’t realized it yet.

We often spot the bad in the other person. Judge harshly another’s words and actions. We jump to conclusions and condemnations about people we see for a moment and allow it to become the lens by which we determine their motivations and value. We are too quick to label people as something negative because of a lapse in judgment. Our world doesn’t have a lot of empathy. We don’t want to walk a mile in another’s shoes. It’s easier to pronounce them as bad or stupid, unqualified or evil.

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.”
-The Master, Gospel of Saint Matthew 7:3-5

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Mindfulness

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Tags: #7:3-5, #actions, #allow, #bad, #blessings, #boomeranging, #carelessness, #common, #conclusions, #condemnations, #contempt, #critical, #criticize, #dawned, #determine, #distorted, #easier, #empathy, #evil, #fact, #failures, #faults, #followed, #gospel, #habits, #harshly, #holier-than-thou, #judge, #judgment, #jumptoconclusions, #label, #lapse, #lens, #living, #Master, #mentality, #motivations, #neighbors, #nerve, #notice, #oblivious, #often, #ourselves, #playing, #pondered, #Probably, #pronounce, #quick, #rarely, #realized, #recognize, #reflected, #road-show, #SaintMatthew, #sneer, #spirit, #spot, #stupid, #traveling, #treatment, #ugly, #unqualified, #value, #walkamile, #watched, #whole, #Wipe, #wondered, #words, moment, Negative, World

Till Death

Nov 18

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for wedding

Till Death –

Today I had the honor of officiating the marriage between a young woman I have known for a long time and her finance. It was a homespun affair. The bride, groom and myself on the porch, the rest of the family and friends in mismatched chairs under two canopies to keep away the strong wind and drizzle that wouldn’t give up the fight. It was a beautiful wedding. The bride and groom truly cared for each other and it showed. They wrote most of their vows which is the norm these days. However, they still included the phrase; “Till death do us part.” Marriage is supposed to be a lifelong commitment.

Before I arrived at the home where the event was held I pulled into a church parking lot to put on my dress shirt and tie. Afterwards, since I was running early, I sat in the car and watched a family walk through a maze of headstones trying to pick one out at a Memorial and Engraving shop which was located just down from the church. I wondered about their story, the person they were looking for.

I thought about the experience after the wedding as well and hoped for a story of long-lasting love and a life-long commitment for the couple who said their; “I do’s.”

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #Afterwards, #arrived, #blessings, #commitment, #couple, #death, #Engraving, #event, #experience, #headstones, #hoped, #lifelong, #long-lasting, #looking, #marriage, #maze, #Memorial, #part, #person, #story, #walk, #watched, #wedding, #wondered, Family, church, love

a Visit

Oct 26

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for bird tennessee

a Visit –

Last night, before letting the dog outside for its last chance to do some business my wife asked me if I could bring two Christmas Cactuses in the house. The temperatures were supposed to be dropping into the 30’s and she wanted to make sure they weren’t harmed. I grabbed the flashlight and opened the door. The dog ran out quickly and grabbing the first of the Christmas cactuses to bring inside I was handing it to my wife when a small bird flew out of the pot and into the house. My wife surmised this wasn’t a situation she was comfortable with feeling certain the bird wanted to nest in her hair and bolted for the living room. I picked up two mesh hats and tried to corral and capture the scared and fast-moving critter. It wasn’t easy but after a few moments, I noticed it kept heading back to the door where it came in. I propped open the door and was able to guide it to the opening and away it flew. “Whew!” Way too much excitement for that late at night.

As I chased the bird around the kitchen, mud room, and laundry room I wondered how ridiculous I looked trying to catch a bird, without harming it, with two mesh caps and my obvious lack of speed and agility. I also reflected on the unpredictability of life and how we can find ourselves so quickly in a situation we wouldn’t have dreamed of before it happens to us. Then, without warning, the unexpected comes swooping into our lives, and we are forced to deal with it.

Life is many things but none of them are boring. Thankfully, the troubles and challenges also, sooner or later, take flight and we’re left to ponder; “What’s next?”

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #agility, #before, #bird, #blessings, #boring, #catch, #challenges, #chased, #deal, #dreamed, #find, #flight, #forced, #happens, #harming, #kitchen, #lack, #later, #laundry, #life, #mudroom, #obvious, #ponder, #quickly, #reflected, #ridiculous, #situation, #sooner, #speed, #swooping, #Thankfully, #troubles, #unexpected, #unpredictability, #warning, #whatsnext, #without, #wondered

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

Cleaning or Fixing

Apr 21

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

My face has several areas of dry skin. I try to keep it moisturized but often, during the day, these areas become flaky again and need more lotion applied. To this end I keep moisturizer at home, work and in the truck. The last few weeks, however, when driving around, I’d notice a dry spot reach for and apply the lotion but after putting it back in the holder somehow there would be moisturizer on my pants, the steering wheel, cup holder, floor board and I couldn’t figure out what was happening. Finally, yesterday, I noticed there was a crack in the bottom of the white lotion tube. I didn’t see it before because the lotion and the plastic are the same color. Once I spied it, the messes made sense. I grabbed some duct tape (one of the greatest inventions ever!) and fixed it.

Shaking my head and laughing at my confusion I wondered why I hadn’t seen the crack before. The simple answer was because I never looked for it. I just cleaned up the mess and kept going. I reflected on this and wondered how often we just keep cleaning up the messes that spill into our lives without ever checking to see to where they come from? We get so used to habits, hurts, hangups and learning how to live with them. What if, instead of cleaning the mess, we fixed the problem?

blessings,
BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Mindfulness

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Tags: #answer, #cleaned, #cleaning, #confusion, #fixed, #habits, #hangups, #hurts, #learning, #lives, #mess, #messes, #problem, #reflected, #simple, #wondered

TheWannabeSaint.com

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

Blog Archives

Cracked

Smoldering

Hearing is Believing

Often Wrong, Never in Doubt

Why did the Cow Cross the Road?

Cleaning Out

Similar

Till Death

a Visit

Undercover

Cleaning or Fixing

Brian Loging, OSBO

@BrianLoging

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

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Brian Loging, OSBO

@BrianLoging

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