Do you ever get that urge to write and when you are finally able to sit down to put a thought together, nothing comes out? How annoying is that!
It’s cloudy as I stare out the window. Rain is probably on the way to give an oh so damp start to the Easter weekend. I’m sure the birds singing outside are as excited about the rain as I am…
I’ve been reading an excellent book lately. It is excellent because it forces me to sit back and look at myself and how I live my life. How often do we do that? How often do we sit back, slow down and take a minute to look at ourselves? I don’t do it nearly enough. I tend to allow the grind of the everyday take over and allow the S.S. Routine to follow the current mindlessly.
I’ve been working on making it a point to make some changes. A little bit at a time, mind you. Too much change at once, and my head just might explode.
One big change that I have made is that I do not follow the news nearly as religiously as I have in the past. It’s just too damn depressing, and often times incredibly negative. There is good news out there, but it’s beneath the fold, if you know what I mean. I still read an article or two, or maybe even three, that I might come across on facebook, but nothing like what I used to do.
With the change in my news consumption, I’ve been following less with politics. Current politics, that is. Now, that is some depressing shit. Grown men and women acting like petulant children and they get paid for it…a lot! I spend more energy and time reading about ideas. Old ideas, new ideas, just ideas and ideologies to try to get a handle on the root of the problem that is the lack of civil debate and consensus in our politics.
Really what it is is that I am disgusted with it all. I love politics and studying government, don’t get me wrong. What I don’t like are the folks that are playing in the role of government at the current time. Will it change? Time will tell. I hope it does, and sometime soon, but I’m going to do my best to not lose any sleep over it.
I posted something on my facebook page the other day, “Be the change you want to see.” I think Gandhi said it. It doesn’t really matter who said it. Does such a phrase really need a great name to accompany it in order to give it merit? I don’t think so. I’m working on it, trying to find that extra spring for my step instead of mindlessly trudging along, finding how to be the change I want to see.
What do I want to see, you ask? Maybe on the next post.
Looking Out the Window 
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I love all of this! Small, manageable changes. Yes yes. And I love what you said about reading something good. What are you reading? And I do not watch the news, as unconcerned with events as that might make me seem. It is TOO much. I can’t casually sit through a local newscast and hear about dogs burning in a fire, a baby being abused by her parents, car accidents, and all of this absolutely horrific stuff in :30 segments. It’s too much. It lands me in a funk, and I think the news presents it in a way that makes you more calloused to it. I catch the BIG world news, but again – so much of it is sad and I know it is a really apathetic attitude to have, but I focus on changing what I can around me and helping people in my community rather than focusing on and being discouraged by all I canNOT do in another country.
I just finished a book by Philip Gulley called Living the Quaker Way. It is the fourth book by him that I have read. I also recently finished If Grace is True by him and James Mulholland. I don’t necessarily fall into a particular denomination, but if I did, it would be Quaker.
I’m with you on the news. I catch the big stuff and that is really all I care to hear or see. The shock value just isn’t there for me anymore, and I am tired of believing that the world is such a shitty place. There is more to it than that. We just have to find it!