If you like kitty cats...

Your furry master   Play with yarn… Maybe eat it… Perhaps just get bored…   A mighty warrior I! Always prowling. Fighting insects. Playing with them. Lulled into my trap… Dead bugs are great toys!   Good tasting too!   If hungry or bored… How I love to eat! If you have something yummy… Cream or shrimp or tuna! Oh what delight. Just don't feed me garbage… I'll turn up my whiskers!   Scratch me! Pet me! Hold me! Till I get too bored…   I can snarl and hiss So don't step on my tail! Don't ignore my demands Or heaven forbid Don't bring round a dog!   Sometimes you may hate me! But I melt your heart. When I nuzzle your leg… When I purr in your lap… Looking so innocent…?  Curled up with your hat.

New Year's revolutionc

Revolution versus Resolution    Every year we make resolutions.    "This is the year that I will…"   "I'm finally going to kick my habit of…"   "I know I didn't do it last year, but this year will be different."   We always make these resolutions, but seldom do we keep them for the whole year or even for more than a few days.  Today is the fifth day of the New Year and I bet there are people who have already failed to live up to their resolutions.  In fact, in our culture the idea of a New Year's resolution has become synonymous with failure.  So I propose a new idea.  I propose that we adopt instead New Year's revolutions.   What is a New Year's revolution?  And how is it different from a resolution?   The difference is that in a New Year's resolution we are making external goals but we lack the internal change to accomplish them.  A New Year's revolution is an inside out approach to changing your life.  For example, many people make it their goal to lose weight.  They go on a diet and soon it becomes too much and they go off the diet.  Instead I would propose that you form a new lifestyle, one you can adopt permanently for the rest of your life.  Incorporate exercise into your daily or weekly routines.  Start changing your eating habits a little at a time.  Cut down on portion sizes.  Celebrate when you are able to say no to something bad for you like soda, and when you add new, healthy things to your plate like vegetables.  But we are still talking in externals.  What is the internal problem at the root of your resolution.  You are unhappy with your weight but you are not willing to change your lifestyle.  This is an instance of cognitive dissonance.  For whatever reason, you are eating foods that lead you to have a higher weight than you desire.  For whatever the reason, you are not exercising enough to be in the shape you desire.  Your current way of life results in an outcome you don't like.  If you want to be happy with yourself, you have two choices.  You must either accept your weight as it is or change your lifestyle in a way that will alter that weight.  For me personally I value health very highly so I don't see the former as an option.  But either way, it takes an internal change.  If you cannot bring yourself to change your eating and exercising habits, then you must look within yourself and learn to accept your body as it is.  If you are not willing to accept your body as it is, then you must find within yourself the discipline, the strength to exercise when you don't feel like it, to say no to that second helping of mashed potatoes.  You cannot just resolve to do something.  You must thoroughly examine yourself and revolt against your own ways of thinking and acting that are at the root of your goal.  The biggest enemy is you, and unless you are willing to do battle with the demons within you will never accomplish the goals that you have failed at so many times in the past.   So this year, my friends, when someone asks you about your New Year's resolutions, tell them that they are not resolutions but revolutions.  Tell them that this year you are not just setting goals, but changing your life, altering your thought processes, and looking at the world with a fresh perspective.  ____________________________ Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum, Paul A. Myers

Wistful Obituary

Here's a new little poem for you:   Wistful Obituary   oh there in that bright misty glade lo yonder where little tikes play we'd splash in the creek near 'bout every week the crickets would squeak as we swayed ____________________________   Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum, Paul A. Myers

Rapscallions in the Wind

One of my New Year's revolutions, and I will soon explain the difference between a resolution and a revolution, is to update this blog more.  So here goes:   Rapscallions in the Wind:   ever higher climb sturdy tree and climbing vine to conquer heav en