Blessed
If you’ve danced under the stars
Felt the rain on your face
And kissed in the moonlight,
If you’ve felt the wet grass in your toes
And hear the laughter of children
Still echo in your own voice
Then you are blessed
Announcing Book 2…
Keys to Success…
Keys to success in business
- Be prepared
- See risk and opportunities
- Be prepared
- Persist through challenges
- Be prepared
- Take care of your team first
- Be prepared
How to Succeed
In things of intent, be prepared for all
As fate’s prospects for fortune rise or fall
Are not for you to now or ever know
But rather be prepared for all that show
For your opportunities will come
As will risk, as sure as the rising sun
And the one prepared will win the day
And in the final analysis will get to say
What goes here and what goes there
As well as what is mine and yours to share
And if you think of all the others first
Before yourself and your ambitious thirst
Then you’ll be the leader whose most prepared
When it’s time to act and for wisdom shared
And if your talent, preparation and fates allow
You’ll have success, as well as the team who follow
And joined in the joy of a journey of many wins
That build wealth of success as well as friends
Dark Thoughts…
Dark Thoughts
Such dark thoughts that live
In his head, each betrayal and slight
For which he’ll never forgive
As he energizes for the next fight
Like a boxer, cheered on by those
Who bet on him to win
And jeered by others that chose
To hold him and pin him in
For fear of the tremendous wrath
Of this wrecking ball mind
Bent on clearing a devastating path
Through whatever he can find
That he defines as the other side
For which there can be no truce
Nor compromise he can abide
So, words and threats he lets loose
And the war is fought
With referees and judges unfair
And what we thought
Was there under his wild hair
Was not hope and care,
And positive works for all
But only the deep and dark despair
Of dark thoughts and their hopeless call
Wealth of Religious Organizations
From Wikipedia:
Religious organization’s wealth
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
$67.0 B (alleged to be as much as 100.0 billion) - Catholic Church Germany $25.0B
- Catholic Church Australia $30B
- Church of England $7.8B
- Opus Dei (part of the Catholic Church) $2.8B Italy
- Church of Scientology $2.0B
- Catholic Church Vatican – Unknown – Vatican City (some estimates are about $15B in investment holdings)
How does poverty persist
In a world where religious leaders advocate charity
And religious institutions hold billions in wealth
How is the glory of God to be served?
Lifting the unfortunate with opportunity and investment,
Bringing clean water to every soul,
Eradicating disease like malaria and AIDS,
Establishing stable energy for those that would welcome the light,
Or maybe they should just continue to build ever greater monuments of wealth?
And the collection of donations, tithes and zakat (Islamic version of tithe) continue and the wealth builds tax free.
What do they spend on charity services? What do they define as charity services? There is no way of knowing, but the wealth accumulation relative to the problems of the world certainly suggests that religious institutions are better at building wealth than helping the poor and less fortunate. Transparency of non-religious charities are such that they are rated for how much of donations find their way to the targeted needy. However, church institutions seem dramatically less transparent. But opulence seems to be a common feature at the top of the institutional pyramid.
Gale Force
Gale Force
Gale force winds make such noise
As air rushing out of the balloon
Of the Southern Gulf of Mexico
Rushing to catch up with a storm
That will plow across Eastern states
Adding fuel to energize, to create havoc
Like a little boy with no impulse control
Let loose in a room of fragile china
And figurines, with thoughts of mischief
We listen as we hear him go by
Knowing he’ll be trouble for someone
And all we can do is hope and pray
That he just runs between the aisles
Making a lot of noise
Music is in us…
I read an article that reported that chimpanzees, our closest primate-relative will sway and dance when they hear music. Some birds, sea-lions and dogs can be trained to move with music… however chimpanzees move with music spontaneously, and have been observed in the wild rhythmically using sticks to create a beat and moving with a beat. It is theorized that music is something ingrained in our most ancient consciousness.
Music is in us
Ancient rhythms are in part of us
A feeling of connection among us
As mother child lullaby becalms us
And God’s first communication with us
Learning to express feeling between us
To call each other, and know it’s us
Then to move and dance, inspiring us
Forever, our world is better
…. Because the music is always in us
A thought today…
Vision of a destination is the mother of a journey … and curiosity the father of innovation!
As we watch…
Dissembling
Cranes are remarkable constructions
Capable of rising to great heights
Or wreaking massive destructions
Assembling arguments to new heights
Democracy, purpose, constitution
Or devolve into win-lose power fights
It’s only a matter of what you will believe
As the words spill out like debris
Of wreaking ball lies that confuse and deceive
It’s our choice to endure dissembling
Or push for construction, constitution
And democracy’s future assembling
Trees … and Phone-Trees
I’ve been a little too serious lately… so hopefully this is more fun!
One of my favorite poems was published in 1914 by Joyce Kilmer:
Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
My comedic version:
Phone-Trees
I think that I should never hear
A poem lovely as, operator here.
A phone-tree hungry time consume
Against our lives it doeth presume;
A phone-tree that takes us all day
To find the right end we will pray;
The phone-tree may impatient wear
On thee, and cause radical loss of hair;
Upon our bosom a telephone is lain
As we wait on hold for something lame.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only Insurance companies
….. can make a damn phone-tree.