Nick Taleb has some good New Year's advice, I think:
File that one under the rule: "Keep it simple and do it often."
Mine? My rule is once a day, make someone smile. Could be anyone - the teller at the bank, the girl handing you your coffee at McDonald's - but just think of something that will brighten them up, then say it. Costs nothing. It gets easier to do once it becomes a habit.
He's trying to break a lifetime's habit of cursing, by replacing the curse with a prayer. Naturally, he has thoughts about that:
The Lord’s Prayer also has a hidden benefit. It has, at its core, one simple but profound request:
“Give. Us. This. Day.”
That’s it. That’s the real core of all prayers. That is the one request of the Lord without which nothing else matters. This day is what all our past, lost days flow towards and which all our future hoped-for days flow from. Without the gift of “This Day” the ones that have passed have no meaning and the ones that are to come have no potentiality. Both are but abstractions or, as the poet has it:
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
The Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner." There are shorter (and longer) versions, but that's the whole of it in a nutshell, "Lord have mercy on me, the sinner.)
ReplyDeleteAnd best of all, God's grace is free to those who sincerely ask for it. Merry Christmas.
DeleteDaily Bread = Our Lord’s innumerable gifts via His unmerited grace. Praise Him and be thankful. Never fear asking Him for “one more day” of Daily Bread along with forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteWell done. I love to make folks smile, too. That's a small present to help their day be better. I can't believe the stuff I've heard retail types put up with.
ReplyDeleteThe rest made me think... hard. thank you.
making a effort to change my basic id with the thought that I will take better care of my self and leave the place i am in in better condition for the person following me. i found a better recoil pad so as not to bruise the shoulder so much and i clean up the spent brass in my area regardless if it is all mine or not.
ReplyDelete