it is what it is

I’m thinking that Charlie Sheen should be allowed to have a private meltdown without all the media fuss. And that includes all the other “celebrities” who are in the same boat.

Doesn’t it strike you as puzzling that with everything going on in the world, and with all the many fascinating things there are for us to learn about and write about and think about and talk about that – day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, we’re fed a steady diet of nonsense.

Unless we put blinders on, it’s impossible to not see the big headlines and the calling-for-attention photos popping up at every turn. Click on to aol “news” and there’s Charlie Sheen a good part of the time these past few weeks, pass magazines hanging all around sidewalk newstands, next to store registers, and in major book stores having the same silly articles month after month, and then we have what’s called “news” on tv.

In any event, it’s all part of the world we live in. Along with beauty, love, compassion, harmony, there’s a part of life that’s bewildering, and leaves one at a loss for words. It’s not good and it’s not bad; it is what it is.

An email is going around and it would be hilarious if real people were not involved. It takes place at Walmart, and they’re all photos of Walmart customers in an assortment of – how to put this . . . I have to think about that. I’m glad I saw the email because, well, I just don’t know the reason yet. After that particular email though, I had to pull myself together and so I started thinking about those people caught in a lens and a camera’s click, and harshly exposed for the world to snicker at. The uninspiring photos say that these people are struggling in a way that an outsider can’t understand, and in a kinder world no one would have thought to expose them to ridicule.

* * * * * * *

” . . . and I love them unconditionally, which is the only kind of love worth bothering with.” – Go Gentle Into That Good Night, by Roger Ebert

“When we give ourselves the knowledge of who we truly are and the permission to express it – wholeness and healing burst through us as peace, joy . . . and love for self and others.” – Jerry Thomas

“We are raised on comparison, our education is based on it, so is our culture. So we struggle to be someone other than who we are. – J. Krishnamurti

“May I always be in the right place at the right time to do as much good as possible.” – Raymon Grace

“Wherever you are, whatever your condition is, always try to be a lover.” – Rumi

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” – Jean Jacques Rousseau

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” – Leonardo da Vinci

completely still


Do you ever go to bed at night completely exhausted and wanting seven or eight hours of sleep, and three hours later you’re still wide awake? Or do you sometimes fall asleep only to wake up refreshed 30 minutes later? You want to have your wits about you when the day begins; however, you think the way things are going, that might not happen.

A book I purchased in Galway, Ireland gave me a new way of thinking about sleepless nights. Although I don’t have the book with me, I remember a few of the author’s words. She said not to be concerned about losing a night’s sleep, just relax and enjoy the quietness of the night. It’s a soothing way to think. When we can’t sleep we can be still and relaxed, tomorrow will take care of itself. We’ll be fine.

When I don’t fall asleep, I usually do one of two things. I listen to my discs on the POWER OF NOW by Eckhart Tolle www.eckhardttolle.com , or I stay in bed and repeat a beautiful prayer. And when I repeat the words and concentrate on them, a calmness takes over. I give up the noise of the outside world and the thoughts in my head, and get into my own inner world. I read these beautiful words many years ago from a book written by Catherine Ponder, and have since read them in many other books. The prayer:

Be still, and know that I am God.
Be still, and know that I am God at work in this situation
Be still, and know that I am Supreme Good at work in this situation now
Relax, let go and let God
Relax, feel the peace of God
Feel the peace of God’s loving presence
Relax, let go and let God.


“When the mind is very quiet, completely still, when there is not a movement of thought and therefore no experience, no observer, then that very stillness has its own creative understanding. In that stillness the mind is transformed into something else.” -J. Krishnamurti, Indian Philosopher

www.jkrishnamurti.org