Spark

https://youtu.be/t5ze_e4R9QY

Stop and say hello . . .

https://youtu.be/S-rB0pHI9fU

✍🏾 Choose Peace

Today's Healthy-Happy-H@ly Do List . . .

🌟Organizing 🧑🏾‍💻
🌟Nurturing 🫂
🌟Enjoying 😊

A Story:

"Life without love" is how Michael phrased the rhythm of his bluesy "Who's Loving You" live rendition I listened to on serious repeat late into the evening. It's a proposition worthy of consideration after reading this morning's passage about living in peace and being slow to rankle feathers, even those in the northeastern tip of Missouri.

They're calling for a mass "Protest Against the Birds" that they believe are all drones. 🙆🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️


Dear Future,

Peace is hard for humans. That is all.

James 😊


It's going to be that way for a while, especially when they find their next three-word slogan for an election near you. 🪶🪶

Michael, please sing again.

"Who's loving you? I wonder."

Me, too, Mike. There's another protest heading for NYC, something about the "vexinne" (that's how they spell it to get it through the internet filters that would spare us seeing their posts). There are angry birds—🐦 or should I say drones—nearly everywhere, and when they flock together, they can be loud enough to drown out what we'd rather have of peace and calm. 🤔😇 And it's a full moon, too. Meh.

I think I'll host a mini party tonight and play "Who's Loving You" on repeat for the beginner dance lesson until the dancing's right, slow and easy. 💃🏽🕺🏾

Meanwhile, I better set my internet filter to remove all hints of news today, even the Brits are in a provoking mood, drifting their sailors into the Black Sea just to ruffle feathers. Choose a little more of peace, please.💂🏾

I hope you're mindful of finding a comfortable rhythm for the day ahead, something that'll keep your head well above the ⛅ clouds, above the fray of things, a place where peace passes all understanding. Choose there.


Source: Chapter 25: Verse 8

Source: Ever have a song stuck in your head? Here you go . . .

https://youtu.be/UqXIR3pqU8w

✍🏾 Honor the right things

Today's Healthy-Happy-H@ly Do List . . .

🌟Honoring 😇
🌟Inviting 💯
🌟Managing 😊

A Story:

There are so many good things. I'll consider my work done as long as the work encompasses two concepts I found in today's reading: honor (kabad) and stones (eben).

The verse has several renderings throughout history, including one by Martin Luther. I see the gist "as honor the right things." You can read the actual verse for your own interpretation. 👨🏽‍💻👩‍🎓

Honor (kaw-bad') has the obvious meaning, which entails glory and splendor. However, one of the etymological paths includes the suggestion of a heavy burden, something requiring a certain strength of character for the stumbling blocks of life. Honor is a weight of its own. It demands something in return—integrity. 🤔

Stones can be heavy, too, and they're used for all sorts of things, mostly, as the texts says, for building things. There's even a connection to children in one definition. In the ancient days of unpaved roads, stones (eben) were used for slingshots, the weapon of choice for felling whatever obstacles one encountered. The stones had to be fitted firmly in the sling and come out when needed.

Honor, too, should be firmly held in the character of one's life. It, too, has to come out when needed—those crucial moments that speak so much to who we truly are when life really presents us with all kinds of stones for stepping over in achieving a goal. We've gathered lots of words about those moments.

"Live to fight another day."

"That's not the hill you want to die on."

"Mind your own business."

These are a few words we've built for obstacles, for remaining silent in the comfort of kitchen, blinds drawn for coffee, and more pleasing conversation. ☕

"Pour me another cup of happy, please." 😊🤪🤯😎

Honor is a burden, a heavy lift. 🏋🏽 It makes me appreciate those who do the hard work in the body when acquiescence would come so much easier. 😇

I remain grateful for those kinds of folks, especially those who storied themselves into a legacy for memory over the past year. It was, and still remains, a heavy lift. 🙏🏾🗽💪🏽

I appreciate the weight they lifted, the burdens they bore, the decisions made for a people to unmask again and breathe. Those are the moments bearing the weight of honor. They are good stepping stones for following. 🫂🌍😊


Source: Chapter 26: Verse 8

Today's results . . .

🌟Appreciating good people 🌍
🌟Inviting rest for July 😊
🌟Measuring progress 🎯

Today's agenda:

1. Enjoying rest for new month
2. Practicing healthy habits

A 🎁 for you:

Choice 1: Brain Health

https://youtu.be/esPRsT-lmw8

Choice 2: Identify your healthy habits

Today's results . . .

🌟Honoring goodness 💯😇
🌟Enjoying serendipity 😊🌍
🌟Remembering the why 🎯🍎

A Story:

I have Bose speakers I absolutely love listening to from time to time for their crisp clear sounds. I thought today was a time for listening to them again. They're loud enough for a neighborhood concert if I turn the volume up halfway, so I rarely play them louder than necessary.

So today I chose to compare the speaker sounds with another set of sounds I love to hear on my smartphone earbuds, a pair I purchased years ago from a local store.

I played a song that really enhanced the sound quality of both my Bose speakers and my smartphone music player.

I played a CD and listened to the Bose. After a few repeats, I placed my earbuds in and clicked the smartphone while in another room where I was unable to hear the Bose speakers still playing the same song.

I clicked play and enjoyed the earbuds and moved into the Bose room to compare the two.

Both songs, played on separate sound equipment, a smartphone and a country player, were perfectly in sync without trying. How often does that happen?

Here's the 🎵🎶 song, whatever it means . . .

Source: song for speaker sound quality

https://youtu.be/3U31Q73yhlw

✍🏾 Forgive to live

Today's Healthy-Happy-H@ly Do List . . .

🌟Focusing 😊
🌟Understanding 🌍
🌟Nurturing 🫂

A Story:

Love covers a multitude of wrongs. Today's verse is problematic in the interpretation, so I've read a bit more to get the gist of what needs saying.

At a glance, the meaning is clear—those who overlook something seek love, and those who repeat a matter separate friends. The most popular renderings of this text point out that friends often have to keep quiet about certain things to maintain the friendship, usually some cutting remark or sordid behavior that could easily create a rift in a relationship. That's the easy part to understand.

Yet, even that simplicity deserves a bit of contextualization. Sometimes, you have to clearly establish a boundary for behavior; otherwise, the offense grows into something unmanageable. Boundaries for acceptability need to be established.

The rest of the relationship is simply a measure of how well both people attend and listen to their intimate connection, the subtle nuances of communication found in a touch, a raised brow, a high-pitched voice falling, or a word with some shared meaning—like love.

Love is one of the key words in this morning's verse—ahabah (ah-hab-aw). The masculine version of the word is ahab (ah'-hab), a word that immediately resonates with those familiar with Melville's classic 🐋 whaling story.

Ahab, the main character, was a man obsessed with a passion, a fanatic hunting his own conspiracy theory to its watery end. In its Hebraic form found in the verse, 'ahab' concerns lovers, loving, and affection. It's doing what's necessary for sustaining connection, even if it means forgiveness.

There's another way of understanding the text, something I found as I sifted each word's meaning and compared the findings against what a few centuries have published. The key came in the word 'cover'—a word translators rendered as to forgive.

To forgive and to cover is kashah (kaw-saw') in Hebrew, and that sound also means to be covered in fat. This is where the verse takes on a whole new meaning for me. Those who are covered in, filled with, and gorged with atypical misbehavior are seeking attention for love. These are the folks who every now and then seem a bit out of sorts. Yet, the second half of the verse requires an astute reading as well.

The latter end of the verse references those who misbehave a second time. The Hebrew term used is 'shanah (shaw-naw'), and in one of its etymological branches, a Syrian one, 'shanah' means to grow insane. It makes good sense to me when looking at the verse from this perspective: those who break a boundary are in need of attention and seek a corrective love, and a repeated misbehavior suggests something deeper, a structural problem of the mind.

That interpretation, I found a bit insightful, especially in anecdotally recalling how I managed classroom behaviors. Some students, and adults as well, require an instruction manual (perhaps some medication, too) for managing—their own Individualized Educational Plan (I.E.P.).

Fortunately, most people, even those with structural brain damage, can be helped, especially with some of the more fascinating uses of brain scans (Dr. Daniel Amen) for seeing how the structure of the brain affects behavior (I'm gonna leave out saying much about whole swaths of the country who may benefit from some brain imaging). 😊🤫🤔

Reuven Feuerstein taught children of the Holocaust, the ones so traumatized that the schools had to leave them behind. He demonstrated by his work with those children that the brain can be structurally changed in an ameliorating way that normalized behavior. Their IQ's improved, too.

When the principal and guidance counselors found out that they were a few teachers short, they shifted the most unmanageable kids to the newer teacher—that would have been me back then. 😊 I was fresh out of the Army and grad school in those days. I faced a hundred high-strung hormonally-challenged teenagers in a cafeteria study hall.

"Sure. No problem." 🤯😊

I found out by real-life experimenting how well Feuerstein's theories really worked. I gave the most challenging students a set of Feuerstein's "Organization-of-Dots" handouts that I photocopied by the hundreds. In a matter of seconds, my study halls became immaculately peaceful, my favorite mood. 😊

I like the fact that the behaviors changed without the kids being sent away for whatever drug-of-the-day people usually gave them for being 🧟‍♀️ zombied out for hours. Dots worked for my situation, so I'm all-in on Feuerstein. 😊

When people misbehave, it should tell us something—either they're calling out for love . . . or just crazy. 🤷🏾‍♂️ That's just how I see it. Either way, it's good to have a plan in place for whatever works best, a hug, a 'sorry', a kiss right on the lips, a juicy bubblegum kiss (that's in my I.E.P. somewhere 🤭), or even a game of Bocce Ball for soothing the soul. Whatever works for you.

I hope you're finding a way to connect with those you care about, a way for mending when misunderstanding gets the better of us. Have yourself a most excellent day!


Source: Chapter 17: Verse 9