Jonathots Daily Blog
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We Should Learn from Difficulty
1. The problems are never personal
2. But the solutions need to be
3. And the gratitude—gloriously creative
1 Thing That Would Make It Easier to Get Along with Each Other
Weakness
Unfortunately, we all seem to be terrified with the freakishness of meekness that seems to rob us of uniqueness.
So to remain strong, we will cry, try and even lie.
So what does this mean? “When you are weak you are strong.”
What is this devilish double-talk?
We are much more transparent than we wish were true.
In other words, people are already suspicious that we have weakness.
- Attempts to cover it up become comical.
- Efforts to deny it make us appear to be carnival fools.
You are weak. If you know this, it becomes your strength.
Why? Because you can be in charge of letting others understand your emerging nature. But if you insist on being strong when there’s an obvious weakness, not only will it be found, but those around you will work very hard to uncover and expose it—so they, themselves, can disguise their own weakness.
So do you want to make it easier, or do you demand on it continuing to be hard?
What should I do with my weakness?
- Admit it.
- Work with it.
- Rejoice in it.
I am weak, but even though I have a weakness, it has not stopped me. By continuing through that weakness, I have done things I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to get finished, so I am grateful.
Are you weak too? Do you have a weakness?
Are you able to speak it aloud, or must it be exploited in the town square and ridiculed?
Weakness is what makes us strong if we admit it, work with it and rejoice in it.
The B. S. M. G. Report
Jonathots Daily Blog
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Refusing to ever rest
From seeking what is best
BAD
You are not worthy of great opportunity unless you’ve counted the cost and decided you know how to lose.
Someone will lose.
Unlike what your third-grade teacher told you, not all of us are winners.
I saw something bad yesterday. Three or four grown men—college football coaches—turned into whiny, bitchy babies because their teams lost, and the reporters asked them questions they did not want to answer.
I’m sorry, gentlemen. You don’t get to do that. The minute you start taking millions of dollars in salary for running a football team, you lose all privilege of being snotty. If you can’t give a civil answer, cancel the press conference. Please, do not teach the younger generation that it’s perfectly acceptable to be so disappointed that you pour your poison out on everyone around you.
Play to win. Lose and survive.
That’s how it works.
SAD
Great full.
I thought it was a little sad this year that Thanksgiving was not nearly as punctuated with true gratitude as I have seen in the past. Maybe it was just me—perhaps I was at the wrong places. Could I have watched the bogus television shows?
Yet the message I heard was, “It is great that we are full.”
Anybody can smile when their belly is satisfied, their house is warm and they’re doing good on their job.
Maybe it’s true that none of us learn how to be grateful until one or more of our wishes is absent and we still have to press on.
Yes, I think that’s it.
Gratitude is always better expressed by the souls who offer their appreciation, and those around them wonder how they can be so happy with so little.
MAD
I heard it again.
Somebody told me they have “faith in their doctor.”
I know why they said this. Medicine portrays itself as a religion. Everything is white, pristine and there are all sorts of gadgets, tons of explanations, and enough pomp and circumstance to march the Pope into the Vatican thirty times.
I don’t know why we can’t just deal with the truth:
Doctors and nurses are fabulous, and also ignorant.
- We’re still doing more cutting than curing.
- We still prescribe more medication than offer solutions.
- We are still wrong much too often.
For instance, medicine has killed tens of thousands of people through opiate addiction and the misapplication of painkillers.
Everyone knows there are more infections in a hospital than there are in your kid’s sandbox.
I’m not asking the medical field to be diminished, nor am I criticizing them.
I am demanding some needful humility.
In the 1790’s, when doctors were treating President George Washington for pneumonia and they bled him with leeches, they were certainly convinced they were giving him expert treatment, and probably discussed among themselves how this particular breed of leech was ground-breaking.
All the chatter did not change the matter. And the matter was, their treatment was counterproductive. They had to learn their way out of it.
I think it’s important to go to the doctor and get checked over as best you can—as long as you realize that part of what you’ll experience is somewhat experimental, making you a temporary guinea pig.
So oink-oink. And let us encourage these people of science to grow instead of crow.
GLAD
I believe I saw it on a YouTube.
It was a little boy, about nine. So maybe not so little, but still young.
He was asked a question in his classroom by a teacher.
“What do you want your life to be?”
They filmed a couple of students talking about money, happiness, marriage, cars and such.
Then they came to this young man. It was as if he was suddenly possessed by an angel from heaven. He explained, “Life doesn’t show up fixed. You gotta put it together.”
I laughed and broke out in tears all at the same time.
Do any of us really believe that?
Even though the boy’s words were eternal, can we realize how powerful this idea truly is?
It makes me glad there is one small member of the human race out there who has it right. Maybe he’ll infect us. Here’s what we need to learn:
Inhale life. Exhale good cheer.
Then repeat the process.
3 Things … November 28th, 2019
Jonathots Daily Blog
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That Gratitude is Thankful For
1. Gravy—to make the turkey hot and juicy
2. The return of “for granted,” since everyone keeps taking it.
3. The thirty-two seconds right after Thanksgiving dinner begins when no one speaks. We all just chomp away until someone moans, “U-m-m-m. This is good.”
And then we all laugh.
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Sit Down Comedy … August 30th, 2019
Jonathots Daily Blog
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The eyes pop open and the feet are heading toward the floor—it’s the beginning of another day. Right there, in this pivoting moment, you get the message.
A feeling sweeps over your body, informing you where you are and threatening to control your whole living space.
Stop rushing.
With your still feet on the floor, ask yourself a question—out loud, if you’re alone:
How do I feel?
Don’t be surprised if the answer comes back, “Shitty.” Or maybe, “Great.” It could be, “I’m not sure.”
Unfortunately, many people believe it is wrong to run your life by how you feel.
Since educational systems are very similar for all of us, our religions don’t differ that much and our politics bluster controversy but don’t render anything unique, what ends up setting us apart are feelings.
Please do not think you can control your existence through “mind over matter.”
You aren’t a goddamn Ninja and you certainly don’t have a sword.
The best and the worst you’ve got are your emotions. Therefore, speak the question, “How do I feel?” Make it your morning drill.
Then, when you get the answer, ask a second question:
Why do I feel this way?
Sometimes it’s because you watched a scary movie before you went to bed, or you have to pay a bill or take a test. Or maybe you spent your nighttime hours eating like a four-year-old in a candy store.
You will be surprised that the physical, psychological and even spiritual can often hijack your feelings. Identify the reasons.
This is what I refer to as a S.O.D.—a sense of dread.
Something is going to come up that you don’t want to come up and you’re frightened about how it’s going to come down.
It won’t be resolved by a good breakfast. You can’t get the shower hot enough. Playing music in the background has limited possibilities.
Make note:
You aren’t living a life—you are learning to masterfully maneuver your emotions.
And by maneuver, I mean find them, identify their source and open yourself up to other people. Yes, never be afraid, when you emerge from your room in the morning, and someone asks you how you feel, to speak the truth out loud.
“Physically I’m pretty good, mentally I’m a little scattered and for some reason I’m a little nervous.”
This statement is for your benefit–because we gain power and healing as human beings when we confess who we are openly.
So let’s review:
First question: How do I feel?
Second question: Why do I feel this way?
Confession: Based upon what I know thus far, these are my beginning sensations today.
Candidly, if you try to ignore your starting feeling, you will fail the day. On the other hand, if you identify the feeling, you will receive a much greater sense of well-being. Once you know how you really feel, have figured out the source of it, and you’ve confessed it out loud—either to yourself or someone else—then you’re ready for the door.
Sometimes it’s a door in, and sometimes a door out.
But many of us ruin our morning, still bleary-eyed and uncertain. We’re not maneuvering our emotions, and we miss the door. But if you know how you feel and you’ve identified where it came from and you’ve confessed your profile, then you’ll see the door in or the door out.
It’s probably one of the most exciting things—and one of the most unexplainable happenings in our lives.
A way is made for us if we are ready to see the door.
Then, once you see the it and you have yourself primed, enter the door. Change, adapt, include, evolve. When you do these things, you find yourself in greater unity with the world around you instead of going into situations kicking and screaming, blaming others and eventually laying it at the doorstep of God.
So find the door in or out, then change—happy that you’ve alerted yourself. And finally you end the day grateful.
There is a much better chance that you will wake up the next morning feeling better if you end your day grateful.
It’s not luck. It’s not chaos. And by the way, God does not have a wonderful plan for your life.
This is your space and your doing. If you want to do it with power, begin each day with, “How do I feel and why do I feel that way?”
Then confess, look for the door in or out, change, and move toward the solution.
And finish it off by giving a big chuckle in gratitude.
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3 Things … July 11th, 2019
Jonathots Daily Blog
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That Make a Great Meal
1. Prepare it with someone you love
2. Make it simple so that it’s always fun
3. Eat it with gratitude and laughter
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Jonathots … November 20th, 2018
Jonathots Daily Blog
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On special occasions, when we are able to escape the sensibility of our own head and reach out beyond our cloistered environment, the question then becomes, how do we touch?
How do we use our hands in a constructive format that isn’t clumsy or ham-fisted? There is a severe danger in trying to over-complicate our lives, by studying our motives to such a degree that we are frightened to motivate.
But there is one enlightening approach that never fails to deliver an exciting conclusion. When we don’t know how to touch the lives of other people, find a moment, an opportunity to pat them on the back–literally.
Understanding that people are disappointed, grief-stricken, uncertain or wounded, rather than trying to force our thoughts into their space, we can pause before leaving the room and touch them on the shoulder.
There is no greater tool of communication than the passing graze on the shoulder or the pat on the back.
Nothing needs to be said, no note is required to explain the meaning–just the simple confirmation expressed by that motion personifying, “I’ve got your back” takes any frustrated human traveler to tears.
It is the prudent, kind, tender and economic use of our touch.It doesn’t demand that the receiver be grateful or that they converse about their sensations concerning the overture.
It is the first step in understanding the Handbook on Hands.
- Don’t speak.
- Don’t become angry.
- Don’t editorialize.
- Don’t hug.
As you leave the room, pat their shoulder.
It is powerful.
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