Once Upon a Time in America

It was the west of times and was the east the times

It was love from the Beatles and rage from the Stones

It was the time of hope and love and brotherhood

We lived close to the earth and flew high in the sky

Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez

Were our voices which were raised against inequality

Where have all the heroes gone, long time passing

The hope has died, the light is gone, and the moneymen still rule

Rhythm was our hearts and music was our soul

And we marched to the beat of our own drummers

Hate was the law of the land in those halcyon days

And we dreamed that we could convert it into Camelot

It was the war of the young at home trying to end the war of the old far away

We dreamed of making a difference and changing the world

But the men of money held the country in their hands

And the land of hope and glory was stolen and sold

We were blinded by gold and baubles and beads

And our souls were bartered away

We got i-pads and cell phones and SUVs

In trade for honor, justice and compassion

We sang and marched and pleaded and prayed

But many sank or were killed with no peace in sight

We wanted strength and love for all the people

But our government said that the dollar was god

We had a vision of equality over the horizon

Which we were never allowed to see

We got over that war through the blood and the tears

Of our youth both here and across the sea

And so here we are over fifty years down the road

Still killing the innocent in another foreign land

The money men are still in control of our young

Our beautiful message was completely ignored

John C. Dodds Jr.  2/27/13

Pursuit of Happiness

I feel great sympathy in the pain of my fellowman as he searches for happiness. He spends great amounts of energy, money and power, looking for happiness. He seeks to find happiness. He thinks that it is out there somewhere.

Happiness is like love, just one of our many emotions. It is not an item to get. I already have both; they are inherent in our mental and emotional makeup. The only question is how to put them into effect.

It has nothing to do with what occurs in the physical world. I can be suffering and still be happy, I have. In my six decades I have lived the high and the low. Not the highest or lowest, thankfully. I have learned that it is not in my best interest if I let the world negatively effect my emotions.

I can be happy, sad, mean, violent, and any number of emotions at any time. I decide which it will be, not you or any other experience. All my feelings and thoughts only exist internally, not out in the physical world. They are the only things that are mine alone, that no one can take.

Only I can make me what I am, not you, not them, not the past, not the future, just me. I have total and complete control.

It’s time to grab a hold and use the happiness (and love) that you already posses. It is already there, just use it.

You are personally responsible for every feeling and thought that you have. Only you can decide if you will be happy or not. I’m hoping that humanity will learn to see the strength in their innate abilities and learn to make better decisions.

A Man

[An older writing.]

A man is not bounded by the things that fates throw at him, but by the direction and intensity of his soul. A stout-hearted man is not is not tossed by the current and tides of public opinion, but follows his own path, sometimes through the briers, sometimes through the fields.

Though he is tugged at from all sides by gossip, fortune & ill will, the inner strength at his core supports him and allows him to brave the distractions around him and stay true to his course.

Every man at times in his life finds himself wandering away from his great path and it is up to his courage and inner power to return to the knowledge and truth that supports him on his quest. His path never ends because each fork in his path is a new beginning and a new chance to choose the way that will help him treat himself and his fellow man with dignity & honor.

Anger, hate, dislike, fear and ignorance conspire against him and he must always be on alert, Most of all ignorance. If he concentrates on these things, they will overpower him. He must not be searching for these things to destroy them, for they will destroy him. He must not seek to avoid the terrible and unpleasant things that he encounters. He must instead seek to learn the lessons that these things afford him.

A true man sees the good in all things and is able to learn from the trials that he encounters. He sees the beauty in all people and ignores the unhealthy thoughts and fears that others may, knowing or unknowing, throw in his way. He realizes that all men have a tendency to allow the force of events around them to affect him in negative ways. Some people have lost their way on their own path and wish to draw you with them, for their path is a very lonely one to follow. Do not be coerced or led astray. Do your best to show them that love, honesty & charity can guide them from their desolate path and bring them back into the warmth and light of a caring outlook.

They say that misery loves company, but that is also true of those with a good heart. We all want to share what we feel and it is up to us to decide which of these paths we truly desire to follow. Bad things happen to good or bad people. It’s only which direction that we let these things lead us that we are truly defined.

The most destructive thing to our character is the amount of negative energy that we allow our past experiences to color our view of the present. Our past is our worst enemy unless we use that past to learn what things we are going to present to those we encounter. We are not as we are perceived. Any lie that we hold inwardly is our true self. What we hide is what we are. A man with no inner secrets is a true man. A man, who sees things in himself that he would find offensive in others, is only lying to himself.

You must be what you wish others to be. You must give only that which you wish to receive. You must love to be worthy of love. And always remember, any faults that you find in others are only a reflection of your ability to truly care.

Surface Storm

Think of your emotions as you would the ocean. If you see the surface of your being as being stormy and wind-tossed, realize that like the ocean during a storm, all the violent action is only on the surface. Only the surface of your being is experiencing the turmoil. Like the sea, If you dive beneath the surface, you will discover that there is only peace. Do not let the appearance of your surface storm lead you to the belief that all your being is stormy. It is only your temporary surface storm that you are focusing on. The storm will pass. If you can remain safe within your inner calm, under the surface, the storm cannot affect you.

If people bring their storms and try to make you feel their turmoil, do not let their storm descend below your surface. You can temporarily let it whip up your surface. It will help you understand their problem, but do not let it into your underlying calm. If you can help them find their way into their own inner calm, you have assisted them more than if you had joined them in their storm. Help them see that their storm is only a temporary, passing reality.

Most people spend their whole lives sitting safely in their boats, floating on the surface of life, afraid of descending down into the depth of their souls. They are affected by all of the temporary situations that the surface of life presents them with.

Ghost of The Past

Ghost of the Past

I live in a world of shades and shadows.
A world of disappearing loves and fading friends.
People that once appeared solid have dissolved into the past.
I feel as if people look through me as if I don’t exist.
As if they know already that we will soon become invisible.
You can’t see me, I am a ghost.

Most of those that I have known have gradually turned
Into mere specters of their former selves.
They have floated away on wind and wave.
Our connections have stretched further and further
Until they reached the breaking point of no return.
I can’t see you, You are a ghost.

Whenever we lose one another to time and distance,
We become a little less of what we had been.
Small sections of ourselves melt into memories,
And we ache with the loss.

Maybe some day I will be freed to soar over
The seven seas and seven continents,
To find the place where the ghosts gather.

I yearn for that future gathering of spirits,
When we can all revel in the warmth of each
Others love and again become whole.
But for now, we are ghosts,
Waiting for the flesh to come together
In a warm embrace, bringing us back again
To the love and friendship once known.

Thoughts of Alice

Thoughts of Alice

It's the little things that float into my thoughts.

The smell on the breeze of cookies baking

The sight of geese on the wing up above.

The wisp of bird-song in the early morning.

The sight of a blood red rose

Peeking out of an empty lot.

The coo of a tiny baby

to it's mother as they pass.

The touch of a warm breeze

After a long stretch of cold.

All the things I see.

Everywhere I go.

In every passing face

In summer sun and winter snow

All things bring my soul back to your warmth and love.

In the times of my life when there's trouble and strife.

When all things just seem to go astray.

Just the picture of you in my mind.

Make them all drift softly away.

You are my strength, my grounding rod,

My lighthouse on the shore.

You are my life, You are my love,

And will be forever more.

All the things I see.

Everywhere I go.

In every passing face

In summer sun and winter snow

All things bring my soul back to your warmth and love.

JCD 08/06/09

The Past through Today

Why must we always use the past to allow us to think of ourselves as “damaged”? You are never damaged, only ill. Things that are ill can be cured.

Only we can cure ourselves. You must remove those harmful influences from the past that still infect your present reality. They are not part of who you now are. They exist only in your own mind.

Hugh Prather said “You are controlled by your grievances from the past, not by the past itself”. We must learn to excise those grievances and other harmful “demons” of our past. I don’t mean demons in the physical or religious sense. I mean demons of our own creation, those memories and attached feelings that we let darken our days and affect our dreams. There have been many lessons to be learned in our lifetimes. Many of those lessons were painful. We must take what we can learn from those lessons, but we don’t need to close ourselves in with the memories of the pain. That pain will insure that you remain ill.

What are we waiting for? Have we not hurt enough already? Sometimes, I believe, we can unconsciously get too comfortable in our pain. It may feel like it is all that we have. When we walk into a room, we scan the room with our eyes. We look at a million things, but only “see” what we focus on.. If we focus only on the pain, we ignore all other possibilities.
　

Coming Attractions

When I don't have anything new in particular to say, I will be posting some of my existing writings. Hope you had a wonderful 4th. Love to all.

I am a rock

When I was young, one of my favorite songs was “I am a rock” by Simon and Garfunkle. It assisted me in building a wall around myself for protection from the harshness of my life. It had me see myself as protected, surrounded by an impenetrable fortress, safe from harm. As I progressed through my life it shielded me from danger. But unknown by me, it also shielded me from positive things that I encountered.

A wall cannot discern between the things it is keeping out. It treats all that it encounters as equal. I eventually learned the harm that such a barrier can become. I missed many wondrous things because of my fear of being hurt.

My view has finally changed. I still see my inner “rock”, but it from a totally different perspective. I am not sitting out in the middle of a desert, separate from all, safe and secure.
I am a rock sitting in the middle of a mighty river. I am surrounded by a vast profusion of other rocks. I can see the shapes and qualities of all those others around me. I feel the ebb and flow of the waters of life all as they flow by. I let the waters assist me in moving in the direction that I wish to go. Those waters not heading my way, I let pass me and take others in their own directions. I no longer need walls to protect me, just the strength of my soul.