The J-Spot

  All men sacrifice, starting with Jesus’ example. Interchanging the name of Jesus with that of God is confusing to our youths. Let us be thankful for them all. Image edited by the Author I’ve always been a praying man. Passed down from my late Pawpaw, prayer was instilled in me to be performed at the dinner table. Just a simple one, always ending in bless those less fortunate than ourselves. There’s a lot of praying going around to Jesus these days. Lot’s of thanks and even more requests. I did my duty as husband and attended a non-denominational church with my wife and children. Wednesdays and Sundays. Worked overtime and double-time. When things went well, we thanked Jesus. When things went wrong, we blamed ourselves. In my graying years, my observations from the pew have led me to some reluctant truths. First of all, I wasn’t always happy to be at church. I would much rather have been jogging on the beach. Damn me now, if you must. A reluctant truth is, I went to be with m...

Is it God’s will? Our will? His will or their will? Image produced by the Author | copyright Bookflurry Inc. 2021 I enjoy my church. It’s The Bridge at Palma Sola Bay . I will continue to enjoy it unless I do something dumb enough that they would ban me. I’m competing with myself for that award so, I know the bar is high! I once told my pastor, after he was so inspired by the worship team’s music that he danced right out onto stage early, that I loved his sermon and his energy, but I had yet to eat enough mushrooms as to accidentally find myself up there dancing. He chuckled playfully. Probably unsure of whether to nervously encourage my own energy or suggest I not eat mushrooms. It’s a real possibility. Not me eating the mushrooms, my wife and children would never stand for that, but the music being so inspiring that you dance your way onto the stage. Reality was, I’d simply been reading a book on mushrooms , and I have a tendency to become what I read, temporarily . Currently, I’...

Look Onward to Your Epitaph Photo by John Cobb on  Unsplash What are words? Very few words make any sense without a word or two surrounding them; a punctuation mark. A picture is worth a thousand of these words because only the people in them can sum up the experience in a few. Take that same photograph and place before it any number of different circumstances and the reality of that moment changes instantly. Ever been talking to someone and been cut-off right before you make yourself perfectly clear? Sometimes, a tiny pause is enough to let a listener jump to conclusions. A paragraph is so much more complete than a sentence. A sentence more complete than a clause. A clause more complete than a word. A word more complete than a syllable and a syllable more so than a letter. An epitaph is most complete of all. A life fully realized. In physics, they call the observation of the smallest physical things, the collapse of the wave function. Because once you break down atoms i...