Welcome and welcome back. While I am creating I spend less time being grumpy. It’s a blessing that’s easy to accept. Even as I smash these words, I am simply happy to be here. She and I tossed a couple titles back and forth and I thought …. Oh yes, I made a list once. Why don’t I share that? As far as I am concerned this information is more valuable than trading vacation trips to whatever enviable places, kitty pictures, or picture of what I had for breakfast. Popping to mind are thoughts on travel by Emerson, Twain, and Bourdain. I will add those particular thoughts elsewhere later. And, briefly for me, travel has more to do with gathering ideas than placing one’s body in different global locations. Dedicated to Donna B from the region I call Out East._________________________________________ AuthorsEmerson, Thoreau, Brautigan*, Krishnamurti,Castaneda, Black Elk, Lame Deer, Trungpa,Suzuki, Alan Watts, Lao Tzu, Tom Robbins,Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George …Gurdieff, Ouspensky, Bukowski, Kerouac,Yogananda, Osho/Rajneesh, Bly and Bly,Martin Seligman, Russel Edson, Mattieu Ricard,Chopra, Dr. Seuss, Wendell Berry, Kabat-Zinn,Howard Zinn, Wes Nisker, Kubler-Ross,Mary Oliver, Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard,Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg.TitlesAs a Man Thinketh, Emerson’s Selected Essays,Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance;Archery; Making a Living, Siddhartha, Buddha Nature,Dancing Wu Li Masters, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism,Conversations with God, Genesis, Books of the Dead: Egyptian, Tibetan,A Course in Miracles, The Disappearance of the Universe, The Power of Story, Wherever You Go There You Are, Crazy Wisdom, Think, Flow, Happiness, and The Possibility of Everything*** Revised 2018(omg) Elizabeth Gilbert - Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond FearTara Brach - Radical AcceptanceAmy Cuddy - PresenceKelly McGonigal - Yoga for Pain ReliefRobert Lanza - BiocentrismNisargadatta Maharaj - I Am ThatJohann Hari - Lost ConnectionsBessel Van der Kolk - The Body Keeps the ScoreRichard Gordon - Quantum TouchBrené Brown - Braving the Wilderness - and moreJim Loehr, Tony Schwartz - The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time ...Martin Seligman - Flourish & Authentic Happiness - father of positive psychologyRichard Rohr - Falling Upward, a spirituality for the second half of lifeEllen Langer - On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful CreativityByron Katie - Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your LifeKen Cohen - The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing…I’d like to thank the Academy, cast and crew, andmom, if you’re out there. Thanks for reading to me.… * I wrote a title Suicide as Mentor for my early favorite poet Richard Brautigan. Take some time for your self. Perhaps a one-minute Joy Breath Meditation. Relax. (ha ha). Slow your breathing. Remember several moments of joy you have felt in your life until you can feel the joy as if it’s happening again in this very moment. Blessings to you!
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Friday, February 27, 2026
Authors and Titles Revised
Friday, February 13, 2026
MFQ Emerson . Meet Dwight . Sing Alone
Welcome and welcome back. While I am creating I spend less time being grumpy. It’s a blessing that’s easy to accept. Even as I smash these words, I am simply happy to be here. Hi, welcome back. Thanks for taking a few minutes. This is MFQ Emerson. MFQ stands for My Favorite Quotes, and this Emerson and I go back a long way. He wrote: “When I speak, I define, I confine, and am less.”And I never saw the confinement as a small room, a cell, a prison, a house, a village. My response to that is simply.. This. “With a single word, I may cleave the world in two.” I think the confinement is as simple as determining that there is an eye, and another. Along comes Einstein with his bicycle, and his quote: life is like riding a bicycle, and in order to keep your balance, you have to keep moving. And if we apply, the “keep moving” to the Emerson, we may get the idea to continue to redefine. Until you get to a place that is reasonable for the moment. It works. It’s efficient and functional and whatnot. When I speak, I define, I confine, and am less. And this speaking thing reminds me of Shushmouth, a doppelganger of mine that seemed to have floated into my consciousness urging me to … be more quiet. And, of course, that’s very scary. Right away, I think, Oh, what is the artist and me supposed to do if I’m not yakking? But maybe the quiet part is, the place we can tone it down, the place I can tone it down, is allowing some of my opinions to... What, wash away in the rain? Well, so we can ratchet it down. Ratchet down the noise a little. My own noise. I swear to you, I’m get kind of sick of my own opinions. Anyway, so that’s that MFQ, my favorite quote, Emerson. And I’ll put the Dwight thing here. Meet Dwight, the little hand puppet elephant. Dwight doesn’t have anything to say. I haven’t written him a script. I thought he was cute as heck. And what bothered me for the longest time is that his shirt wasn’t as long as a skirt. And there was my naked wrist showing, and I had thought for a long time that if I could only find a seamstress or a tailor, that could cloak the whole thing, life would be good. And so, I did find someone who’s good with thread and needles. And having spoke the problem, or the situation out loud, in front of other people, or even out loud to myself, I quickly decided that if I cut up one of my dead socks and put it on my wrist, voila. The situation has rectified. So what I thought was a problem for years kind of disappeared when I spoke it out loud. And I don’t know where else that approach may fix anything or solve any problems. I don’t know. But there is something about the power of the word, the power of the spoken word, the power of the voice, the way the voice activates, the vagus nerve, singing, or humming, or, goodness sakes, breathing, and let’s not go off in any of those directions here and now, maybe later. And so the singing thing brings me up to solo karaoke, or the sing alone. Sing Alone. In the image, there’s the Sergeant Pepper’s album cover. And or was it Magical Mystery Tour, and shouldn’t I look right now? Yes, I should look right now. Thanks for staying tuned. So there I am on YouTube, and I see that the whole Beatles album is right there, and while I’m pretty sure that I don’t remember all the words, anyway, I had the opportunity to turn that rascal up and belt it out, all by myself. And what a wonderful, what a great release it was. What great fun. It’s so I simply pass that idea or opportunity along to you as well. Find some of your own music. And get up and move. You know, people say, if you’ve heard, you may have said, Oh, I can’t sing, I can’t sing, and... And so maybe you don’t, but if no one’s there to judge you, it goes a lot easier. Energetic. Anyhow. I think that’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it. Take good care of yourself.
Take some time for your self. Perhaps a one-minute Joy Breath Meditation. Relax. (ha ha). Slow your breathing. Remember several moments of joy you have felt in your life until you can feel the joy as if it’s happening again in this very moment. Blessings to you!
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