"Homelessness is defined as lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. It can be caused by many factors, including income insecurity, healthcare insecurity, and basic needs insecurity."

I live in a tornado-prone area and can be one brief second away from being homeless if Mother Nature so chooses. Anyone can become homeless. And it doesn't take any planning to get there. I own my house but that doesn't mean I'm in a secure situation. 

Some people become homeless by choice. Watch this video to get a feel of what homelessness is all about. 

I can now start a new year of wishful thinking. I have a wood shop full of almost every tool anyone would need to build anything. But I still need more. I wish my kids would buy me another tool or anything for my shop. I still have a few places where it's safe to step. New tools are too much to wish for. Christmas 2017 is just around the corner and instead of clothes (the regular), I need something I can use. Kevin and I (my son-in-law) have an old lawn mower that has pretty much blown up. It was on its last leg anyway for the last year but we've been babying it along.

I could wish for just about anything but that doesn't mean I'm going to get it.

Well ... it's now 6-2018 and we have a new lawn mower, a new weed eater, and my oldest daughter has a new car. So I guess the word 'new' has been used quite a bit around our homesteads this summer. So I'm now going to close out my short "Wishful Thinking" article and just say that I, at this time, am not doing any more wishful thinking. After all my wishful thinking has only resulted in more yard work for me.

Here I am folks, egocentric, getting set to conduct my continuation of study while writing my thought-inspiring or provoking, (whichever you prefer) essay/blog. I have gathered worthy information from the intellectual crowd to be sure through the use of books and whatnot.

Let’s see, I want to start today with the information required to continue building upon my infallible thinking coupled with the proven and documented art of scientific renderings. The large picture will change because of my effort to make things come together in a thought-provoking way.

Now, my next day of research leaves me wanting to work on the intricate matter of biology. But I’m not studying Biology, am I? Well yes, I can’t come to any conclusion, on my own, without delving into those little microscopic things that live inside us. So onward I go.

Starting yet another new day finds me throwing things around as if I’m cleaning out the closet. Now, I am prejudiced towards my attempts but things will get better, they seldom get worse.

Now in my wanton efforts at pursuing perfection, the prior is true. Tripping over chairs, and sliding across the floor on my face is the usual route why wouldn’t it be?

Ah, Willpower

We hear a lot about karma, and our spiritual well-being, these days with the word 'fitness' becoming more popular. But wait, when was the day that fitness wasn't popular? It's always been out there all we ever needed to do was reach out and take part in it. There would be a lot more healthy people in the good ole USA if it weren't for one curse word 'willpower'.

I can say I am nowhere near being fit. But, I can be, by just listening to my own 'willpower' and being more of a friend to it. Friends stick together and when one suggests something that makes sense we listen to it. We heed that willpower's voice commanding us to control our urges.

Willpower is a strange thing though, it drives who we are and what we do and just seems to impede anything fun. Just look at eating pizza, you want to eat another piece but your 'willpower' jumps in and says NO! Darn that 'willpower' sit over there and shut up, I'm grown and I'll do whatever I want.

Now we get on our favorite set of scales the next day and when we look down we say, out loud, I should never have eaten that extra piece of pizza if I only had the 'willpower' to put it down. Darn, that 'willpower' I never listen to it.

We all need a ... friend, don't we?

Love Them Or Hate Them

Social media is an addiction for millions of people worldwide. Without social media, we as a nation of civilized people would sit around twiddling our thumbs. Now it's every day all day. My kids come to visit me and the entire time they sit there with their faces glued to their cell phones. Now if I was on Facebook every day instead of 3 minutes a week (as I am now) I might care. But I hate social media in all its forms.

That darn "Six Degrees" started this mess then came Myspace and Facebook. Myspace, which still has over 1 billion active and inactive registered users, has faded from its glory days pushed to the side by Facebook.

A once popular community was Geocities. I was a member and community leader of one area in the Heartland (I can't remember which now). Yahoo purchased it and made changes and somewhere around 10 years later shut it down. As a result, millions of people abandoned the websites they had spent untold hours creating. But then that's big business.

Once Yahoo closed Geocities they started "Yahoo Experts" where I was a member too. I answered questions from people on a wide range of topics that dealt with some form of web design. That went on for a while and Yahoo changed it to having their "experts" answering questions by phone. I dropped out and have been against any form of social media ever since.

Those Movies

What Makes Us Go

What do you do when you go to the movies? Get the popcorn, soda, and maybe a candy bar. Then amble through the auditorium looking for an empty seat. Now the misery begins as there is no place to sit your drink or popcorn and you're elbow to elbow with the person sitting next to you (it's a full house). You can't ask the person next to you to hold them. As you may guess the floor is a likely spot so there they go.

Now on with the movie. Just as you get interested in it and are enjoying your popcorn and soda the person next to you has to go to the restroom and squeezes out in front of you and in the process kicks over your soda. And it runs over the shoe of the person in front of you who complains. You apologize while spilling your popcorn all over the floor. The person next to you returns and squeezes in again.

Okay, you didn't get to enjoy your soda or popcorn, and the person next to you is just too fat. Not to mention you missed the best parts of the movie. Sound familiar?

The moral of the story is, to stay home and rent the movie next time. You're just too much of a hazard to others to ever go out!

Our Inner Selves

A Quest to Discover Our Soul, Inner Peace, and

The Concept of Thought

"Negativity is the result of a limited mind." I've heard the saying before but can't remember where so I'll just say I dreamed it. Our negative thoughts impede any form of cognitive thinking. Everyone has tried to think of something or someone but couldn't. Then when you weren't even trying it popped into your head?

My mind is always scheming and seeking something to draw my attention. And when it's full of thoughts on things that aren't worth wasting a thought on - I have to stop and try to free it up so I can sort out the important from the frivolous.

It's said our minds form two different thought processes. I call them 'trying hard' to remember something and "letting the brain work" on its own. Taking an exam on a difficult topic we're not familiar with causes us to ponder too much and choose the wrong answer. While reading an enjoyable book is one way to relax, not much thought goes into it. When I get into a book, I'm not concentrating on every word but on the storyline. I'm relaxed and don't have to consider what I'm doing, it's just natural.

- to be continued ...