Inner Peace

The other day I found these 2 old barrel rings hanging on a back fence at a Estate Sale... They were behind an old barn and it was obvious that I had been the first in sometime to show interest in them since I had to fight my way through brush and brambles to get to them...

I took them to the elderly man who sat off to the side of the sales desk watching his life possessions being carried away,  and ask "What would you take for these?" His answer was "Awww give me a Quarter each for them."  I gladly paid the 50 cents, not knowing for sure what I was going to do with them but...

By the time I got home I had come up with a idea, which is what ended up as what I made and call Inner Peace.

 It goes this way...

There are 2 Worlds We Live With.

Our Inner World... What Makes Up Each Of Us Within Ourselves.

Our Outer World.. The World In Which We Live In.

What is Important Is,

That We Do Not Allow Our Outer World to Control Our Inner World.

I hope that you can understand this...

 If you can....

You may just find... Inner Peace...

Johnny
9/28/16

Dependency

There are two things that we as humans have become dependent on..

The first is the Sun... which we would not be here if it was not here...

and which we have no control over.

The second is Man-Made Electricity, which humans lived without for thousands of years.

The Sun, was here before us and I feel will be here long after us.

Man-Made Electricity is only less then 150 years old but yet we have come so dependent on it...

But what if?  

What if, for whatever reason, we no longer had Man-Made Electricity? 

What would our world be like?

Think about it...

We are each a vessel... What lies within.. only we can put there...

Sometimes.... It's the Basic Charecteristic Traits that makes a person appealing. 

How a person is perceived by others can easily be change if one is willing to look in our own mental mirror and decide that what is there is not how we want to be seen as.

Some of these things are mental some are physical..

But this will only work if we are using one of the most primary positive traits when doing so and that is honesty with ourselves, or to put it simply "To Thine Own Self.. Be True.... 

Because if your lying to yourself... well, your going to get no where fast...

If what we see in our mental mirror is not how we would like to be seen as then it's not to late, at anytime in our lives, to work at making our self better.

Pick a positive trait that is not there that we want and work daily at applying it..

While we are doing that, through honesty, we can also take a negative trait that we feel is part of us and start to wean ourselves away from it....

I'm only coming to realize at this age how important these things are and how they impact our lives... 

I wish I would have seen it sooner....

But now I'm working at it and I hope you see the changes soon...

I'll quit rambling now...

Johnny

It's Time Again

When I was a Boy,

 I can remember slipping out the back door, quietly shutting it behind me so to not wake the house. I would stop at the pasture gate, looking back to make sure Mom and Dads bedside lamp had not come on. With that done I knew that my coast was clear.   It was a Saturday morning and that meant the day was mine.

 I would gather up my equipment which set waiting for me inside the small hay shack along the back fence. There I would dress for my day of independence.

First was the small tackle box attached to a piece of hay twine that hung off my left shoulder across the chest and settle in its place at my right waist.

My trusty Zebco 33 reel and rod would then be slung across my chest from over the other shoulder with usually a rubber worm on the tip of the rod which was my pennant of freedom.

The small single shot 410 shot gun found its place cradled in my right arm leaving my left hand available for gate chains, the middle strand of the barbed wire fences and to snatch the spider's dew covered webs from my face that had been spun between the Johnson Grass weeds during the night.

 By the time the sun had made it as high as a thumbnail at the end of an extended arm I would be in place at the creeks bank 2 miles behind the house.

 I stood quietly listening to what was around me... A Bullfrog groaning a few yards up and across the small creek from me.  Two Mocking Birds, one close by the other just within ear shot battling with each other to prove their serenade of calls out matched the others....

With a deep breath and a big smile, I cast my first line and relaxed to enjoy my day.

Those kind of days have been gone for a long time.

But the other day... in the back of a garage sitting in a corner sat an old Rod and Reel.  I looked closer and smiled.  It was an old Zebco 33... and attached to the end of the rod was a very old worn out plastic worm... I picked it up, pressed its release button and the worm dropped immediately to the floor... I turned the reels crank and the sound of a long time forgotten "click, click, click" was music to my ears....

The price tag said $10.00... You know me, I talked them down to $5.00...

It's time again....

Choose Wisely

My Description on how Politicians Play the Game.

Politicians are like Spiders... They weave their web tightly, but...right in the middle, where they usually sit, is a large opening.

Why Is That?

1) So that they can quickly get to the back side of the web to catch prey that are caught there.

2) But more importantly....So that they can quickly get to the back side as a way of escape if threatened., allowing the web they have made to protect them from the attacker....

It doesn't matter if the web gets damaged....

They can always make a new web....

Spiders are not dumb... Nor are most Politicians.....

So... Be careful of which web you choose to be part of......

Johnny
9/22/16

My Philosophy Towards Retirement

No need for speed..... 

That now, I can do without.....

From this point on, there's really not rush....

Taking my time, that's what it's all about....


May just take the long way around, no need for short-cuts...

Leaving the race to the Turtle and the Hare....

Because the way I see it....

Wherever it is I'm going...

I'll get there, when I decide to get there.....

Johnny...

9/18/16

Go Confidently

Go Confidently towards your Dreams... Live life the way you've imagined it.

Henry David Thoreau...

I wake each day wondering.... Sometimes I find the answers, sometimes I don't..

Then on other days, I realized that if I would have looked within myself I knew the answer all along...

 I just didn't want to admit it...

Lord... Show me your way....

John Glass

9/15/2016

Cajuns Don't Give Up,

The people of Lake Arthur, in Southwest Louisiana,  this time a month ago were stacking sandbags to hold back the rising waters from the most rain seen in the area for close to 50 years..

.

Then.. when it was over and the lake returned to the normal levels they dropped and said a prayer of Thanks... Then they picked up their hammers and started rebuilding what they hadn't been able to save which were the boat ramps, docks, "end of the pier" camps and cleaning up the debris...

It will take a while before they are done. You'll hear the echos of the hammers

 from across the lake for some time.

 But I have no doubt that within the year... 

You will be able to drive down this same road and only tell there had been "a rising" by the flood level marks on the trees.

That's because they are Cajuns and Cajuns don't give up...

That's just the way it is...

John Glass

Photo Journalist

Lake Charles, LA

Into The Future I Go

Into the Future I go

What is there for me, I do not know

My life is all in front of me

But I know this for for sure

I will make it as long as I am free

Free to make my own choices

Once you have taught me how to be a man

Once you've done that, I know I can

Into the the Future I go

Johnny
9/11/2016

The Little Girl With The Dimpled Smile.

My wife and I were given the opportunity to raise our Granddaughter Samantha from a very young age. She came into our lives on a permanent bases along with her brother Clint because... well just because...

Samantha or as we call her Sam was just a little thing. She at birth was found to have a very rare condition that did not allow her liver to function properly.  Due to the condition her stature was that of a very small child for most of her childhood.

Now for some.... this would have been something that some would have used as an excuse to get away with things.... Not Sam... From the start it just became part of her life and she accepted it.

But God gave Sam a remedy so people would not noticing how small she was, he gave her a Golden Smile and a Dimple right below it on her chin....  The combination of these two attributes once seen by just about anyone would allow her to win their hearts away with immediately, and what was worse.... she knew it...

I can remember once even at the age of about 2 years old when we were at a eatery, Sam decided she didn't want to eat her pasta. To push the point that she didn't  want to east she pushed her point by calmly taking a long noodle and casually reaching out and dropping it on the floor besides to the floor.  Now in our home manners are considered priority and in a public area even more.  Noticing what she had done I reached down, picked up the strand of pasta, looked her straight in the eyes and calmly told "Sam... don't do that, that's not nice".

 She sat for a minute with a frown, then casually selected another piece and reaching out with pasta between forefinger and thumb held it there for a second to make sure I was seeing her and dropped it but this time with the "Smile and Dimple" tactic.  Which she knew stole my heart with each application.  I had to turn away so she didn't see me smiling which I couldn't help doing... But... What she didn't realize was "Grandma" soon to be "Mom" had noticed her tactics from across the table. Needless to say Grandma was not won over so easily even though she too was giggling as she said "John"....  And Granddad, soon to be Father, had to straighten his smile and "take care of the matter".


Over the years the "Flash-Bang" effect of her smile and dimple saved her or helped her "get her way" in many, many occasions.  She also learn quickly that it seemed to work on the men in her life more than the female gender even though it still had it's effect on them too.  From Father to Grandfather, Schoolmates, Friends and later on in life that "special young man" she had decided to win over fell under the spell of the "Flash-Bang" smile of my darling ,who I proudly call My Daughter.

She also grew out of the "small child"  stature once she reached the Early Teen years and now you would never know it by looking at her. She is all grown up now.  She made it through the Teen years not without trips and stumbles but she has made it through.  Many a heart was stolen by her smile and dimple and if asked today each would probably admit that she still has a little of them with her still.

She still has the same effect on people.  All it takes is one look at her to now that she is a person to be reckoned with but also to be able to learn quickly to love.



 Just the other day, as she and her "steady" pulled up to our home I watched as she applied the Flash-Bang" to him after realizing she had forgotten her drink in the car as they walked up to me on our patio where I was sitting.  'Oh babe, I forgot my drink... Could you go get it for me".  His answered "Yea I get it in a little bit." She called his name, he turned... FLASH-BANG and he turned to retrieve the drink.

Then she turned back to me and FLASH-BANG.....   what can I say....

Together We Can Make A Bridge

The other day while doing a photo shot I looked down and looked at the wooden bridge that I was standing on.

It was worn and very old but it was still strong and sturdy.... I dropped the camera lens down, focus on the edge the bridge and snapped a shot... Ya just never know what you could use a shot of the edge of a bridge for... or at least that's the way I see it..

This morning, while looking through my shots for that day and came upon the shot of the bridge.  I stared at it for a couple of seconds and then it hit me...   It brought about these thoughts..

It's true... we are not cut from the same tree. Maybe not even from the same kind of tree.

But we have in us all the same things needed to get the job done.

Some of us are more worn from experience.

Some new to the challenge.

But the important thing is...

That if we come together, if join our forces, if we stand side by side.  We are a force to be reckoned with.

We together are strong.

We together can carry the burden.

We together can bridge the gap

Because we do it.... together...


By John Glass
9/6/2016