#being fully present

[livinglifeagainblog]

Daily Devotional

In life, we often find ourselves caught in a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings. The world around us can be noisy and chaotic, making it difficult to experience true inner peace. However, the Apostle Paul encourages us to focus on what is good, right, and pure. By doing so, we invite a sense of calm amidst the storm. This is not merely an act of positive thinking; it is a spiritual discipline that aligns our minds and hearts with God's truth.

Paul's message invites us into a journey of spiritual growth. When we intentionally choose to dwell on virtuous things, we begin to transform our hearts and minds. This is a practice rooted in mindfulness-being fully present and aware of our thoughts and actions. In a fast-paced world that often distracts us, mindfulness helps us to pause, reflect, and redirect our focus toward God and His goodness.

As we engage in this practice, we should remember that it is not about perfection. It's about progress and creating habits that draw us closer to God. Each day presents us with opportunities to practice this discipline. We can seek moments of stillness, read Scripture, or engage in prayer, reminding ourselves of God's faithfulness.

Ask yourself:

What thoughts and images fill my mind throughout the day?

Are they dwelling on the negitivity or distractions, or do they reflect the goodness and grace of God?

As you reflect on this, consider setting aside time each day to practice mindfulness in your thoughts. In doing so, you will cultivate a deeper inner peace and a richer spiritual life.

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Visiting family in Holland just now triggered something that's a feature of my later life: the desire to firmly establish memories as the events that'll become those memories are unfolding in real time.

Why?

Because I recognize the value and power of memories. I understand how the raging stream of Time pushes even the most powerful memories almost immediately and seemingly purposefully into the background. And I know for a fact that our darkest, most traumatic experiences create intense, negative memories that take up more headspace than positive memories, more often than not crowding those positive memories out, shoving them to the side.

Grossly minimizing them.

The first time I recognized a moment that was not only significant but a moment whose memory I wanted also to be significant... was high up in Italy's Dolomite mountains. I was on a shoot on one of the mountain tops staying overnight at a refugio, a lodge for hikers and skiers (and the occasional production crew). We just finished the day's shoot with all our gear stashed back at the refugio when I decided to wander up the rocks above the refugio to watch the sunset.

How high up was this?

Couldn't tell you. But we were so high in altitude that that night, in order to see the planet Mars in the nighttime sky, I didn't look up.

I looked across.

Anyway, finding my perch, I watched the sun slip below the horizon. I watched the shadows grow. I watched dark shapes pull themselves over our mountaintop like a blanket. I watched cliff walls turn shades of stone and rock to yellow then pink. I watched the colors of the rocks lose their saturation. I watched those colors fade until night time fully descended and eventually, later that night, I looked straight across from where I stood on this mountaintop and observed the planet Mars.

And yeah. Even in our night sky it twinkles red a little.

So.

How did I intentionally commit an experience to memory?

I did the only thing I could think of.

I stared, is what I did. Stared at the scene and all its details intently. I tried memorizing each detail. I brought my full attention to bear on the experience in which I was partaking. I tuned all my senses into each individual aspect of this moment. I soaked in it. I went into record mode.

Well...

I think of it as record mode but what really happened is that I became thoroughly present in this one moment, like all five senses present, and my brain did the rest.

My brain.

Did the rest.

So did I go into record mode with my family?

Sort of.

I was definitely focused on our conversations, interactions, adventures, and quiet moments. I tried to tune all my senses into each moment with them.

Did it work?

Well... it was definitely harder than taking in a scene atop a mountain at sunset. We were almost always on the move. There was almost always more than one element to our moments. At the very least, there was the content of our conversations, there was whatever we were doing at the time, and there were our emotional responses to either the words or the experience.

At the very. least.

Also, because it bears mentioning, human communication is very messy, massively layered, composed of different colors that obscure or blend. For example, we often drag the conversation and experience we just had into the one we're having. And we drag that one into the next. Not everything about it. But certainly pieces. Certainly vibes. Certainly colors. Things that influence, bias, and define the context in which our conversations move forward, our experiences unfold.

There's a lot to mentally record, is my point. There's a massive lot to remember across different streams of thought, wildly different emotions, and by all my different senses tuned into what's right in front of me.

It's possible, though. It is.

Not for long, though.

But it is possible to capture more detail than you'd guess. By saturating yourself with it.

Only one problem:

I can only hold onto most of what's happened until the next morning. There are ways to cheat this, of course, but when it comes to brute force remembering, I've gotta write it all out the next morning or it's gone. Or most of it's gone.

And the cheats?

I'll get into it for you later.

For now, what I know is that I have a record mode that works, that gets its power from being fully present...

In a single moment.

😊

[sidewalk-cracks]

Bruce would give up the mission if Dick ever died. And not in the angry-grief way of "this is the last straw on the camel's back" aka the way he sorta kicked Dick out, but in the "hasn't set foot in the Cave in over a month because the last time he did he kept hearing Dick's laugh echoing across the stalactites" way. He literally cannot bear to put on the cowl, to be Batman, because Batman has existed longer with Robin than without. Bruce doesn't remember being Batman without Robin (without Dick) anymore. He can recall his first meetings with a few of the Rogues, but beyond that? It's been so long that those first 2-4 years are all just a haze of self destructive grief. Dick flipped his entire life in a 180 to the total opposite direction. He showed him how to hope, to love, to live. If Dick dies as an adult, Bruce would've spent half his life with his first son. No matter what age Dick dies at, Bruce will have always spent more time being Batman with Dick Grayson as a son rather than without him. Dick changed Batman, changed Bruce so irrevocably that Bruce wouldn't ever be able to wear the cowl without remembering him.

[apple-onigiri]

see my vision: put together, odile, isabeau and siffrin would actually decimate a bar trivia night

odile The Library Goer and Non-Fiction Reader deigns no explanation and would prolly be very good at humanities. isabeau, similarly, is crazy smart (even if he contorts himself backwards in his attempts to conceal it) and would destroy any logic-related questions. and siffrin is both a theatre nerd and very well-traveled - i bet there's enough space in that island-related memory-curse-addled head of theirs to fit a lot of culture facts and he can wrangle art-related questions, as long as he doesn't directly think about them too much

[mostly-natm]

Take a minute with Mr. Data in the Holodeck!

Still frame under the cut!

[theshortjew2]

today’s shower thoughts: andrew minyard does not strike me as an avid user of emojis the way jeremy knox does, but i do think andrew would get a kick out of the 🫡 emoji

[foldingfittedsheets]

I’d like to be clear to new followers that I’m not vegan? My fish cruelty post has moved into vegetarian/vegan circles and I’m getting a bunch of new followers so I don’t want someone getting pissed later because I post about what I eat.

I grew up on a farm, I believe that humans are interconnected in the food chain with other plants and animals. I believe we have a duty to reduce any undue suffering and allow any animal in our care to thrive, but I also believe that to eat an animal you raised with care is part of the food chain and eating it without waste is respect.

These are my beliefs and choices and I’m not knocking anyone else’s, but I’d like for it not to become a hot button later.

[midnightdemonhunter]

SO EAT YOUR FRIENDS THEY'D UNDERSTAND CAUSE THEY WOULD TOO

[quetzalpapalotl]

It's just funny when people complain that the general human masses' reaction to the Transformers in exRID/OP aren't all perfectly rational and logical and understanding of what the Transformers are about when it's like... okay look at the sociopolitical opinions of the people around you, do you think that if the massive alien robot showed up tomorrow and started fighting they would all adquire completely unbiased information and form rational responses about it?

[regular-gnome]

some light body horror sketches, still alive

[thedaveandkimmershow]

It comes up, of course. How fast time moves. How years, decades are gone in the blink of an eye.

Which feels true.

Even though it isn't.

Definitely when I look back across years and decades I'm looking at a thing—Time—that's massively compressed by that act of looking. I imagine those years and decades in a literal blink of a eye. I don't relive them. I don't unpack them. So of course it all seems like it zipped by. Because in thinking about it just then...

It actually did zip by.

However.

That wasn't my lived experience.

Okay I lied just now. That wasn't always my lived experience.

Why?

Because I wasn't always paying attention. I wasn't always invested in whatever it was at the time. I wasn't always fully present for certain experiences. So yeah.

That time. Blew by.

Because I didn't really live it. A little like that Adam Sandler movie "Click" where he has a remote that can literally fast forward or rewind his life. The remote also has a memory. So if he's jumped ahead for a certain activity or circumstance once, the remote will jump him forward on its own whenever that activity or circumstance turns up again. Until suddenly he's skipping through huuuuge chunks of his life.

That's maybe overly dramatic on my part... but the lesson remains. Invested or not. Relational or not. Present...

Or not.

To be clear: life always feels like it just sped the heck by when you're looking in the rearview mirror. That's a perceptual trick, however. The real question is Did I live my life? Did I experience it with the people I love?

Because yeah. There are always ways to not.

Try to avoid those, is my advice.

😐

I'm kicking the tires on these ideas right now because I was thinking about how intentional we've been with Kimmer's aunt Jacquie. How intentional Kimmer's been. How intentional Jacquie's son has been.

I'm thinking about how we spent the last ten months during which Jacquie obviously didn't have tons of time left on the clock. I'm remembering each visit. I'm remembering sitting next to her bed and holding her hand. I'm remembering Jacquie back at her memory care home in the midst of a squirt gun fight in the courtyard on a hot day. I'm remembering walking her in the halls of her rehab place at the top of the year when she thought we could catch a ride with whoever that was parked out in front of the front doors. I'm remembering walking around her neighborhood with her. And walking around her neighborhood with her. And walking around her neighborhood with her.

I remember our family sitting around the patio table for pizza dinner when her husband, Dave, was alive and we were joined by their son and grandson.

I remember the details. I photographed a bunch of those details. I wrote about those details.

And Kimmer?

Yeah. She spent ten times more time immersed with her aunt than I (at least). And she has a better memory than I. She could tell you stories.

She could.

The reason I'm banging this drum right now is to point out that, in the rearview mirror, time is like hyperspace. You travel great distances in no time at all.

Memory, however, is different. When we choose to unpack a particular event or circumstance or relationship whether through raw remembering, photographs, or writing... time unfolds again. Not fully, of course. Just enough to remind us it didn't actually happen as fast as it later seems because...

Because we were in relationship. Because we were fully present. Because we were and are invested. And yeah. Those experiences that claim more space in our brains? We get to unpack those later. That time isn't lost to us. The experiences aren't lost to us. They colored us in ways that persist. They affect who we are and how we are. Because Life does that when we allow it to. Because Time does that when we allow it to. Because our closest relationships do that.

When we allow them to.

In the end, we have no regrets about our time with Jacquie. We ended well together. Especially Jacquie and Kimmer.

Those two ended well.

And the Why of that's not lost on me.

Kimmer invested herself in Jacquie's remaining days. Before that, she invested herself in Jacquie as Jacquie's dementia drained her of memories, names, relationships, and bandwidth. Before that, she invested in Jacquie as Jacquie's favorite niece just as Jacquie invested in Kimmer as Kimmer's favorite aunt. Two peas in a pod, their relationship was a natural expression of their personalities and experiences. They had no problem being fully present with each other. Kimmer had no problem being fully present with Jacquie as dementia began the drawn out process of taking Jacquie away from us. Kimmer had no problem being fully present with Jacquie during the last five weeks of Jacquie's life as Jacquie's cognition ebbed and flowed, as her consciousness sometimes latched onto things in the real world...

But mostly didn't.

Kimmer lived that experience with Jacquie. She walked the last lap with her.

And ended well.

No regrets.

It comes up, of course. How fast time moves. How years, decades are gone in the blink of an eye.

Which feels true.

Even though it isn't.

🙂

[joyfulhottubfuntik]

I will never understand how and why people seriously hate on teenage Ford. I get not liking some of the things he would do later in life, sure, but was he really wrong for how he behaved before his and Stan's falling out?

If you ask me, then no, I don't think he was. Because what did he want? Why was there a rift between the brothers even before the science fair?

For all of his youth Ford had a very strong desire to be seen for something other than what he was born as. Because who was he, really? One of a set of twins? Specifically the weird one with six fingers? And of course, he loved his brother and wanted him to be a part of his life, but that's the thing, isn't it. He, Ford, wanted Stan, his twin who was very dear to him, in his life, but it would be Ford's own one, separate from Stan's. He didn't want to be just one half of a person anymore and he didn't want Stan to be that way either. Stan, however, who had throughout his life repeatedly been told that he is worth nothing without Ford, obviously clung to this "dynamic duo" hard. And actually I can't help but think that here Stan was the one whose emotions were unhealthy. Because how wrong is it to just want to be your own person and to follow your ambitions?

Actually this may or may not be a hot take, but I do believe that everyone would be so much better off if everything went well and Ford got into his dream university. Both Stan and Ford would be able to develop as people separately from each other, while still being on good terms. In canon so much of their lives was defined by attempts to fill the hole in their lives which was left in the absence of the other twin. And besides, Stan would not have that need to focus solely on earning as much money as possible as quickly as possible (which is what got him into all the legal trouble that he found himself in. I do think he could've settled down and done somewhat well, just didn't, because people don't become millionaires by getting a minimum wage job and settling down, do they?).

[novelconcepts]

So not interested in other people’s reviews of my favorite things 90% of the time. I made the mistake of glancing in at some YJ reviews and they were like “Gosh, the weird unhinged show is doing some weird unhinged shit this season, huh?” “Damn, it sucks when stories about how trauma warps people and their abilities to connect with one another results in unlikeable behavior, isn’t it? 😕” Like, good goddamn, you write these for a living?? Must be hard being the smartest viewer in the room, I don’t know how you ever cope.

[reeama-the-mage]

Skelter Family Portrait

[serpentface]

Retconned Wardi firearms- a basic handgun, a highly decorative ceremonial handgun (belonging to Faiza), and a lance-gun.

Gun tech has officially been nerfed down to hand cannons (press F) (this has been a long time coming but I'd been fallacy of sunk costs-ing myself out of retconning).

Handguns are held similarly to a shotgun, with the butt pressed into the user's shoulder, one hand gripping under the barrel, and the other free to ignite the gunpowder. These represent the most advanced firearms in contemporary usage, both in make and in their use of uniform iron projectiles built to match the gun's bore for greater range and efficiency. Lance-guns are the more basal form, usually larger and mounted with the pole held over the shoulder, and are most effectively used by two people (one to hold and aim, one to light the gunpowder).

The spread of firearms is currently mostly limited to the Eastern Inner Seaway peoples (with some additional distribution via overland trade), and actual manufacture of hand cannons and gunpowder at Significant scale is limited to the region's core powers.

The reason for this limited spread is partially due to specific elements of the technology's history. Gunpowder was first synthesized by Burri alchemists and considered to be the discovery of the legendary divine weapon + solar fire of the deity Inanariya, and its formula (along with techniques for ideally refining its components) remained a closely guarded state secret. It was used predominantly in priestly contexts to generate flame and explosive sounds (in conjunction with earlier practices of generating multicolored flames with use of other chemicals), then integrated into combustible weaponry in the forms of fire lances, which would eventually develop into early handcannons.

The treatment of gunpowder as a guarded sacred or semi-sacred substance continued with Wardi adoption, where knowledge of its making is considered a closed rite. It's name (inya tsatsul or just tsatsul, a derived adoption of the Burri iñazatsūya) still reflects a divine solar association (the Burri word means 'sun's thunder', the Wardi 'inya' invokes the sun, 'tsatsul' is an adapted loanword and has no meaning independent of the substance itself), though its priestly use is now predominantly associated with the firearm'ed Odonii (rather than priests of the solar Face Inyamache). The composition of gunpowder can no longer be regarded as a Secret by any means, though efforts to obscure the methods of its creation are still moderately successful and has kept knowledge of gunpowder manufacture more limited than the total sphere of firearm usage itself.

The actual strongest limiting factor of firearm usage is the rarity of natural saltpeter deposits necessary for making gunpowder. The practice of actively producing saltpeter via nitraries has not been developed anywhere in the setting, and all is instead obtained via natural sources. These sources are rare and limited within the current spread of firearm technology, and result in gunpowder being a limited and expensive substance to produce. The weapons themselves are also very expensive to manufacture (a good quality steel SWORD is far too material-cost prohibitive for most people to own), particularly high quality firearms designed for use with standardized ammunition.

These guns are also very basal, and logistical difficulties in their use (weight, very slow loading and firing speed, high visibility, Relatively low reach and accuracy) along with the restrictive cost of production has kept firearms far from rendering conventional weaponry, armor, and projectiles obsolete (even within the societies that have access to them). They are still, however, very devastating in use within their contemporary context, particularly in that high quality guns have a longer range than the best arrow-based projectiles, and utterly negate most contemporary forms of armor at close range.

[saltpepperbeard]

Stede + His Babies