This is an unlikely image to start today’s ball rolling. Us versus the elements, there is no contest. I contemplate the puny powers of humankind compared with the might of nature.

At the current time with order versus chaos there appears to be no contest.

07:30 I’ve just had my morning coffee whilst watching news on TV to hear that UK Prime Minister Keith Starmer is returning from his 14th visit abroad whilst the farmers are going to protest again in London about their abandonment by the government. Does Starmer even care?  We have the next prognostication from the mainstream media about when the next wall of snow will hit us and we have indications from a well-placed US medical person Dr. Peter Hotez that a selection of new viruses will be unleashed on the day after Trump’s inauguration in a presumable attempt to sabotage his pregnancy.

Meanwhile, we see a very calm and attractive well heeled shooter shows no resistance to being arrested after having been recognized after his murder of the SEO of America’s biggest insurance company. How strange that he carries his weapons around as if wanting to be identified.This is the incoherence that we are assailed with 24/7/365.

On a personal level my local best friend, Terry, has gone offline and does not answer his phone after I was told by his son that he is suffering from a cough and cold and is not seeing visitors. It has been a week now and no news. He has not been in the best of health so do I assume he’s gone away for a holiday or is he paying the price for not looking after himself physically?

As they say, it’s all in the mind. an expression that suggests that our thoughts and beliefs can have a powerful impact on our experiences and outcomes. It can also mean that a problem is only imagined and doesn’t exist. Well, not quite.

We have to deal with a physical world while seeking recourse and comfort in a belief that life is not hopeless and without meaning and this can only be done if we place our intention and our focus in a mindset that is not subject to break down or entropy as is the situation in the physical dimension. The first point that occurs to me is that we cannot see the whole picture but only an individual snippet normally from the point of our own needs.

The difference between ourselves and machines or should I say machine thinking is that we have the capacity to observe ourselves from a more abstract point of view.  For example, we have the ability to put ourselves second and sacrifice ourselves for others so this must indicate a higher or more abstract state of mind. We are all looking for a state that the Greeks called Eudaimonia which refers to blessedness, human prosperity, welfare, or just plain and simple happiness, and in order to do this we need to exhibit virtues such as caring and assisting others along their way.

Where does the impulse for this come from? Is it something we are born with? One might ask the same with so-called bad behavior such as the desire to limit the freedom of others even to the extent of taking away the lives of others. Catholics would call this ‘original sin’.

The Garden of Earthly Delights – Hieronymus Bosch – 1480

Is the concept of a loving caring God necessary to our view of life? For many people the answer is no. They have reached their own equilibrium where their chosen goals have been achieved and they have a standard of comfort and material success that is for them a nirvana. In spite of this some people feel empty.

We may care to take notice of what the writer CS Lewis says ““If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” As a preliminary thought the daily mindset of giving thanks should help us avoid comparisons with others,  “if gratitude is the cause of joy, then comparison is the thief of joy”

I asked this point of everybody including myself. How are we to best position our state of mind in order to see the balance between our higher self, our spirits, and our normal everyday self.  The theory is that we are co-existential with the universe and our souls are eternal. I know that, I believe on it, and I rely on it but that doesn’t directly help people deal with their daily lives, their trials and tribulations.

I ask myself – How can I address people at the level they understand. Am I wasting my time even trying to express the ineffable when people’s thinking circuits may have closed or modified by fear campaigns or the effects of artificial intelligence – robotic thinking.

I think you can only get through to another human being on the basis of what they will allow. You cannot persuade them of anything else really unless they are open to being persuaded. once the gates are locked come out you’re not going to get in.  When I speak to friends on the same wavelength they would at least entertain the idea and put it in a frame and see if it is workable or whether they disagree. And if I disagree with it I will work out why I disagree with that.

Most people won’t do that but some will. For those who have the impulse, there are many ways to get the word out. One  is to appear in public and use the social media or to write a book. However, whatever we say or do, 80% of the population will not listen to us.

However, when you speak to people you do not know the effect on them long-term. You might say something and 40 years later someone might realize the truth of it and will be led into actions and that will still affect you even though you may have departed from this body

As for seeing our place in the universe we cannot see the entire story so trying to figure out how we can encompass all these factors is impossible. We do it by continuously working outwards using the two fundamental Christian tenets which are love the Lord with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and secondly love your neighbor as yourself. If you apply these two fundamental tenets they will open up everything. All we can hope is that we understand more as time goes on.

I always said that if you want to learn something, share it and the act of sharing stimulates the mind/brain which is the ultimate relational database to produce more knowledge and wisdom so if you gave away all the knowledge you had, at the end you would be more knowledgeable and more wise. I am aiming to start a new group dedicated to journaling (like this volume) and writing.

We must continue to value people who we can converse with who will not acquiesce to what they think you want to hear. A true friend tells the truth.

Why should we value each individual?  Our psychology and disposition is unique to every living person and it is difficult if not impossible to replace. We need people on our wavelength to feel fully human. I am less lonely with my own company than with people who are not on the same wavelength

From where I stand, a bit like a bloke on a desert island, I’m trying to get the mindset that serves me and serves others or serves the Purpose.  I tend to slip out of focus.  When I discuss or think about something I don’t realize that when the brain is in charge it’s just sitting there trying to protect me and therefore I will think all sorts of self-protective thoughts.

We have ingrained programs that will set us into those mindsets and the trick is to break those mindsets and get to where the (cosmic) consciousness itself is

You have got consciousness, you have got mind and you have got brain. The mind determines how much of each you are going to take to think the things you are currently thinking. If we take more of the consciousness we will be taking more of an expansive view and we won’t have to ask those questions that we often ask.

We can more avoid the situation where the brain itself goes into material mode and tries to understand a situation as a process of information you can’t have all such relevant information and therefore you get frustrated because you can’t see it. ‘Knowing’ can be ‘all knowing’ which is real to you but not to others because it doesn’t occupy space. Some listeners can get jealous of this state of mind which probably pertained in the life of saints and holy people.

Many people today are dissociated, depressed and confused and that is the opportunity seized by the powers that be to hit them with five or six different distractions at the same time for example covid, climate change, global warming, expensive energy, limitation of free speech, unpredictable weather so the general public can’t tell what is true anymore and the resulting confusion is how governments take over a society. One of many examples of long term pushback is a letter signed by thousands of scientists lead by Dr Aseem Malhotra MBChB

While there is life there is hope.