anxiety

   The actual song itself is available only in spoken form, as requested by Philip.

Response by John:

The last GEM you listened by Phil was entitled, A Married State of Mind.

I love the opera, a musical called Les Meserable.

In Les Meserable, there is a love story between Marius and Quisette.

And the song, these lyrics, while falling in love, says “I am lost’ and she says, “I am found.”

And that reminds me of the love between a man and a woman.

   The actual song itself is available only in spoken form, as requested by Philip.

Response by John:

The last GEM you heard was called The Happy Journey. And it reminds me, in my own life – and that is what is amazing about these poems and songs by Phil – how much you can relate to yourself.

I can think of a woman I once knew from Japan. This woman traveled from Scotland to Canada to see him. I met a woman from Japan. Her name was Shigiko.

Introduction by Philip:

We all have a box or a bag of trinkets, pictures and memories of our lives somewhere.
This song celebrates how precious these memories are.

   The actual song itself is available only in spoken form, as requested by Philip.

“Hi hon. How was golf?”
“I was lousy, as always.”
“But how did it feel?”
“It was fabulous being out in this gorgeous weather.”

Sound like a familiar conversation?

We often allow feelings of hopelessness to become our predominant emotion.

Good morning. This is April 12, 2023. Montgomery Frazier, The Image Guru.

And today I just want to talk about, in an aging population, we have to be our own health advocates for ourselves and for the people we love.

Suppose earth itself can help make peace on earth, in your lifetime, starting right now – the end of violence – the end of the barbaric age.

Consider the oppressor.

Suppose our thoughts can help make peace on earth, in your lifetime, starting right now – the end of violence – the end of the barbaric age.

Consider the people being oppressed.

I picture them wandering now in a grove of trees, tall and pungent, with the ground moist and soft. I picture them happily stepping on stones to cross a brook, trickling, soothing.

I picture them walking thru an open meadow of tall grasses with a sun umbrella, sparrows appearing and disappearing.

I like to doodle. With an extra fine black pen on a piece of ordinary white paper.

The black ink is so stark, yet so controlled, so elegant because the line is so finely precise.

Doodling is one of earliest ways I remember to cope with frustration, with worry, with stress. It relaxes me.

There’s something about setting pen to paper that feels like raw creativity, pure play – no agenda – no picture in mind – just giving myself over to the moment.

It’s amazing to see the kind of plaything a child loves and craves. For example, a big empty cardboard box. A little snip here and there and presto, a small house, or a store, or a spaceship.

Their imagination is so intense and vast and immediate – that it can go way beyond the “stuff” in front of them, and “grow” their own little world.

Overwhelmed? Too many things to do? Like an endless list, with things that put themselves back on the list every month, every week, every day?

I did.

Then one day, I said that from now on I would honor this list all morning, but come lunch, I am free for the rest of the day to do what I want. Sort of “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And to me what is mine: peace of mind.

I need to honor my own needs, not just the needs the modern world places upon me.