A man is measured by the quality of his friends and the choices that he makes when all hope seems to be lost.
When I was a kid, I had this silly idea that adults were perfect and that they always made the right choices. As I grew older, though, I realized that this notion was wrong. I realize now more than ever that the past has a direct influence on the present. We can’t do anything about that, of course, except try to understand it and learn from the lessons that pain brings about. Learning from pain is the biggest lesson life has to offer, because it ultimately shapes us and makes us stronger. Adulthood just means taking responsibilities for the choices we make. Beyond that, adulthood is about figuring out what the right choices are.
Growing up, I often told myself “if something doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.” I found this to be true in my darkest days, but also in my best days. Challenges have a way of revealing the truth, which is what most of us are after. We want to know how capable we are of rising to the occasion and facing adversity. After all, isn’t that what depression is?
Depression starts when you’re disappointed in yourself. Or maybe your disappointment in something else. It eats away at your soul, discourages you and sends you down a road where you’ll feel helpless and pursue self-destructive behavior. That’s not all, though. Depression is a lot deeper than that. See, most people can strive to survive anything; Wars. Battles. Arguments. Why? Because they see a destination in sight. Depression disables you from seeing a destination. It makes you re-evaluate who you are, why you’re here and whether or not you deserve to find your destination. Depression is a lonely place filled with silence, pain, mixed signals, fear and anger. Depression is being scared of your own shadow. Depression is waking up every morning and wondering why you keep going.
What subconsciously drives people is not that they want the truth, but that there is no indefinite truth. Everything we see is based on perspective and everything we’ve been told is an opinion formed by people who have shaped their long-time research into their own interpretations. The truth is interesting like that; it teaches us patience, acceptance and kindness. So, if you look far enough, you can find most anything.
We all want answers, but what we don’t realize is that we often don’t ask the right questions.
The problem with finding out the truth is kind of like going on your first date. You don’t know what will happen by the end of it. You want it to go smoothly, you may even want her/him to be the one. But what you don’t want is to make a fool out of yourself. That’s okay. Making a fool out of yourself is what makes you human, just as vulnerability is what makes us strong.
People who suffer from depression think similarly. They want help, they want to recover and to be able to see their destination, but what they don’t want is to be seen as fragile, weak and helpless.
In order to succeed at anything, whether it be academically, professionally or in regards to your mental health, you have to let yourself be vulnerable. Think of a healthy family building a mansion. In the middle of building this mansion, Tom has an emotional breakdown and stops in the middle of the building process. Suddenly, part of the mansion comes crumbling down. The other family members clearly see that some parts of the building are fine and the other parts are crumbling, but they don’t really know what to do at this point. What do they do? What would YOU do? You can’t just pick up a random piece of something and hope it sticks somewhere. Think about this for a minute before you continue to read.
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So, what should you do? Great question. You have to have patience, knock it down, take a break and completely rebuild the mansion together when you’re ready.
Behind all truth lies the possibility of vulnerability. It is the connection between strength and wisdom. It teaches us that if we really want something, we should think of the process, not the outcome.
Think of vulnerability and truth as a flower. If it’s locked up in a heated room with barely any air, it will die. We don’t know what will happen if we let it out of that room. People may accidentally (or intentionally) step on it, bad weather could destroy it, etc. It’s a risk. But the biggest risk in life is never taking one. What if we let the flower blossom? It could be the beauty to our landscape we were looking for. It could brighten up your girlfriend’s day by cheering up her mood. It could be used by someone to express their affection. It can help bees produce more honey.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the choices we make that will define us for the rest of our life and it’s about our willingness to go through a little more pain now to have an even better tomorrow. Because, whether or not we realize it, we’re never as alone as we feel. We’re just afraid to take a risk and see what lies behind the unopened door. Our truth.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. Joel 3:14
The New York Times reports these decisions have been taken a long Time ago, when the US unilaterally abrogated nuclear arms limiting Treaties signed with the Soviet Union now that it no longer exists and it views Russia as weak. Absolutely, from the Russian perspective, they would have serious questions about the real US-NATO intentions, despite US soothing words.
In the world of Power, Pulpit and Pew this vision is still True from both the Old and New Testaments:
Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? and who knows us? Isaiah 29:9-15
You hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draws close to me with their mouth, and honours me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Matthew 15:7-9
Russian officials reiterated their position that the American-built system imperiled Russia’s security. But the public discussion in Russia was darker, including online commentary of how a nuclear confrontation might play out in Europe, and the prospect that Romania, the system’s host, might be reduced to “smoking ruins.”
“We have been saying right from when this story started that our experts are convinced that the deployment of the ABM system poses a certain threat to the Russian Federation,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters in a conference call.
“Measures are being taken to ensure the necessary level of security for Russia,” he said. “The president himself, let me remind you, has repeatedly asked who the system will work against.”
The United States has asserted that the anti-ballistic missile system would protect only against “rogue” states, particularly Iran, and provide no protection for either Europe or the United States from Russia’s far larger arsenal of nuclear missiles. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization site will be controlled by an American officer.
The system, called Aegis Ashore, was essentially transferred from a seaborne launchpad onto land in Romania, at the Deveselu air base. The United States on Friday planned to break ground on a second site, in Poland, that should be completed in 2018. But a deputy United States defense secretary, Robert Work, reiterated Thursday there are “no plans at all” to strengthen this missile umbrella to protect against Russia.
In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said Russian defense experts consider the site a threat.
“We still view the destructive actions of the United States and its allies in the area of missile defense as a direct threat to global and regional security,” Ms. Zakharova said.
She said that the Aegis Ashore launchpad was “practically identical” to a system used aboard Aegis warships that is capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles.
While the United States says it has no Tomahawk missiles at the site in Romania, Russian officials say the launchpad violates a 1987 treaty intended to take the superpowers off their hair-trigger nuclear alert, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, by banning land-based cruise and medium-range missiles with a range from 300 to 3,400 miles.
The short flight time of these missiles diminished to mere minutes the window Soviet leaders would have had after a warning to decide whether to launch a second strike, raising the risks of mishaps. Any redeployment of nuclear-capable missiles in Central Europe would roll the clock back to this nerve-racking 1980s status quo.
“We have to announce this openly, without any additional diplomatic formulations,” Ms. Zakharova said of the Russian assertion the site violates the intermediate-range missile ban. “We are talking about violation of this treaty.”
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has warned that an American antimissile deployment in Eastern Europe could prompt Russia to withdraw from the treaty. The United States last year accused Russia of violating the treaty by failing to declare the true range of two missile types.
Last fall, Russian security officials appeared to drop hints of another military response to the missile defense system — a nuclear-armed drone submarine. Russia, this leak appeared to say, has options.
During a high-level security meeting, a television camera zoomed in on an open binder showing the weapon’s design, ostensibly by accident.
The drone, according to easily decipherable text accompanying the design drawing, would be capable of carrying a large nuclear device into coastal waters and detonating it, touching off a radioactive tsunami to flood and contaminate seaside cities.
The submarine would “defeat important economic objects of an enemy in coastal zones, bringing guaranteed and unacceptable losses on the country’s territory by forming a wide area of radioactive contamination incompatible with conducting military, economic or any other activities there for a long period of time,” it said.
A Russian commentator, Konstantin Bogdanov, wrote on Lenta.ru, a news portal, that the antimissile sites in Eastern Europe might even accelerate the slippery slope to nuclear war in a crisis.
They would inevitably become priority targets in the event of nuclear war, possibly even targets for preventive strikes. Countries like Romania that host American antimissile systems might be the only casualties, he wrote, whereas the United States would then reconcile with Russia “over the smoking ruins of the East European elements of the missile defense system.”
The American spokesman saying this missile defence system is only for an imaginary Middle Eastern Country having nukes and intercontinental missiles count on their own Western populations believing the Corporate owned news media propaganda, being unquestioning and dumb. It’s potentially a grave mistake to think the Russians are that dumb.
The range of these US-NATO Missiles would have to be at the borders of those rogue Middle Eastern Nations, not at the Russian border to be effective against missiles coming from there. The Truth and Reality is, the only Nation in The Middle East with nukes and the missiles with the capability to deliver them is Israel. The UN is not allowed to inspect Israel’s nuclear facilities and nuclear arsenal because it has not signed on to the NPT.
By any stretch of the imagination, it’s perfectly natural I should be following these trends more closely because of this Public record from 40 years ago.
The September 13, 1976 Kansas City Times records the warning of an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a war with Russia.”
The article from The New York Times above is one more confirming sign this world is at the precipice. The article below, with the picture and date, confirms the vision is in harmony with the Day.
Sunday, May 15
Besides maintaining this Blog and my Public Face Book News Feed, I comment often in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Post and many other online news outlets. Only CSIS and the NSA would know them all. Having the Time is part of my retirement, approaching my 73rd Year May 21.
I made this comment this morning as it is related to the theme of this article:
Rocket is a Musician and a Believer, so while I did not include the video appropriate in my mind to the themes, I can do that here between the lines. Enjoy!
Rocket, It’s hard for me to believe 40 years have passed since THE KANSAS CITY TIMES published this on September 13, 1976. It’s almost like being an Elton John Rocket Man on the way to the Revelation of Church of Philadelphia Freedom!
Ancient Babylon is the Bible’s starting model for Imperial Powers, the USA being the late, greatest of them all.
“He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November to do God’s bidding: To tell the world, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered […] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of Babylon,” he said.”
These are the first two parts of the three part Writing On The Wall recorded in Daniel 5 during the Captivity of Babylon some 2600 years ago. It was not until 9/11 and 7 years later, with the Global Financial Meltdown-Economic Pearl Harbor-Tsunami in the Fall of 2008, the whole world was able to see the Writing on the Wall for the 1st Time at the same Time.
The third part of the Writing on the Wall speaks of the decline of the world’s dominant economic-military Imperial Super Power, and a rising Persia/Iran.
The US is the latest, greatest Nation to wear the Biblical Babylonian Imperial Mantle these last 2600 human years. Ancient Babylon was the 1st, and is now known as Iraq. The Tail struck the Head, and the consequences continue to this very Day!
THE KANSAS CITY TIMES also published this in that 1976 article:
He wanted to bring to the public’s attention an idea being put out “subtly and deceptively” by the government that “we have to get prepared for a war with Russia.”
The Revelation of the unfolding events reported by Today’s news media TODAY, indicate the TIME of the fulfillment of that prophecy is now at hand, unless saner heads prevail!
And to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia write; These things say he that is Holy, he that is True, he that has the key of David, he that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens; I know your works: behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it: for you have a little strength, and have kept my word, and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept the word of my Patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which you have, that no man take your crown.
Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 3:7-13
Searching for the right Elton John Philadelphia Freedom video just now, I found this one with the ringing bells, so appropriate for
