Tag: gratitude journal

Paint It White – 11th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Blocked out, little emotion left inside
No meaning carries a meaning that’s implied
Words left unsaid, let actions speak louder
Paint it all white and sprinkle it with powder
Every town’s memory, slowly being removed
Every complex conspiracy, slowly being disproved
We’re gonna make it right through to the end
Paint it all white to signal the angel to descend

We all believe we are masters in the realms of opinion and reasoning.

Robert Greene

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for all the food Amy and her parents made that is in my freezer. I can eat cheaply for many days.

Endgame – 10th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 4 Comments

Do we become the madness we see around us?
Are we merely acting as we saw the actors perform?
Does Beckett’s England make England Becketts?
The whole world’s a stage of paths trodden worn

We wore our striped pyjamas
As we limped around with a ladder
I can no longer tell if I am he
Or he is me, making me feel sadder

Have you seen my eyes, I’ve never shown
It seems true that you don’t complain
Never wondered to take off the goggles
Slept in and never thought to explain

A blown whistle brings forth a biscuit
And the lid’s stuck back on the bins
No more nature now we’re losing our bloom
Stuck here with each other, forever
– and for all our sins

21st Oct 2024 – Shared with Ragtag Daily Prompt – stripe

Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really interests them but themselves.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the market seller and the tasty tangy mango I got from him. He knows me now.

The Week That Was – 21st October 1979

Wren’s Columns – 9th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Even though it’s only pretend
You will feel my support
Though unrequired in the end
You did it all by yourself
But needed comfort to begin
You learned to trust yourself
And you can do anything

Inspired by the story of Christopher Wren adding two unnecessary columns to a building to satisfy the owner’s desire. Everyone was happy. Also along with the work I’ve been teaching my students that they can improve themselves little by little.

You aren’t a machine with broken parts. You are an animal whose needs are not being met.

Johann Hari

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that I can catch up on some video watching whilst doing the ironing. Too many shirts today.

Coconuts On The Corner – 8th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Blue clad and behatted
Tending to the rice
Determined yet superstitious
Calves sold half price
Gnarled hands tie knots
Stakes hammered into earth
Mothers, nose-ringed, stuck
Appraised of the markets worth
A slower circle of life
The farmer or the cow
Waiting for the rain to stop
Yet enjoying it right now
The cultivated garden grows
On any patch of dirt
Tuppence for every pumpkin
Surely doesn’t hurt
Buffalo poop now sundried
On the corner, sold in bags
Every family in the valley
Desires to shed their rags
The lady with her eggs
The boys grilling fish
Coconut smoothies, ice cold
Or any other drink you wish
The dust blurring teary eyes
As the sun pounds down again
Hang that old washing out
Before the returning rain

8th August 2023 – The coconut stall has gone now and the area cleaned up with some sheds knocked down and the remaining building converted into a small eating space which has also closed down already!

There is no sin in being wrong. The sin is in our unwillingness to examine our own beliefs, and in believing that our authorities cannot be wrong.

Neil Postman

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to get another holiday for two days. I can watch the football at my leisure today.

No Body Required – 3rd August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

An entertainment to end all others
Viewers left zombied gibbering wrecks
Weaponised for controlling populations
Shoulders hunched until snapping necks
Bodies broken boxed in the matrix
Life supported until accounts drained
A no one dies a nobody death
Disposed and destroyed, existence unexplained

Human life is not sacred until all life is sacred to humans.

Doc Dart

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be able to handle changing situations quickly and be able to manage my expectations.

The Week That Was – 14th October 1979

Red Lines Drawn – 2nd August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Crazy colonialists came
Before they left again
Revoked rights remain
Creating wars the same
Arbitrary lines drawn
To ancient enemies sworn
Peoples, ripped and torn
Nations divide in scorn

‘Freedom’ is nothing more than the leash on which we allow the masses to run. They do not want to be free.

Pat Mills (?), Third World War, Crisis Magazine

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that Amy spent a day preparing meals for me to freeze and eat later.

The Week That Was – 7th October 1979

The Chases – 1st August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Even amongst all the confusion
Peace can be found in all places
Don’t fall for the constant illusion
That life is only about the chases

The only people I would care to be with now are artists and people who have suffered: those who know what beauty is, and those who know what sorrow is: nobody else interests me.

Oscar Wilde

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to live near enough to shops that cover about 90% of my day-to-day needs.

The Week That Was – 30th September 1979

Own Goal – 31st July 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

In a carefully worded statement
Facts were twisted and obscured
The lines crossed were blurred
And both sides eventually demurred
One step forward, two steps back
Holding hands, stepping into a hole
A status quo must be maintained
Until someone scores an own goal

You are a human being, not a human doing.

Ryan Holiday

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that our little car is healthy enough to get us to Chiang Mai and back on a quick turnaround trip. Good health to you, Almy.

Problem N – 28th July 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Too much, and thinking is affected
The past is a time still being perfected
Forever with us as a problem somehow
Living in the past instead of the now

Humanity’s state of mind has been distorted by its own bloody history.

Liu Cixin, The Dark Forest

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be able to enjoy falling asleep to weird interesting music. I love that feeling and sometimes reminds me of listening to John Peel as a teenager or jazz on the radio in the early hours.

Rorts and Payers – 27th July 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Your mindless, meaningless sympathy
Does nothing for those in need
A charitable chunk of donations
Was never seen to stop the bleed
Thoughts and prayers, those empty words
Won’t disturb your life serene
Never stopped to consider your action
Won’t make your dirty hands clean
For every heartstring, there’s a scam
So that we may never be as one
The status quo has removed benevolence
And so nothing ever gets done

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

Saul Bellow

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to go to Phayao after school yesterday with a great dinner by the lake as the sun was setting. It was very relaxing.