USED TIRE WORLD

• Inspiration comes in many forms.  God blessed me with inspiration one day as I was on my way to work.. Sitting at a stop light early one morning I just happened to glance over to my right and saw this "Used Tire World" sign.  And like a bullet to my head, I began to smile and in a nano second I thought , "Ain't that the truth!"  "Used Tire world ".....wow...... That was exactly how I felt for so long, like a old used tire....because physically, mentally, and spiritually I was so empty.  ....Sort of Flat...it was actually a spiritual moment, for God was getting my attention, God was inspiring me.  I was being kept in spirit of the moment.  I can remember through the years and pick out moments of clarity, but I always attributed those with either too much coffee, or one of the many substances I might have be using at the time....lol...
•  For some, addiction is no laughing matter, and making light of it upsets them, well.....I am not one of those....I have cried all the tears I can, and Lord knows I've produced enough misery for not only myself ,but to those who knew and loved me.  That is why I am smiling like a idiot at the benign sign with the huge red letters.."USED TIRE WORLD."   Inspiration has me smiling and it was at this same moment I wondered where did that thought come from?.. To be inspired is to be in spirit.  It started me asking myself, where is the source of that type of thinking?....How does it arrive?..Why does it arrive?  But most of all, What do I do with it?...
• It has taken me many years, good and bad situations to see the "truth" about the first question.  In the past, "I" would always take credit...."I" was the center of the universe, and "I" was in control....(let me say right now, this attitude, kind of didn't work out)....  At this stage in my life I am probably only in control of my bladder, and that is also starting to go...lol.... 
• God provides my inspiration.  It is that simple. Every good answer, every good option, everything that is good and every good choice I make is me, moving toward God......"USED TIRE WORLD"...all this came to me from these three small words. 
• If inspiration can come to me from a sign, I can only imagine the wonderful possibilities and the endless joy that a life with God first will bring me.....I think is is time to change the tires on my "spiritual ride."   God bless.....     TRAMPDOWN LOG..28 MAY,2012

The Table

    I sat back in my chair and looked at the three men who sat around the table.  I can remember when we were just little boys, and our only real worries in life was if our school homework was done, or if we would win our next baseball game.  Now here we were 40 years later, grown men.  Even though I haven't seen them in so long, my love and affection for them has grown.  It took this gathering for me to realize that.  I am overwhelmed with emotion as I listen and look at them, but I keep it to myself.
     The friends, and bonds we make between the ages of 10-15 years of age are special.  And sadly never to be seen or felt again.  I remember how that thought would make me sad, even melancholy.....Now hearing their voices, seeing their faces, but most of all hearing them laugh.  I never realized it a the time, but our childhood friends supply us with many wonderful things.  Companionship, support, a sense of belonging and most of all, our sense of identity, and who we are.  It's a big part of who we eventually come to be in life.
      When age hits me,as it will do with us all, and decides to steal my memories, I hope and pray these are the ones that will remain with me until the last of my life.  The smiling faces of my friends.  I do not want this time to end.  I want this day to go on forever.....Mike

The Book Bag Man; Trampdown log

    He lives under a bridge like a troll, The Book Bag man.  Everywhere he goes, he [as you guessed it],carries a bag with books in it.  He is constantly reading.  I pass him at least 2-3 times a day. Doesn't speak much.  Don't blame him, sometimes it is so much more peaceful when you can rely on no one for conversation.  It is a gift to be able to be alone with ones self and be comfortable.  You do not necessarily have to be "anti-social", but just being alone is a okay spot...reading can produce that.  Reading and writing, it teaches me a new window of love that I never understood existed.
    To be intimate with not only one's self, but with the characters I create and the "real life" characters that I come in contact with every day.  Being kind, I guess.  Kinder to myself and to others...I/we have so much true power as we live.  So small at first, but comes the day we 'wake-up" a little faster than normal and our eyes have changed.  How many times have we been in a place very familiar to us, and that one time we just seem to notice something good about it. It feels good. Like a puzzle being put together. It just all seems to fit into place....."yeah, it Fits". Try to remember the last time you watched a sunset and that feeling it can pull out of you.  The feeling of "it all fits"....
      That was my first reaction to The Book Bag man...he "fit".  He fit under his bridge, he fit sitting where he does and surrounded by his bags,  it all simply fit.  I speak with him sometimes, but all I can ever get out of him is "yes, yes, yes".  While he nods his head, and for all I know he could be looking at me saying "yes", and in his mind he has me visioned standing there wearing a bunny outfit with a banana shoved up my ass!..Who knows what others are really thinking?..Maybe to him, picturing me like that , it also fits!..lol..Have a good day.......Ale!!    how are you Tinette?