Self~Discipline
not all in your life will be a beautiful sunrise
A few years ago I was having a really bad time; alcoholism, anger, anxiety and depression….. I felt as though I hadn’t a friend in the world, and the truth was that I hadn’t. I was suffering from insomnia, taking midnight walks, drinking all hours….. Things were bad. There didn’t seem to be any way out…..
Something prompted me to go to my bookshelf, and at random I read the first sentences of the first book that came to hand.
Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult ~ once we truly understand and accept it ~ Then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters. ~ The Road Less Travelled
From time to time some things have been bad since then, and Life hasn’t always gone the way I would have liked. But the whispers in the night have never been as dark as they were back then. I’ve stopped drinking, I have a very few very good friends. My footsteps are leading me to good places now.
It took a lot to drag me away from the slough of ultimate despond and pain, but that small passage in a book has helped me ~ it’s been with me ever since that black night.
May you find your own small light in the darkness.
~
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
choose your own guiding light
Freedom
’emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which individual liberty has been eroded
the only casual sex allowed is phone sex
Here in England it’s Day 380 of the national coronavirus lockdown, and now that there may be some signs that some of the restrictions may be lifted in the foreseeable future, it is worth remembering just what has been taken away from us.
Just to focus on three of our inalienable rights;
- Freedom of Association. All through this lockdown we have been prohibited from meeting our friends and families. Two women sharing walk and a cup of coffee were arrested for ‘breaking the spirit of lockdown’. A lady was arrested just for being outside the care home of her elderly father. And while the Black Lives Matter ‘protests’ were allowed to go ahead, every other public gathering of more than six people was treated as a riot by our increasingly heavy handed police. Schools, Universities, and Churches have been closed, as have all other possible meeting places. Extramarital sex is out of the question unless you are part of the ‘governing elite.’
- Freedom of Movement. We have been told not to to go anywhere unless it was absolutely essential, not to leave home, not to travel more than a dozen miles from home, not to go to work unless you couldn’t possibly work from home….., and our increasingly Gestapo-like police force have happily arrested anyone seemingly breaking the rules. Airlines have been grounded, Wales and Scotland closed their borders, and do not even think about attempting to travel to the USA.
- Freedom of Trade. Apart from some ‘essential’ food stores and pharmacies, everything has been shut. Factories have been lying idle because nobody could buy anything they made. Agriculture has been badly hit because farm workers were told to stay at home, or in the case of ‘foreign casual labourers’ weren’t even allowed into the UK. And, of course, any business where people could gather together has been closed for the duration. Forget getting a pint with your mates down the pub.
Some say that losing our freedom was a necessary part of staying safe and protecting the Health Service. And that those who complained should be gagged. (Well, there goes Freedom of Speech.) All I know is that we have all lost more than just our basic liberties to combat a mild ‘flu epidemic.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
all doors have been firmly closed
by order of some power-mad unelected officials
Tunes on Tuesday ~ Lifted
first, find the peace within yourself
Not that anyone would believe it, but The Lighthouse Family are an English band, from Newcastle upon Tyne. That’s not why I chose this song, it’s because I feel the need to be lifted from the slough of despond I’ve been suffering.
I believe that I’ve driven that road, just out of Death Valley, California.
Probably in a Mustang Convertible.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
sometimes, only a Mustang convertible will do
Monochrome Monday ~ Lancaster
the aircraft that broke Hitler’s reich
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
crew and ground crew
Scenes on Sunday ~ Sara
I am not a number, I am a free man
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
basically, I can build anything
Mercurial Me
subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood
what’s behind you doesn’t matter
There’s another definition of mercurial which is someone who is clever, confident, lively, and quick; the archetypal Type A personality. Both of the above are pretty accurate descriptions of who I am. I am also an Ares; passionate, intense, instinctive, aggressive, physical, unpredictable, a black-and-white, here-and-now, straight-line thinker. You might gather that I don’t like settling for second best. You might not think that I have a great sense of humour and a wicked laugh.
In the past I used to like things quick and dirty, but that was because I had no inherited wisdom, no role models to look back on, and very little fear of failure. I learned the hard way that walking blindly into the swamp to slay a dragon wasn’t always the best way to go about things. I learned very fast that casual sex is sordid. Acting on impulse has usually ended in big trouble for me.
I used to have an uncontrollable and sudden temper, which fortunately always passed just as quickly as it came upon me. These days I’ve learned to count to ten, and then ten again, before letting anger and frustration get the better of me. (Actually after counting to 20 I’m usually bored with being annoyed.) However, one hangover from those bad old days is that to this day I never forget and never forgive.
My standards are very high, some would say impossibly so. I am judgmental, I measure myself harshly and I judge others just as severely. Perhaps that’s because I am intelligent, dynamic, quick, and confident enough to see the slow mediocrity in others. Because I am utterly honorable and honest I despise liars, especially those who lie by sly omission.
Why am I telling you this? Because my birthday was just a couple of days ago, and now we are into my star-sign of Ares it seemed a good moment to remind myself of just who I am. A man who likes the passionate joy of the chase as much as the conquest. A man who lives a great life to the fullest, even during this fucking lockdown. (BTW, I get very upset if a woman ever used the ‘F’ word in public.)
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
I know about astronomy
and astral navigation too
Songs on Saturday ~ The Chain
there’s nothing wrong with the car, except that it’s on fire
Back in the great days of motor racing, before it became a procession of ugly electric slot cars, the iconic commentator and pundit on the BBC was a chap called Murray Walker ~ famous for getting it all wrong at the best time. The music for the opening credits for the Grand Prix show on TV was The Chain by Fleetwood Mac.
This is the short version.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Murray Walker passed away about a year ago. He loved this lotus 72 as driven by Emerson Fittipaldi
Songs on Saturday ~ Daytona
twelve wild horses in silver chains
Back in the day, when Chris Rea could still sing and great cars didn’t rely on computers to make them work, Pininfarina designed the Daytona. I would contend one of the 10 best-looking cars ever made.
I’ve been to Daytona Beach, and I even know what Daytona means, but I’ve never driven a Ferrari Daytona, not anywhere. And actually, I’d rather own a Jaguar V12 E-Type, but then I am English and not Californian
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
a man’s man’s car
Food on Friday ~ Aphrodite’s Herbalist
herbs demonstrate the earth’s nurturing love
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there is a love called the herbs
which knows seasons and extraction
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which chooses and uses through filtration
the pungent perfume of timed infusion
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aromatic alchemical warmed fluids
medicinal herbs mystical magical uses
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richly potent oils from maceration
concentrated to potions by decoction
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glistening alcoholic secret distillation
Aphrodisiac attention to her golden skin
sensual memories of myriad loves
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
sage is a psychotropic aphrodisiac
sensual women should beware
its dreams of desire
Food on Friday ~ Booze
I used to drink so much vodka that I had a Russian accent
Russian Slut Cocktail
26 ounce bottle of Smirnoff Black Label Vodka
Soda
Mint Leaves
Ice
One Gallon Jug
Pour the vodka into the jug over a couple of handfuls of ice, go into the yard, tear a handful of mint leaves and toss them in the jug, drive to the nearest place that has a soda fountain, fill the jug with whatever soda you like, go home, stir the jug, and drink with not more than a couple of casual friends, (of any sex). Enjoy. Repeat for as long as one of you can walk. What else you do while you’re drinking depends on how much of a Russian Slut you’ve become.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
eventually, you may forget the mint
and the ice
