Recent Entries

• Giving Thanks

  by Tony Villari November 24, 2021
    "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."  -- Meister Eckhart So, here we are, again.  Another "Thanksgiving" to deal with.  So... let's deal with it.  While we're at it, let's think about everything we're thankful&n...

• I Can Make You Happy

  by Tony Villari July 10, 2020
  I can make you happy. I am, after all, responsible for your happiness. Oh, what the heck, I might as well accept responsibility for everyone's happiness, right? In this way you will be responsible for... what? Most people, whether they admit it, or not, tend to wallow in a pit of misery. H...

• God Will Provide

  by Tony Villari June 2, 2020
  I've been around the block, put through the wringer once or twice, and have found my own version of peace and happiness. People are constantly asking me about happiness. I tell people happiness is a frame of mind. If you can be happy with what you have done to your life, then let the good times roll...
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• What's in a Relationship?

  by Tony Villari May 18, 2020
  Leo Buscaglia: A man I never knew but grew to love, a man I never met but grew to respect, and a man for which I cried when I heard that he had passed. If you haven't heard of Leo you can look him up online and watch many of his videos. The quotes in this post are all his. He teaches much about love...

• Friends Along Our Path

  by Tony Villari October 1, 2019
  For the second time, I have received requests to reprint this piece of poetry and, now, the post as well.  I edited the grammar a bit, as I always do.  Since it's the first publication, on 1 October 2015, this post still ranks as my most read, 803 of 828, as of this 1 October 2019 update, ...

• The Big Farewell

  by Tony Villari August 24, 2019
  Reality is what it is, and what it ain't it ain't. Sometimes, what it is it ain't, and what it ain't, well... it is. Other times it is nothing, and then it ain't nothing. But, if it is nothing, it ain't, and if it ain't nothing, it is. Acknowledging nothing gives nothing existence;  Ther...

• Before the "Big Bang"

  by Tony Villari August 24, 2019
  A trait most scientists say they have in common is they require the "scientific method" be applied, to virtually everything theoretical, in order to declare proof of a hypothesis and make a statement of fact.  In other words, the results of an experiment have to be repeatable.  This is why...

• Defeating Evil?

  by Tony Villari August 22, 2019
  I grew up in a household which loved animals.  Mom always told me, "Be kind to animals."  But, what about those animals whose driving force is to kill?  You can only tame a tiger until it doesn't want to be tame anymore.  The handler usually discovers this bit of logic when ...
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• Defining Change

  by Tony Villari August 18, 2019
  I almost finished this post, in its first version, when I pressed the wrong keys and deleted it in its entirety.  Everything was lost except for an Albert Einstein quote which was still saved to the clipboard.  When I started this early iteration, I also used a quote from the ancient Greek...

• The Beginning Is Here!

  by Tony Villari August 17, 2019
  I love the fact that I was born when I was.  Discovery and technology were beginning to move at such a rapid pace it would soon be hard to keep up. Hand-crank adding machines would soon give way to electric calculators which would give way to solar calculators which would give way to scientific...
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• Hope

  by Tony Villari August 15, 2019
  Many people I minister feel their sense of hope is lost, and it might be that their sense of hope is, in fact, misplaced.  Hope, however, is never truly lost.  We can give up hope, lose our sense of hope, but the hope we feel, that we sense is lost, is as eternal as the ability w...
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• Close Enoughs and Almost the Sames

  by Tony Villari August 13, 2019
  Well, was it close enough, or almost the same?  Will you respect me in the morning?  More importantly, will "close enough" buy me another date?  We do seem to accept life to be "close enough or almost the same" as what we really want, what we expect.  Is what we really want so fa...

• All Things Considered

  by Tony Villari August 5, 2019
  All things considered, life could be worse.  Life can always be worse, but it can also be better.  It all depends on you.  Each morning, when you wake, you have a decision to make about how you approach the moment.  You can be in a foul mood or you can make a conscious decision&n...
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• Equally Terrifying

  by Tony Villari August 2, 2019
  No.  I don't think we're alone in the universe, but I have to disagree with the best-selling author, Dan Brown, when he wrote, "Any life-form advanced enough to travel light-years through interstellar space would have nothing to learn by probing the rectums of farmers in Kansas."  Wel...
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• Life: It's That Easy

  by Tony Villari July 14, 2019
  I constantly tout that life was never meant to be hard; we make it that way.  God gave us ten easy to understand commandments, and we wrote a user's guide, Holy Scripture, to help us understand what God meant to impart.  We called this "scripture" the "WORD" of God.&nbs...

• Making a Long Story Short  

  by Tony Villari June 23, 2019
    A British writer and journalist, Chris Cleave, once wrote "I could not stop talking because now I had started my story, it wanted to be finished. We cannot choose where to start and stop. Our stories are the tellers of us."  It can be an unfortunate reality that humans are storytel...
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• Misery Loves Company?

  by Tony Villari June 20, 2019
  Over the years I have received my fair share of mail bemoaning one's misery.  My only response to these poor souls is to stop being miserable.  It isn't that I don't care; it's simply that my point of reference for their attitude was left so many years behind me that I remember little of i...

• Path of Obstacles

  by Tony Villari June 15, 2019
  "Obstacles do not block the path, they are the path."  A gentleman recently mentioned this line he quoted from Proverbs, in the Bible.  The Bible?  I had to come home and look it up because I didn't remember that particular quote coming from biblical scripture.  I remembered...
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• State of Grace

  by Tony Villari June 8, 2019
  I like to think of "grace" in other than Christian, or theological, terms.  What if the universe simply imparts individual virtue to those who open their minds to the possibility of it?  What if "divine grace" is simply a universal force which makes each of us strive to be more than we are...
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• Faith

  by Tony Villari June 4, 2019
  What is faith?  Can you have faith and not know what faith is?  Most of us have a definition to suit what we believe, and belief is a major part of having a sense of faith.  At its most basic, faith is a belief in something for which there is little or no proof.  And, most import...
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• Grief

  by Tony Villari May 31, 2019
    Leo Tolstoy wrote, "Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them."  Leo was one of the greatest writers of all time, but this quote evidences little understanding of lo...
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• The Passing of My Dad

  by Tony Villari May 21, 2019
  There are ways we prefer to remember those we love, those who are no longer with us, those who pass on to their next great adventure.  I like remembering my father as a good looking Sicilian who married my mother.   To read the rest of this humble offering, please follow the attached lin...
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• Life Is That Easy

  by Tony Villari May 17, 2019
  Every morning, as I'm dragging my butt out of bed, I thank God for another glorious day in paradise and another chance to excel at whatever challenges God may see fit to throw my way. Will I succeed in those challenges? Hope for the best, and be prepared to embrace failure. Failure is how we learn t...
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• Holocaust Remembrance Day  

  by Tony Villari May 2, 2019
    With the state of our educational system in the U.S. today, it is a wonder our children learn anything, especially when there are those who would change history for "political correctness."  For instance, an African-American helping to raise the flag at Iwo Jima.  Never happened, b...
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• The Mind Is a Cruel Prison

  by Tony Villari May 2, 2019
  What happens when you live a full life and come to the end?  What if you approach that end, fearing the judgment of the omnipotent, only to find the sentence has already been read... and you're not dead?  What cruel irony exists when one finds hell in a living body with a mind which impris...
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• Murder or Tolerance?

  by Tony Villari April 29, 2019
  Recent violence against our Jewish community synagogues is just another in a long line of intolerance of faith being witnessed throughout our country and the world.  Peaceful Islamic Mosques, Jewish synagogues, and Christian churches are being targeted by various factions of the League of ...
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• My Own Mortality  

  by Tony Villari April 24, 2019
    I wanted to write this all down while it's still fresh in my mind; before I think and wordsmith the emotion and, with it, the very meaning of what I truly feel.  I think it's what any of us might feel when a loved one has a massive stroke.  We begin to ponder our own fragile mortal...
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• Hurry Up, and Wait

  by Tony Villari April 22, 2019
  "Hurry up and wait" is an exercise in patience.  It can be hell if what you're waiting for means a change in life, and not in a good way.  Waiting to hear if you've lost your job, or your life, if your test results are positive or not; if you failed your exam or excelled.  Maybe you'r...
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• The Faceless

  by Tony Villari April 18, 2019
  More of us are like this than I imagined and, in my humble opinion, I think we're usually more interesting.  Maybe it's because we just don't give a damn and we're not afraid to let people know.  And, having said all of this, you're still worried about being fat and unattractive?...
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• A Hand Up

  by Tony Villari April 14, 2019
  I have always been a believer in the saying, "God helps those who help themselves."  Will we find this in the Bible?  No, not really.  What the Bible says is in Psalm 94:17-19, "Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.  When I ...
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• Life Becomes Easier

  by Tony Villari April 11, 2019
  Many of us have experienced wanting "the apology you never got."  We tend to let it go because the offense wasn't really worth dwelling over.  Often times, not getting an apology was everything we expected from the person owing us one, and it speaks volumes about who they are.  A...
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• Responsibility for Happiness

  by Tony Villari April 11, 2019
  "I can't be responsible for everybody else's happiness."  The author of this quote isn't anonymous to me, but I know he would appreciate not being assigned to this quote.  He had a valid point though.  Everyone seemed to expect him to make their miserable lives easier o...
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• Je Ne Sais Quoi

  by Tony Villari April 9, 2019
  Describe God.  A simple two-word request?  Can you describe God adequately?  Is God really male, or is God both genders?  God knew Adam required a wife, so did God also have a wife, as some evidence would have us believe?  Is God omnipotent or impotent?  Take a moment a...
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• Do We Fear Death?

  by Tony Villari April 7, 2019
  "For in the sleep of death what dreams may come..."  And, when we finally approach shuffling off this mortal coil, must it give us pause?  Do we go quietly into that good night, or rage against it? Do we move toward the light, or not?  Must it give us pause?  A recent c...
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• Show Me the Money!

  by Tony Villari April 6, 2019
  I opened an interesting article on the internet and noticed an advertisement off to one side.  It asked the reader to "click" if you're a Christian.  Being a somewhat well-trained dog, I dutifully "clicked."  Well, to no great surprise, Reverend Franklin Graham, son of renowned, wealt...
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• Morphing to a Better State of Being

  by Tony Villari April 5, 2019
  I'm going to share someone, in my own life, whose words of wisdom have guided me since I was a young airman.  He is gone now, a tragic loss to mankind.  I stumbled upon Leo on a television special, probably PBS, when I was in my early twenties.  He was discussing love, and happiness, ...
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• Turn It All Off

  by Tony Villari April 3, 2019
  "Turn it all off!"  I have been saying this for years and still, I keep seeing technology bury us under a repressive weight of self-indulgent crap which that make mega-corporations richer at the expense of our souls.  Author and columnist Chuck Klosterman once wrote, "However, it cert...
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• LGB, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQIA... and I'm Confused?

  by Tony Villari March 31, 2019
  Author Adrienne Sigeti wrote the article "Important Truths About Labeling Sexuality".  In her article, she states, "For these people, labels are not only a means of self-expression but also an instrument for self-advocacy and empowerment."  This is true for professional people an...
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• Proof of God - Theists v. Atheists

  by Tony Villari March 30, 2019
  I think most of us can agree that God doesn't look like Michelangelo's depiction on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  As a matter of fact, I remember someone telling me if you actually saw God you would go blind, and if you heard God you would go deaf, so tremendous is the presence of the Alm...
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• Women - Just a Thought

  by Tony Villari March 29, 2019
  Blemishes, scars, and such, do not define who you are.  Your titles, certificates, and college degrees only define what you are.  Your ethics and how you treat other people, how you befriend them, love them, mentor, and cheer them on, these are the ways you define who&n...
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• The More Things Change...

  by Tony Villari March 23, 2019
    One would hope that, when it comes to interfaith ministries, the adage "the more things change, the more they stay the same" would seem out of place. The unfortunate reality seems to be that, even in not-so-mainstream religions, this has not been the case. For instance, many broke away ...
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• A Personal Hell on Earth

  by Tony Villari March 21, 2019
  It is said that when we die everything becomes crystal clear; there are peace and understanding unknown to us in the physical world.  If this is true, and evidence presented by those who have passed over and returned would bear this out, one would have to immediately admit the life they led did...
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• Mondays Bite

  by Tony Villari March 15, 2019
  "Why, Tony?"  Okay, first of all, I brought this on myself as I always tell people to ask the only important question, "Why?"  Quite a few people have thrown this back at me like a hot topic they really don't want to handle.  No one does.  The answer usually comes back ...
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• All the Wrong Places - Again

  by Tony Villari March 12, 2019
  My worst fear in life is one that many of us have: I don't want to die alone.  I used to think this meant sharing my life with someone.  How selfish is that, sharing my life?  And what of the other person sharing theirs?  Because of this attitude, I have come to terms w...
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• All the Wrong Places

  by Tony Villari March 12, 2019
  When I was young, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to "hook-up" with young ladies.  More times than not, and typical of young men, the brain below my belt took control of my God-given good sense, and any expectation for quality would take second-seat to the more base desires.  I...
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• The Right Fit?

  by Tony Villari March 9, 2019
  A square peg in a round hole?  Trying is always an option.  Make the hole bigger, and use a lot of putty to fill in around the peg.  Make the round hole square or make the square peg round.  Carpenters do it all the time.  Learn to adapt and overcome in the face of...
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• Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

  by Tony Villari March 5, 2019
  We hear from people every day how angry they are, how hurt they are, how sad they are, how poor they are, how overworked they are, how lonely they are, how God has forsaken them, and the complaints go on.  Yet, they go to bed at night and wake up the next morning having been given the "gift" of...
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• Wasted Tears

  by Tony Villari March 2, 2019
  450 years before the birth of Christ, the Greek poet Sophocles said, "There is no sense crying over spilt milk.  Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?"  By the same token, you should not fret over those things you can do nothing about.  Is this supposed to make gri...
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• Face of Wonder

  by Tony Villari February 25, 2019
  I see it in museums, and at the seashore, carnivals, parades and holiday celebrations.  The look in a child's eyes as they marvel at something is to look into the face of angels; the innocence, naiveté, and the wonder of all things new to them.  Amazing to me is that a child ev...
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• Responsibility for Happiness

  by Tony Villari February 24, 2019
  Why do you think it is easier to take care of the happiness of others than to take care of your own?  If you give a starving man a steak, he’ll still complain about how it’s cooked.  Let him cook his own steak so you can go have that super-meat-combination pizza&...
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• Love Is Not like Chalk

  by Tony Villari February 23, 2019
  Love Is Not Like Chalk   If you can say to yourself that I have the ability to leave this person and just stop loving them, then you never truly loved in the first place.  God ordered Abraham to kill Isaac, his son.  What God would condone this, much less order it?  I would hav...
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• Be an Old Oak

  by Tony Villari February 22, 2019
  When we think of our lives as older, or even as decaying, scarred, and useless, we forget to consider the life we give to those around us.  We forget how much people we know rely on our strength, just as life clings onto branches of the old oak.  Where others may fall to the wayside i...
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• Is That All There Is?

  by Tony Villari February 16, 2019
  I have heard much discussion from people about an inability to get ahead in life and a concern that this is this all there is.  Talk of people that are tired of taking two steps forward and three steps back.  I was reminded of the young millennial that went to the Christian rock concert an...
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• The Good We Do

  by Tony Villari February 11, 2019
  People who know me will tell you how happy I am, virtually all the time.  One can tell this just by looking at me.  It is that obvious.  I have been humbled many times by people telling me how much they either appreciate what I write, how much I have guided them and, to my embarrassin...
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• Aspiration

  by Tony Villari February 10, 2019
  Aspiration was a discussion topic on the monastery site a few years back.  The introduction put forth by the discussion facilitator was this: This morning a young musician was being interviewed and she was asked, "What is your aspiration?" She replied, "To be happy."  Is it that ...
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• Déjà vu at the Cusp of Infinity

  by Tony Villari February 9, 2019
  Past, present, and future are separated by the distance of time. But, wait.  I'm a proponent of the theory that time does not exist, that time is simply a human construct which gives structure to our lives on this plane of existence.  So, let's try to view time in this context, s...
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• Consequences Unintended

  by Tony Villari February 9, 2019
  Every decision has a risk of unforeseen consequences. Every action we take runs the risk of unforeseen damage. The ripples we cause, during just one day, have the possibility of causing untold destruction. As is usual in life, the good and the beauty we create can be taken in stride, barely noticed,...
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• The Scars We Wear

  by Tony Villari February 7, 2019
  My mother went through a "scarring" episode when I was much younger, back in the days of the "safety razor."  Safety was all about the razor, not the double-edged blade.  There was nothing safe about the blade that went into the razor until it was actually in the razor.  It was a...
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• The Light

  by Tony Villari February 5, 2019
  I hadn't thought much about this post.  I had to write.  I had the itch if you will, but I really didn't have a topic.  Most of the time this is the way I write, and it seems to get me through.  I'd say I'm possibly stretching my luck, but that ship sailed long ago.   Humi...
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• A World of Fools and Hypocrites?

  by Tony Villari February 4, 2019
  I think I became a minister for all the right reasons; it was an appropriate time in my life.  I had a message I thought was important because the world seemed to be in turmoil and undergoing a desire for understanding.  In particular, there seemed to be a desire to understand personal fai...
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• Cynicism

  by Tony Villari February 4, 2019
  I think the definition of "cynicism" is a definition of humankind.  If you're a cynic, you must be human.  No argument from me; it is our nature, right?  Are we all "motivated purely by self-interest "or is there something more?  Those that aren't cy...
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• Hypocrisy

  by Tony Villari February 2, 2019
  I have been accused of many things in my life, a hypocrite not being the least, nor the worst.  This is something I can admit without hesitation.  I have to because I put it out there; I wear it in plain view.  It isn't that I'm proud of it, but to deny it would evidence the very trut...
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• Where Is My Faith?

  by Tony Villari February 1, 2019
  I hate it when people toss the Bible up in my face, especially when they rail about what they've been told the Bible says, instead of actually understanding it.  My lack of total acceptance of the "good book" damns me for all eternity but, oh well.  Why is it that I can have a deeper faith...
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• Hell Is Just a Four Letter Word

  by Tony Villari January 29, 2019
  In religious tradition, the Abrahamic in particular, hell conjures up visions of eternal damnation, punishment, and torment to be endured in the afterlife for sins wrought in the present.  But is this what "Holy Scripture" really says?  Or, as I believe and have asked many times ...
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• Still "Locked Away from Christ"

  by Tony Villari January 28, 2019
  Note to the reader: The following was originally published as two-parts back on January 5, 2014. First, I wrote Locked Away from Christ and, after I thought about it, I became so aggravated that I immediately wrote Locked Away from Christ - Parte Seconda, in lieu of deleting part one ...
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• Holocaust Remembrance Day

  by Tony Villari January 27, 2019
  I write about this each year. It is a topic none of us should be allowed to forget for, it is through our memories we will, hopefully, prevent this indifference in the future as history tries to repeat. And, yet, we seem to be doing exactly the opposite as ISIS marches across the Middle East, killin...
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• Spiritual Threshold

  by Tony Villari January 26, 2019
  The threshold of a church used to be as close as I dared go to one, safely. There was no proof that anything negative would occur were I to cross the threshold.  Yet, I would wander around outside, visit with the wedding party, tug at my tie, and generally look uncomfortable until someone final...
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• Quietly Confused

  by Tony Villari January 25, 2019
  Where I saw her as attractive, I couldn't help but think she wondered why she just couldn't be herself around everyone.   Just wanting to be pretty, yet not labeled as such; wanting to be seen, accepted, as something other than an object of curiosity.  Ma...
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• A Point of Light

  by Tony Villari January 24, 2019
  I'm the master sergeant who took calls from people who dialed the wrong number, wanting to report aliens that were watching them through their bathroom mirror.  I'm the guy that told them to take shaving cream and ensure every inch of the mirror was covered, then get tin foil and make a hat fro...
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• Getting Older

  by Tony Villari January 24, 2019
  As I got older, I mellowed.  I removed violence from my life and my soul, with months of introspection, both personal and clinical.  I spent so many years being someone else all the time; it was relieving to finally admit I could just be myself.  The problem:  I didn't ...
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• Seen in the Mirror Dimly

  by Tony Villari January 22, 2019
   Ever thought about the moment when an attractive person leaves you with a sense of desire? How about the moment when your desire moves into the realm of love? When a relationship doesn’t pan out, are you one of those people who can turn your love for someone off, like a switch, or d...
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• A Godless Concept

  by Tony Villari January 20, 2019
  If I define faith in the context of religious or spiritual belief, my question then falls to having non-spiritual faith or a life without God.  In my 50 years of searching for answers, doubting, questioning, and discovering, I have come to the realization that something else must be out th...
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• Faith

  by Tony Villari January 18, 2019
  Faith   So, to the question of what is faith?  It's one of those questions that I find myself pondering at 2:30 in the morning as I stare at a ceiling I can't see in the dark.  Finally, I just say, screw it.  I roll over on my side and, like the preverbal "coyote" a m...
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• A Sign from God

  by Tony Villari January 13, 2019
  We get signs from God constantly and are too wrapped up in our own issues to notice.  I've learned to put selfish concerns aside.  I've learned to take notice.  For instance, did you wake up this morning?  This is a sign from God that you have another day to excel in life.  ...
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• Chivalry Is Not Dead!

  by Tony Villari January 12, 2019
  I've received my share of odd looks from ladies, the young and old, usually when I stop to hold open a door for them or offer assistance with a heavy bag. I think I get the odd looks because, at first, they don't know how to respond, and then they're not sure what to say.  As if saying "th...
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• Godless Humanoid Robots

  by Tony Villari January 10, 2019
  What do you think defines humanity?  When do you think a robot can be defined as a "sentient" being? Are we not, by definition, robotic organisms put together by God, with the only difference being that our parts are made up of cellular material we call flesh?  If we gi...
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• The Dock - A Love Story

  by Tony Villari January 6, 2019
  Life is all about experience, about winning and losing, and about how we play the game.  We fall in love and out of love.  If we're lucky, we find someone to share all of who we are and cherish what they share with us in return.   This is just a story which came to me while standing...
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• The Better Part of Valour

  by Tony Villari January 3, 2019
  The last time I got very close to a sleeping cat with my face was back around 1981ish.  The cat woke up, grabbed both sides of my head with her claws while growling and trying to make her eyes go wider than mine.  Mine were wide in terror and bugging out of my head.  Her entire r...
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• 2019:  The Next Five Years

  by Tony Villari January 2, 2019
  Someone once told me I shouldn't be so serious, and I'm not, usually.  I usually hear this critique when people run into my concrete barrier of baffling "bulls**t" and dazzling "footwork" which is fortified with an unyielding faith in my belief that my bulls**t and footwork are founded in ...
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• Mutually Assured Destruction

  by Tony Villari January 1, 2019
  I have a bit of difficulty separating nuclear war from an environmental catastrophe. Environmental catastrophe isn't necessarily a nuclear war, but nuclear war is, most definitely, an environmental catastrophe.  One is not, necessarily the other, but the other is most definitely ...
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• A Wasteland

  by Tony Villari December 30, 2018
  It's what your life feels like, every day - a wasteland.  You searched for heaven, thought you'd found it, and discovered hell on earth; cruelty in the guise of a lover.  You mistakenly invite evil into your life.   To read the rest of this short post, please follow the attache...

• Second Star to the Right

  by Tony Villari December 28, 2018
  Sometimes I think what most Christians, ministers, and priests do, is just say anything that comes into their heads.  Usually, that entails quoting biblical scripture which, then, requires the listener to have a modicum of faith.  Think of it as a horse race.  The Bible, an hour befor...
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• A New Year Thought

  by Tony Villari December 24, 2018
  This year, 2018, is coming to an end. Close behind it, in just one more year, we will see the end of the second decade of the millennium as we usher in 2020. I woke up this morning to another glorious day in paradise and considered where I truly am, where my life is, right now.   It is hard t...
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• A Little Effort

  by Tony Villari December 22, 2018
  I made a conscious decision, a short while ago, to cut back on the distribution of my blog and let my readers make the effort to visit the site.  I am still enjoying a worldwide readership, even though most of my posts have lost around fifty percent of page views.  If I were egotistic...
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• When the Bar is Non-Existent

  by Tony Villari December 15, 2018
  It takes more effort to keep an open mind than to close off all ideas not your own.  Yeah, you can quote me.  I think people should always set their personal bar higher than is reasonable, but they also need to be proud of whatever accomplishment they attain.  It i...
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• Miracle

  by Tony Villari December 13, 2018
  Tomas Crisp, 65 and dying of cancer, stirred in his sleep, the I.V. tubing and wires attached to the monitoring electronics made it difficult to roll off his back and onto his side.  He coughed, and the cough led to another, and then another deeper cough which developed into a full-bl...
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• ‘Tis the Season?

  by Tony Villari December 10, 2018
  When I minister to folks, especially in groups, I want them to first understand that I am not trying to convert them to some organized religious belief.  My intent is to have them consider their faith in themselves.  You must be able to have faith in yourself before you can truly...
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• Wrong Response

  by Tony Villari December 9, 2018
  I suppose this is a follow-up to my post from last month, No Right Answer, which concerned what we say when faced with questions designed to trap us.  While a "wrong response" can also be seen as an answer to a question, I'd like to approach it from the aspect of action rather than sp...
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• Who People See

  by Tony Villari December 8, 2018
  What do people see when they look at you?  Well, what they see is who they see, right?  Not necessarily so.  Most people put on a mask before they leave the house.  They put on makeup, brush their hair, shave, bathe, and usually choose an outfit that says, "Lo...
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• No Right Answer?

  by Tony Villari December 4, 2018
  "Will you respect me in the morning?"   The question presupposes he respects you now, and if that respect isn't obviously clear, why in God's good name are you with him, much less thinking of doing the nasty with him?  What's your response going to be if the answer isn'...

• The Downhill Slide

  by Tony Villari December 4, 2018
  It seems like I pay more attention, of late, to those who bemoan the downhill side of life; people my own age who feel the "end" will come, and all too soon. The end? I shake my head and smile. These are people who have truly lived life, many are retired military who have sidestepped death on multip...
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• No Religion?

  by Tony Villari November 26, 2018
  No religion?  Not necessarily a bad thing, but let's make sure we all agree on just what religion is.  Religion is defined as a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes beliefs, and practices; a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with scrupulous conf...
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• A Meaningful Christmas

  by Tony Villari November 23, 2018
  I think we each need to define what Christmas means to us, personally.  For me, it took all of sixty years.  My personal "definition" would constantly change with life events, as a child, a pre-teenager, a young adult, a military member, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a retir...
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• Happy Thanksgiving!

  by Tony Villari November 22, 2018
  Happy Thanksgiving!   Thank you, God, for another glorious day in paradise and, yet, another chance for all of us to excel in life! Thank you for the bounty in our lives, and forgive us if we don’t recognize what you send our way.   Thank you for good friends, for those who love ...
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• Sentence of the Court

  by Tony Villari November 18, 2018
  This is going to be another one of those posts concerning abortion for which I constantly incur the wrath of people who look for any reason to always be offended at every little thing, hence the name I have given them - the League of the Perpetually Offended. I preface this article with my lifelong ...
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• That Which We Don't Know or Haven't Read 

  by Tony Villari November 16, 2018
  I wrote this post in August of 2013 and just realized, somehow, it reverted to draft and has been offline to my readers for about five years. I have reread it for content and to ensure I was in a proper state of mind, and I've checked for grammar and spelling, again to ensure my mental faculties wer...
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• The "Cusp of Forever"

  by Tony Villari November 16, 2018
  When I googled "Cusp of Forever" to see if anyone else writes of it, low and behold, I find my own humble post as the first listing!  The only other listings I find seem to be two artists, Ashar and Price, and neither of them captures my view of the "Cusp" in their art nearly as ...
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• At the Cusp of Forever:  Growing Beyond "Panentheism"

  by Tony Villari November 2, 2018
  Computer modeling has allowed us to discover many things, and it has also opened the door to many other questions in humanities search for an answer to God's existence.  Organized religion demands that the lack of solid proof requires an unyielding belief in that for which there is no proof.&nb...

• Growing Beyond Pantheism

  by Tony Villari October 17, 2018
  In my last couple of posts, I contemplated religion, religious denominations, religious sects, religious faith, and my own spiritualist view at the time; the very real possibility that I am a pantheist. A recent comment to one of those posts gave me kudos for "still expanding, exploring your own bel...
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• The Universe Marvelously Arranged

  by Tony Villari October 14, 2018
  I find Albert Einstein to be very intelligent when it comes to theoretical physics, though he came off as something of a horndog, and he seems wanting when writing his personal thoughts and allowing interpretation by those who would read much into them.  For instance, when he states "our l...
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