I woke up this morning with a song going around in my head.  It is by a group I really like called Avalon.  The song is called “Testify to Love.”  It is not like I heard the song yesterday.  I did hear it the day before though, and it does seem to summarize in some way what I am feeling.
It seems to me I am living in strange times.  I have never seen love and hate so polarized.  Many professing to love, are practiced in hate.  The silent majority is becoming silent no more.  Mankind is making their own choice and becoming unwilling to blindly accept only what they are told.
I feel like a very small cog in a very big drama.  Yet more than ever being small does not phase me.  I just need to look around to see that hate and self interest is on the increase.  Never before have I felt so clearly that those who are contrary to the hate and hopelessness on display, clearly stand out.
Yet I feel big time this is not the time to pursue like for like.  For me it is not just a matter of right and wrong but life and death.  It seems to me one way leads to killing, stealing and destroying while the other produces life within.  I only need to look at social media to know that for every idea I think is right there are contrary ideas abroad that say it is wrong. 
Some ideas are considered, and some are parroted.  Either way it seems to me it is what is produced that counts.  I have felt for a while that words are one thing, and actions are another.  It is not words alone that influence me but words and actions - or the fruit of the words.
Yet even seemingly good outcomes can have selfish motivations.  I am fond of saying I am not responsible for another’s actions, but I am responsible for my own.  Love is more powerful than the strongest army, and more influential than the most moving poet. Setbacks are often par for the course, but appearances can be deceiving.  Final outcomes tell the story.  Love is always right and always produces life.  I will go with that.

I did work around the yard for a couple of hours recently.  I mowed, whipper snipped, and pulled some weeds.  I do not deserve a medal or anything as it is just something that needs doing.  In fact, that was my thinking.  I was umming and arring and then thought “just do it.”
I would normally go into how the way it makes me feel can be attributed to getting older and the stroke.  While that I believe is legitimate it occurred to me that some things I think I bring on myself.
It seems that some things heard when younger apply even more when older.  That is the necessity of warming up and down.  When younger it is often a case of “why?” or even “that may apply to others but not to me.”
I think I have seen the wisdom of doing it.  If I want to minimise the aches and pains and the sense that I am good for nothing else in the day, I reckon it is important I do the warming up and down.  It does not alleviate all the aches, but it certainly makes them less than they would have been.
I really reckon that applies to life in general.  I need to warm up and down where possible.  It is pointless to me having all the strength I need only to break down because I rushed into something rather than taking the time I need to prepare for the task or day at hand.
To that end it is important to me to start and end the day right.  I feel it when I don’t.  I do not feel as prepared for what the day contains as I might have been.  It may be just a very normal day.  Yet my thinking is normal is no substitute for extraordinary.
It’s weird I know, but sometimes it is the opportunities I miss that goad me.  All because I did not take the time to warm up.  It can be that the excuse is made that “I don’t have time to warm up.”  My thinking is I do not have time not to warm up. 

From what I have seen it is the condition of the heart that determines outlook more than environment.
That is not to say there are not environments that need changing, or there is never a time when my environment should not be escaped if possible.  I would be foolish to stay in a dangerous environment or one that pulls me down big time.  If I have the opportunity to escape, escape.
For many situations my outlook is why take the hard way when there is an easier way.  I was close to someone who deliberately chose hard to be prepared for hard.  To me it was like choosing misery now in preparation for misery later.
I must admit that is not me.  There are times when I know hard does me good.  Yet I will not seek hard in preparation for hard.  Hard tends to happen anyway.  My preparation for it is to gather provisions in summer for scarcity in winter.  It is not something I peruse with a “why me?” attitude.  It is just something I do, and I have what I need when I need it.
Where I can I know I need to flee things that will pull me down.  To me that is not a mark of weakness but of strength.  It is a knowing my capacities at a certain point.  It is not saying I will never be good in the environment, but it is saying that right now I need to work on me to increase my strength.
I am no good for anyone if I am no good for me.  I feel the best way I can help another is to have faced and overcome the same debilitating situation.  Where I have not faced something a person is going through, I reckon my best is to be with them where possible but always to let them know I am alongside to help.
When it comes to bad environments, many to aid are definitely better than facing something alone.  Battle are won with superior fire power and overwhelming.  Sometimes environments compound a bad situation and distract from the condition of the heart.