While researching background for my posting on replacing The Star-Spangled Banner I thought long and hard about slavery in America. There’s no debating its former existence and any rational person can see it’s ongoing impacts today. These thoughts lead me to two questions: why is something that was legally ended December 6, 1865 still haunting…
The Winds of Change Are Blowing
The writings I’ve posted since returning home have been focused on change. Change, of course, comes in many forms, and the two changes I have written of are the geographical move from exile, prison, to my land Beulah and about the emotional change within myself as I began living the new life God has given…
an-them /anTHem/ noun: a rousing or uplifting song.
Recently, I’ve read articles supporting the idea of dropping our current National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and adopting something that reflects those things we claim as our beliefs; our “self-evident truths,” I suppose. In the articles, there are two reasons given most often for making such a change. First, the fact that Francis Scott Key…
In Four Part Harmony: Part 4 – At Just The Right Time
Now we’ve shared the first three parts of my release from exile and deliverance to my land Beulah. But there’s a fourth and final part; a part worth contemplating: God’s hand in my arrival home. When I first sat down to write this posting, I had the intention of running a timeline for you showing…
In Four Part Harmony: Part 3 – Home Is Where The Heart Is
A journey home is worth the telling… …join me and lend an ear. As anticipated, the 17 hours I spent on the bus were incredibly cold and uncomfortable. February 4th was a tough day weather-wise. But I made it to the halfway house at the appointed time. My wife met me there and gave me…
In Four Part Harmony: Part 2 – If You Want Reality, Take The Bus
After my meditations, I gathered up the institution issued items I needed to return and ran, in my tee-shirt and shorts (don’t forget, it was February 4!), over to laundry to hand them in at the 5:50am time I’d been assigned. Then I ran back, in my tee-shirt and shorts, to the housing unit to…
In Four Part Harmony: Part 1 – Curves Ahead.
In July of 2019 I was thinking about two things. The first was how I felt about posting my last writing for this blog and wondering if it would be the last one forever. The second thing I was thinking about was the approach of my move to a halfway house. Going back in time…
My Land Beulah
I would like to begin this first posting of my return to MY-040 by welcoming all who remained as subscribers following my closing post back on July 1st, 2019 (Love Is All You Need). I would also like to extend a welcoming to those of you who have visited occasionally, or maybe only once, and…
Love Is All You Need
Writing for this blog has been both challenging and rewarding. It started out as a suggestion by my sister and my wife as a therapeutic exercise for me. I needed a way to work through many things like the impact of coming to prison, working more fully into my faith, and exorcising some demons from…
Siren Song
This week I’m taking some time off as it’s Father’s Day. I thought I’d post a poem instead. It’s not about fatherhood but I enjoy it. I hope you do too. Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there! ~jdoe Siren Song By: JMAaron I float, dear Siren, within the rift Tween…