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Perhaps Raikin is referring to a state-to-state event - where the Attorney General and collective sheriffs in each state act upon the evidentiary packages being put together in thier respective jurisdictions???

Nah...deputized only within the state that the Sheriff has jurisdiction.

AFAIK County Sheriffs’ jurisdiction is just in their counties.

Speaking only from experience growing up in the State of Virginia. County Sheriffs are written into the State Constitution and have jurisdiction throughout the state, although decorum keeps them mostly in their county...

...and relocate it to a more suitable habitat far from the school.

Nope - not in Florida. Any gator harvested over 6 feet is killed. Under six, yes, can be relocated by the trapper. Guess they wanted it to be a feel good story.

That must have been one of the longest and most difficult walks you ever took.

It was - thank you for recognizing that...but I was darned proud for him as well. That principal went on to be County School Superintendent...with my vote, of course.

My late son passed from a rare heart defect near the end of his 9th grade year. In what would have been his senior year, the principal called and asked if I would walk across the stage and accept my son’s diploma...I did! Small town.

So true, mm...sad, but true

"So you are saying the Coppertone ad isn’t a sunscreen ad ?"

Is that really all you took from that post? In the 1940's, Coppertone was advertised to darken and quicken a tan, while still protecting the skin. I believe it's said that the results of their product would have amounted to an SPF of 6 today, regardless of whatever they added to enhance the tan...so, yes, you are correct. It was a sunscreen. Thanks for pointing that out.

Today's sunscreen, however, amounts to lead lining the body. We are a planet that exists because of the sun and survive by and with the benefits of the sun...

The obesity crisis started when fed driven scientists started sounding the alarm that sunshine causes cancer and we should slather on sunscreen and hide inside (a later covid advise, as well). Take away our vitamin D and we become fat, sickly, and stupid...no matter how much or how little we eat.

The little Coppertone girl with the puppy-exposed tan lines knew exactly what health was all about - the SUN!

Release the Trunk Monkey.

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From my latest book:

Rupert certainly had a rough day. His faithful dog Caleb, a fourteen-year-old Labrador, had to be put down. It seems that time had caught up with the old fellow and his organs were failing. Sadly, the veterinarian could do nothing to stop the fatal decline and recommended immediate euthanasia. So it was done. And at the end of the day, a grief-stricken Rupert lay down his head to sleep.

In his sleep, Rupert was comforted by one of God’s angels, who exclaimed to the saddened soul that Caleb was well and very happy sitting at the side of the Lord. With despondency in his voice, Rupert professed that he would be sad without his companion and asked the angel why God had given dogs such a brief life.

The aura around the angel brightened as he softly answered Rupert, “My child, your own soul came to God’s Earth to learn of unconditional love, and how it can bring you the blessings of a good life. But dogs already love unconditionally. They have no lessons to learn, but only lessons to impart. And Caleb has done so with you now. You know that in your heart. So his need here is complete.”

Just as the angel began to fade from his dream, Rupert remarked, “I will miss him dearly. Without him, I’m not sure how I’ll live.”

“Rupert!” the angel quickly replied. “Have you learned nothing from him? You’ll live just as Caleb lived. You’ll give love deeply. You’ll expect and appreciate being loved by others. You’ll live brave, yet kind, and have a humble and simple existence. Yes, you’ll live as sweet Caleb did, Rupert. You’ll live life like a dog.”

What our souls can learn from our faithful companions:
~ Love unconditionally.
~ Be forever faithful and loyal.
~ Never pretend to be someone you’re not.
~ When your loved one comes home, run to greet them with joy.
~ Appreciate attention from others and let their touch thrill you.
~ If what you want is buried, don’t stop digging until you find it.
~ Find peace in the simple joy of a long walk.
~ Take every opportunity to go for a joyride.
~ Let the fresh air and wind in your face be pure bliss.
~ When you’re happy, dance and wag your entire body.
~ Run, romp, and play every day.
~ Delight in taking naps.
~ Stretch before rising.
~ On warm days, just lie back for a while in the grass.
~ On hot days, lie back for a while under a shady tree.
~ Never bite when a purposeful growl will suffice.
And most importantly,
~ When someone you love is having a bad day, sit close, be silent, and gently nuzzle them.
____________________________________________________
Why not do your best now to live life like a dog?

I’m 73.

So you're the one who came up with, "Let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes."

Shame, shame...

A new one I am frequently hearing of late is, "Is the juice worth the squeeze."

Instant oh-shut up thoughts in my head when someone says that.

Not a single mention of, “Table it for now.” Hmmmm...

This is me...if it helps another, fantastic.

When I am NOT feeling inspired to write, I do not. But I do not call it writer's block. I just walk away and DO NOT force it.

See, when I am inspired, I am "in-spirit." My spirit is with me...and when my spirit is with me, I promise there is absolutely nothing I cannot accomplish. If I am writing while in-spirit, inspired, everything just flows.

Unfortunately, we are human, and inspiration can be forced aside for a bit. Life gets busy, doesn't it? And sometimes our mind takes over and tells us we MUST write, or tries to tell us what we are writing is stupid and there's no reason to write. All of this "mindfullness" drowns out the voice of the spirit - the sheep of the mind bleats louder than the roar from the lion of our heart - our true spirit...our true self!

It will pass, and the spirit, your spirit, will again take over at some point. You'll know when it happens...when you just feel like nothing can stop you.

Again, just me, but when I try to write when not feeling inspired, the words come from my mind, and not from my heart...and you can tell. Or, at least I can.

I have seven books out there - I had to learn to walk away from the keyboard when it just wouldn't come. I knew it would come back...and when it did, I wrote until it waned again...and I walked away without concern.

Again, if it helps, look to your lion, your heart, and try to remember why you are writing. Do not let the sheep, the critical, fear-filled mind, do the writing when you're not inspired, in-spirit, to do so.

Oh, the new Guild should not die so quickly.

Another bump - Another Exit (Chapter) from my book, Digest of the Broken Road Traveler

EXIT EIGHT ~ DIAL IN THE GOOD STATIONS
You’ve surely experienced driving between towns in your car when the radio station you’ve been enjoying fades out. Why? Because you’re moving away from the source of the broadcast. The antenna that sends out the radio frequency is back in another town that you’ve purposely left behind.

If you do nothing with your radio dial, you might soon only hear annoying static. Or maybe you begin to hear several frequencies battling each other and belting out nothing but a confusing garble of inaudible noise. Knowing there’s a new town on the horizon, though, you begin retuning your dial, searching, finding, and then leaving it set to some new program that hopefully moves you.

Your soul is very much like your car radio. It, too, receives frequency signals from broadcast stations found along the waypoints of your life. Your conscious mind is the driver that listens to what’s being offered, based on where you are in life and where you’ve set your listening dial.

You can choose to listen to a myriad of stations as you move along your life’s journey. Some will broadcast programs that offer faith, hope, growth, and joy. Other stations transmit only despondency, doubt, confusion, and fear. Others, still, offer nothing but mindless dribble. Life is filled with endless offerings for a being granted free will by the Father.

To that end, your soul receives all those signals, whether good or bad, and presents them to you as a choice on your radio dial. What stations that you, the driver, or the conscious mind, tunes or retunes to is solely up to you.

Sadly, most drivers have absolutely no idea they even have a radio dial, or that they can change the station at all. They just go about life while accepting and listening to whatever’s being played at the moment.

Some desire positive support but are only tuned to negative frequencies and wonder why they can’t find happiness. It’s like desiring to hear rock music when the radio dial is set to a talk show format.

Some drivers move between waypoints and, as their signal fades, just accept the mind-numbing static that plays. Because of this, their journey seems boring and meaningless, but they just keep driving along.

As they approach the next town, however, their radio begins picking up a fresh signal on the same dial setting. Soon, a new program plays loud and clear. Unfortunately, this one is negative, with nothing that offers the driver hope and happiness. And, with no understanding of how to change the station, their life becomes a very sad journey.

How can you learn to change the radio station along your life’s journey? Train your conscious mind to always be aware of what’s playing. Focus on changing your thoughts from bad to good. Begin to become aware of when it’s fading or playing something that doesn’t serve you well. In those moments of realization, consciously adjust your radio dial.

You certainly want to change your dial to something pleasant and inspiring, right? But do it ever so gently, at first. Don’t try to force it. It’s actually better to let a bad broadcast play out than it is to fight against it. That only creates anxiety and tension in your mind. And if you remain consciously aware of what’s playing, you can take away as much positive growth from the bad as you can from the good.

Using your conscious awareness is always the best way to keep your radio dial tuned to what you want and need to hear. To that end, when you do hear it, remember to express gratitude and appreciation to your soul for making available that which you desire to hear.

With conscious effort, you can tune your soul’s radio, and your mind’s radio dial, into an inspirational way of experiencing life. You’ll have a full understanding that your soul takes in all frequencies and freely offers them for your use.

Tune your dial to a station that’s aligned with positive growth.

Keeping the thread bumped - adding another Exit (Chapter) from my book, Digest of the Broken Road Traveler.

EXIT FORTY-THREE ~ COWARDS, VILLAINS, AND FAITH
There are times in life, ugly times, which can change a personality. If those times come too often, or too heavy, you might find that you’ve become unrecognizable to everyone, including yourself.

Don’t despair. With faith, you can once again bring yourself back to a place of peace and purpose. The true account of two errant men that follows will verify that it’s been done by even the most implausible of people.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Over the centuries, their association has been written about and read many times. They were teacher and student, with one literally altering the course of his life to follow the other. It was a true giving and receiving experience where the teacher unselfishly guided and provided for his apprentice.

Then came the teacher’s hour of need. Although guilty of no real crime, he was arrested. Suddenly, it was neither safe nor wise to be known as this man’s follower. A crowd gathered and someone singled out the student, exclaiming to all that this man was an associate of the captured man. Then, the apprentice became afraid for his own life and repeatedly shouted, “I do not know this man.”

The student fled from the accusers, attempting to keep himself safe. He succeeded but, in reality, there was no place to escape the guilt and shame that came from being a coward. A few hours later, his devoted teacher was badly beaten, flogged, and put to death.

You could assume the apprentice never amounted to much in life. After all, the shameful label of coward should have remained with him for the rest of his time. Instead, this denying apprentice would become one of the most acclaimed leaders of all time in his mentor’s teachings. He actually rose above his shame to become someone who was admired and followed by so many others.

Now, there was another man during these times that was admired by many and was certainly no coward. And although he never met the teacher before his death, this villainous man made it his life’s mission to destroy his work. He went as far as finding, arresting, and putting to death those that dared follow the teacher.

Like the coward who would become a prominent leader, this heinous man also turned out to be another who defied man’s reason. On the road to town one day, a chance encounter with faith caused a change in his heart. As a result, he would become one of the world’s most famous and admired authors.

How is such a powerful, positive change possible? How could a coward rise from such guilt and shame to become a man of courage? How could a villain become an ally and a man of faith? Well, according to the testimony of both, each was visited by the teacher in the flesh after he was savagely put to death, and that altered their lives forever.

It was the Apostle Peter who shamefully denied Jesus three times in his hour of need. Yet Peter would become the first official leader of the Christian Church. It was the Apostle Paul who first sought out and persecuted Christians. Paul would then go on to spread the Christian Church to the outermost regions of his known world and authored more books of the Bible than any other man.
_________________________________________________________________________________

These are amazing stories for sure. When you think about them, however, if God created the universe, who else is more capable of transforming hearts and turning cowards into men of bravery and villains into allies?

If life has taken you to a place inside where you don’t want to be, or into a broken person you never imagined, faith will change your heart.

Another Guild Contribution from my bookDigest of the Broken Road Traveler...

EXIT TWENTY-SIX ~ THE HEART AND SOUL OF YOUR LION
Alexander the Great once said, “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep. I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

When faced with life’s difficulties, two of the more popular bits of advice you’re often told are, “Listen to the little voice in your head,” and “Follow your heart.” Both are well-meaning, as the intent is to seek your own intuitive guidance. To look within.

The two sources of inner knowing, however, couldn’t be more diametrically opposed to one another. It’s like seeking wisdom from both a lion and a sheep. The lion, of course, is your heart, or actually, your soul. The sheep is your conscious mind. In short, your lion feels, and your sheep thinks.

That sheep is the little voice in your head that tells you, “You can’t do this,” “They’ll laugh at you,” or “You don’t deserve it.” It’s chock full of the things that you’ve read, heard, and experienced in the past. And when it comes to making a decision, it needs to classify it as either right or wrong, good or bad, reward or regret.

Unfortunately, your sheep considers the world while purely in survival mode. Hesitation, anxiety, and disbelief largely originate from there. The lion, your soul, operates through its spiritual connection to God and knows your true abilities, as well as your divine purpose in life. Your brave lion says, “I want to do this,” “I’m going to speak up for that,” or “I deserve it.”

The lion is modest, however, and doesn’t have a roar that screams out you should or shouldn’t do something. It’s well connected to that gift of free will from the Father, you see.

Guidance from your lion is more of a steady undertone that’s always there, but just below the constant bleating of your sheep. It can be a physical feeling of warmth or an emotional feeling of excitement for the possibilities of a decision. You sense what’s right and wrong throughout your body, don’t you?

As a baby, you survived by the natural inclination to follow your heart. Your sheep didn’t make decisions. It wasn’t even alive yet. You didn’t have the experiences of life or the supposed “wisdom” that the mind would need for making choices.

Instead, your infant decisions were based on your feelings, or your lion - your heart and soul. If you felt happy, you giggled. If you were tired, hungry, or angry, you cried. At no time did you consider how it looked to others. You only knew your lion. Over time, the instinct to follow your heart began to fade. It happened as social “norms” were learned and your personality became based on not how you feel, but how you think. Not only did this come from society, but also from the expectations of behaviors from your family and friends.

So while your lion knows what to do, the sheep thinks it knows what to do. Well, at first, anyway. Maybe it’s sure one moment, but not so sure the next. Then, it's sure again. The sheep constantly goes back and forth between decisions based on survival, which creates fear and anxiety, and most times, inaction. Anytime you feel caught up in such an internal struggle, you can bet the sheep, the conscious mind, is responsible, and not the lion. Not your heart and soul.

Once you realize the sheep, the little voice in your head, is just trying to survive, a whole new world opens up to you. Yet you really have no choice but to listen to it, do you? It’s there. You constantly hear it, even now as you read these words. But listening is far, far different than following, isn’t it?

How do you follow instead of listen? Well, it’s easier said than done. Listening to your mind, your thoughts, your sheep, is deeply ingrained in your life, after all. Start by doing what feels natural to you. Maybe that’s more involvement in the church or learning to play the piano. It doesn’t really matter what your feelings-based decisions are.

When you do things that intuitively bring excitement and purpose to your life, you begin to live once again within your heart and soul. You are closer to God. While you may have to listen, stop believing everything said by your sheep. The more you stop paying attention to all the doubt and fear it offers, the more you’ll find it no longer controls you.

Living your life from your heart and soul, the lion, will feel right. You’ll soon begin to trust your gut, or your feelings and intuitions, instead of the doubts offered by your sheep. Do this and watch the world unfold in awesome growth, peace, and purpose, instead of living a cold, rigid existence built on fear and anxiety.

You can do this...with the heart and soul of your lion.

Awwww...you say that to all the writers guild members!!!!!