Podcast nearing completion

So, today I finalized the creation of a new internet radio station - ROBOT RADIO - which will be used for music and the podcast! THe intent is to finally get all my ideas under one roof and proceed with caution. As I write, I am "retiring" from all my other business concerns and as such will not be too inclined to monitor anything related to them. Specifically, Seahorse Publications - my imprint - will linger but only for publishing my written works - if indeed I can get any of them completed before time disappears! Anyway, I am trying to remember to post something here (daily?) but as often as I remember to do so. NO - I am not inferring memory loss - merely dealing with my personal version of laziness! So tune in - stay tuned - or hwatever as this gets better and more frequent in the coming days! Peace, Dr Bob

4 years have come and gone!

"Have a great evening and I will post more tomorrow!!" That was the sign off of my last post here - 4 years ago! Oh my! I really cannot explain anything related to this. Well. I did getinvolved in the remodling of the house purchased in Clayton, New MExico and found vast amounts of time to meet the neighbors and other folks around the town. I did find time to THINK about writing again but I really did not get overly involved with writing. I did continue working with high school students online and well, there was this other thing - Covid - that got in everybodies way and so I do not fell too bad about not keeping up this blog. Anyway, since that last entry on Feb. 22, 2019 lots of things have happened. First, I sold the house in Clayton in 2021 and moved back to Arkansas a couple of miles from that first house here in Cherokee Village. It is now 2023 and this house is up for sale with the intent to move further south as I still have not gotten used to winters in Arkansas! Strangely enough, winters in New Mexico were cold but there was little if any humidity so the cold did not feel as cold as it does here with the humidity that seels to grow here! So, this time I have decided to not make any promises of continuing the daily routins of writing in this blog - even though I desire to. When I looked back on when this blog began and how few times I srote anything, it is evident to me that I should just do what i can do when I can do it! :) So, until whenever the next time might be, Peace, Bob

It has been a most interesting year since my last post. I have sold 2 homes and bought a third, moved to Colorado and then to New Mexico! When I moved to Arkansas in late 2017, I thought this would be the place where I could write and enjoy the lifestyle found in the Northeast hills of that great state. I faithfully tried to create story's and poems from the thoughts that swirled through my head on a daily basis, yet nothing was really produced. I felt bored and much unrest, so I put the home on the market with the intent to finally move to Colorado High Desert in or near the college town of Alamosa. Moving, in and of itself, is a nightmare for many people and I would include me in that mix as well. The day AFTER the six month listing expired I received a phone call request to see that home one more time and of course I invited them over. Long story short, I sold that Monte Vista home for a generous profit and immediately invested the bulk of my cash into the home here in Clayton, N M. So I am determined once again to write a post every day or whenever I remember the blog is there waiting on a new entry. There is much to tell and there is a good amount of interior painting and such that will keep me busy for the foreseeable future. HAve a great evening and I will post more tomorrow!!

Now that I'm used to the winter.....

Now that it has snowed a bit and we have been through single digit nights, I think maybe that I can get back on some better schedule. I admit that when it gets this cold I get a bit hermit like and don't want to do much if anything! My 2 roommates would rather stay cuddled in the bed with me than do anything except go out to bark at some fly that landed on the fence or a leaf that bounced off the bedroom window. I say that because every time I go to see what they are barking at - there is never anything that I can see!
As spring approaches, I start thinking of the work that will have to be done outside and that gets me in a more favorable mood as well. So, I suppose there is hope for me afterall. :)
Ok, so that is where we are at this moment and now I am going to stop and see if I can remember to write something here tomorrow.
BTW - I have a new book almost ready - maybe in a couple of weeks it will make it to the shelf.
We shall see!
Peace
Bob

Bob Smith

The new year is upon us!

I have been enjoying the fresh air and sunshine for a few days here in my new home in Arkansas and then Bam! The cold north wind came rushing in and now it is very cold! Wow! Today’s high was barely freezing (32 degrees) and the forecast for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day is what I would call frigid! The high both days will be barely 23 and 21 but the lows will be a crazy 6 each night! Oh my! I do not enjoy winter time as much as I used to and I suppose that has something to do with getting a bit older but really, how can anyone enjoy theses temps?

On the other hand the weather is allowing me to focus more on writing and such. I have been able to get a bit more organized and thus I am very pleased and happy with that! I do look forward to churning out a few of the writing projects that have been started but not completed.  The launch of the new business websites is nearing completion and may actually be live by New Year’s Day! The studio is in its final hours of installation for the radio broadcasts – the first live show is scheduled for New Year’s Day in the midafternoon – so be sure to tune in!

Until then.

Peace

Bob

The Birth

Jesus came to Earth with the simple message of forgiveness. 

That is really what the substance of the Bible is, forgiveness, from the very beginning when God forgave Adam and Eve and only sent them out of the garden (instead of killing them and starting over), on down to Paul who was definitely not the most up right individual on Earth at the time. You may know that God interrupted Saul on his way to terrorize more Christians and then changed his name to Paul and sent him out to tell the non-Jewish world that forgiveness is required to see the Kingdom of Heaven.

I sometimes get accused of over simplifying the Gospel Message but I always disagree, for when you look at what Jesus said to all those that “had ears” there is always a point He made about someone giving forgiveness or receiving forgiveness of one sort or another.

So this Christmas as we celebrate the Birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, just remember that if nothing else, give someone you know forgiveness for whatever stands in the way of your relationship with that person. That gift of forgiveness might not have a financial value but it will have an eternal value to your relationship with Jesus.  

And isn’t that what this season is all about in the first place? 

Inherited Guilt

For many years I have struggled with a strong feeling of guilt. A guilt that has never made sense and a guilt that I can find no real reason to have. Taking drugs did not remove it, drinking alcohol did not drown it out of me nor did faith in Christ or for that matter God. This guilt comes over me on occasion and reminds me of depression, actually, come to think of it, this guilt had been interpreted as depression for most of my life - by me and by therapists and loved ones alike.

This guilt drives me to take actions that I later regret yet continue to do. This guilt drives me to the brink of sanity and to the edge of life. Sometimes I really do not know what to do, to make it go away. For years I have thought that the guilt was from my behavior, whether that behavior was good or not, I always reacted to the guilt as if I was a very bad person - no matter what.

Recently I have been teaching a portion of American History in a social studies classes that I teach online to Chinese students. In those classes we have a section that teaches a version of the westward migration of the European settlers that began to move out of the thirteen colonies into the Great Plains and beyond. I teach that the white man took the native lands from those humans that had existed there for untold years without impunity or even a tiny bit of regret. I teach that the white man would decide that what the native, indigenous humans possessed was actually the "promised land" as if it were theirs in the first place and that they had now come to retrieve what was rightfully theirs. I teach that the settlers from Europe and elsewhere were selfish, arrogant people that did not even see the indigenous people as human, therefore they could shoot them, run them off, enslave them or do just about whatever came to their minds. There was no hope for these gentle indigenous people from the moment the first settlers landed on the shores of the "New World” and began to preach the Gospel to what they considered to be an uneducated, savage and crude specimen of humanity.

As I am discovering additional facts to share with each new telling of the inhuman behavior taken against these original people, I get an overwhelming sense of guilt - guilt that I, a white descendent of the early settlers from Europe that took what they wanted and claimed it as their own to hand down to their children and to their children and so forth, should do something to make amends. Here we are in the 21st century yet this taking continues. Treaty after treaty has been written and forced upon the descendants of the original people and subsequently each of these treaties have been modified, changed and ultimately broken - to the benefit of the white man - regardless of the consequences that came the way of these original inhabitants of this vast land.

Now, the white men are aiming to take even more of the land without seeming to care that another series of treaties with several different nations are soon to be broken/modified once again. My guilt feels stronger every time I read about the latest atrocity and the negative results had by the native people.

Why does this greedy taking have to continue? Why do we continue to take and take and take? These people - from multiple indigenous areas of this North American continent - have been forcibly removed to areas of the land that white people did and do not consider inhabitable and now there is a push to take even more of the land because it appears that there are millions of dollars’ worth of natural resources that are within those current tribal lands. 

For me and my unabated guilt - I can only offer an apology for the rude behavior and forceful acts of others of my race - and pray that it ends soon.