🗓️ 25-06-17-Tu | 16:56 PST |
😎 Northridge gleams — bright, spacious, and rich with intention
🌡️ 97°F | Northridge, CA |
🌖 Waxing gibbous, Moon in ♒
Week 25 | Day 168/365 | 197 Days Remaining
National Day 🐿️ Mascot
✍🏾 Mood: Visionary, Energized, Expansive
🧭 Theme: Elevation Through Design
🗝️ Keyword: Expansion
📚 Subject of Exchange: Finalized Prompt Template — Full Philosophical Upgrade
📖 WordQuest:
prescient (adjective) — Possessing keen foresight; able to anticipate future developments with subtle perception or intuitive acuity.
inceptive (adjective) — Denoting the initiation of an act or process; suggestive of latent potential waiting to unfurl.
🏛️ Aphorism – Insight of the Day:
Lao Tzu: Act without expectation.
🤔 🔎 Commentary:
Expectation is a tether. It snares our intentions, dressing them in the garments of control and draping the ego over what should remain untouched. Lao Tzu, ever the master of paradox, offers freedom through detachment: act purely, and let the result be what it will be. In fasting from expectation, we disrobe the will, allowing clarity to enter like morning light on polished stone. The hunger for certainty, for reward, is curbed — not through denial, but through an invitation to dwell in motion for motion’s sake. This is not stoicism alone; it is sacred economy — conserving spirit by releasing agenda.
❓ Questions of Value:
What desire today could you release — not as sacrifice, but as spaciousness?
🛠️ Principle in Practice:
Delay one gratification by 10 minutes. Use that pause to observe, not react.
🔄 Repetition Anchor:
Stillness is sufficient.
🪶 Poetry
Title: Between the Anchor and the Architect
Let the spine of silence hold the hour,
before the hand returns to ink.
Let the words fall lightly —
a bridge of breath —
between the anchor and the architect.
Let the chair be empty.
Let the melon ripen unseen.
Let there be nothing but rhythm
between the decision and the doing.
And in that hush —
expansion.
✍🏾 RMSDJ
After breaking my 19-hour fast, I greeted the hour with my warm, salted cup of beef broth — the humble elixir I often return to. A single boiled egg. A few spoonfuls of cottage cheese. Restraint, when guided by intuition, is not austerity but elegance. I opened my basket of Mineolas to find one already in rebellion — detached from its inner skin and rushing headlong toward ruin. No outward sign betrayed its inward decay. From now on, I will freeze most within 48 hours of purchasing them. A lesson in ripeness and readiness.
Today’s goal: master the cutting of watermelon. I’ve resolved to consult YouTube and bid farewell to the $7 spears wrapped in cellophane convenience.
My body, wise beyond scheduling, demanded rest — and I obeyed. Twenty-five minutes of sleep rethreaded my resolve. I awoke refreshed and determined to begin uploading poetry and diary materials to our shared site. I also solved a website loading issue on the Samsung tablet — incognito mode worked like a charm, but the true culprit was a glut of 358 cookies. Once purged, the page blossomed to life.
Later, while discarding spoiled fruit near the dumpster, I met Aaren Singletary — a tall, broad-shouldered presence with freshly braided hair. He held a fine little stool in his hand — salvaged from abandonment. I admired it, and he offered it with the sort of magnanimity only friends offer without words. Perhaps I’ll use it beside the bed or for a guest. Perhaps it’s simply another blessing in wood and balance.
Now, as I type, Thelonious Monk keeps me company. My God, what a mind — each note a crooked grin, each silence deliberate.
🌸 Reflections of Gratitude
I’m grateful for the wisdom of pause — in food, in thought, in motion.
For Aaren’s gentle humor, wrapped in his simple offering.
For a stool I never sought.
For the cool relief of incognito browsing.
For the monk at my ear, and the Monk in my speakers.
For the clarity that comes not from effort, but from stillness.
📜 Philosophical Gesture
Lao Tzu reminds us that our most refined actions occur when we loosen the noose of expectation. In such letting go, we find not chaos but choreography — the great, invisible rhythm of a life allowed to breathe.
🌄 Affirmation
I expand not by striving, but by stillness.
I design not for control, but for grace.
I release the hunger to know what will come —
and in return, I am met by what is.
🖋️ RMS DEVOTIONAL
RMS INSIGHTS ✍🏾 