Gary Jones

When I ask you to listen to me
and you start giving me advice,
you have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why
I shouldn’t feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something
to solve my problem,
you have failed me,
strange as that may seem.

Listen! All I ask is that you listen.
Don’t talk or do - just hear me.

Advice is cheap; 20 cents will get
you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham
in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself; I am not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering,
but not helpless.

When you do something for me that I can
and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and
inadequacy.

But when you accept as a simple fact
that I feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational,
then I can stop trying to convince
you and get about this business
of understanding what’s behind
this irrational feeling.

And when that’s clear, the answers are
obvious and I don’t need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when
we understand what’s behind them.

Perhaps that’s why prayer works, sometimes,
for some people - because God is mute,
and he doesn’t give advice or try
to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work
it out for yourself.

So please listen, and just hear me.
And if you want to talk, wait a minute
for your turn - and I will listen to you.

Author Unknown

Like seeing in the darkness of a room
Blind to the sounds within the gloom
Deaf to the feeling of the unending doom

Laying here, I’m falling
I hear nobody calling
Shadows in the moonlight
Cast patterns on a dark night

Whistling in the silence
No control of my life
Going down a walkway
Where the children sit and play

Maybe it’s the right time
To wish for the sunshine
Blow away the dark clounds
Erase all of your doubt

Gentle is the motion
Feeling devotion
No complications
Just dedication

I have a vision.
I have a vision that will blow your minds.
I have a vision that is so far–fetched that you will never think the same again.
And what is my vision?

Is it one of world peace and equal relations?
Is it one of love and care for everyone?
Is it one of happiness to the world around us?
I think not.

What my vision is, is reality.
I see the death of every single human on this god forsaken planet.
I see the destruction of every man–made and natural object in existence.
I see the world as one huge dustball, with no meaningful life.

“Impossible” I hear you say.
Think again my friends, to what this planet was like 4 billion years ago.
I’ll tell you. It was nothing. Nothing. Just a lump of rock in a not so endless space.
There are many like it today, and yet we care not for any of them.

We are not alone in this existence of ours, let me remind you.
There are other lifeforms out there, though we are unlikely to compare against their superiority.
Have you ever wondered though why all the technical machines,
All the ones looking for intelligent life, look AWAY from Earth?

So, this vision of mine, as unlikely as it sounds, WILL one day be true.
That I can guarantee. What is not so certain, is when this vision will come true.
It could be 30 years, it could be 30,000, but one day.
Besides, the Earth will not exist at all, in five million years time.

That Sun, which we value so dearly to our daily life and existence,
Will swell so large as it’s life begins to ebb away,
That the Earth will be blown out of existence, and our only hope as part of the human race,
Will be too migrate to a different system.

It won’t be like Star Trek, or anything as vulgar as that.
It will be civil, and organised, without the special effects.
My vision will come true, and it is up to the minority, to save the majority,
“I believe” is what you should now say, or be one of the majority.

To give it all up for the here and now,
Means that a circumstantial sacrifice is made.
Looking forward to what might just be,
Allows the ultimate glory to be claimed.

A giving of one thing precious,
To a cause so worthwhile and just,
A decision based on rumours,
A chance that is taken with lust.

Willing to risk it all for power,
It’s grabbed with both hands in greed,
Not thinking with the grey matter,
Forsaking the simple things of need.

Sleepily, the hour draws near,
When the point of no return arrives.
One must chose between the facts,
And the dreams for which one lives.

Finding it within oneself,
Is a challenge few care to take.
Creating the future for ourselves,
Takes practice for what we make.

A final word of warning,
To those about to embark.
Listen carefully to them all,
And you won’t drift far from the mark.