Community

Another subject near and dear to my heart. I have an unfortunately keen awareness of how badly the average person needs an uplifting community of like-minded people around them. I, personally, spent most of a decade speaking about four people a year, and spoke maybe 20 words a day. Years later, I am still unpacking the tremendous damage it did. Society will lie to you, and tell you that all the social interaction you need can be found online. Science and the Church can both prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is wrong. The Plague taught us all that this is wrong.
Risk something. Go outside. Find a tribe, find a group of people who want the best for you, who want you to be the best version of yourself possible. If you're not sure where to start, find your nearest Catholic Church.
You cannot win this War alone.

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Indolent

"It's just the way I am," is the defense of the coward.
The way I am is to sit on my couch, watch Netflix, and eat nachos, but I get up out of my warm bed every day and so my best to stay active, to sharpen my mind, my body and my soul. We are more than intertia, more than the path of least resistance, we are only afraid of our own potential. We watch videos and inspirational stories of people who dared great things and we dream of doing the same, but if we only dream, then we are the living dead.
To seek, to strive, to fail and rise again, to sharpen ourselves against the rigors of life, to embrace the salvific beauty in suffering and let it change us.
This is the beauty of War.

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"Feelings are connection. They surpass time and find their way back to the people you love. - Lucy Heartfilia.

I am still heartbroken from the scene with Aquarius 😭💔

📸 & 🎨 Joshi

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In the world, but not of it.

It's a hard line to walk, I think. I also think it's different for each person. There are people who are called to dive whole-heartedly into the mess of modern society and engage as best they can. To try to correct the course of the ship foundering on the rocks. And there are those of us called to retreat entirely from the world and contemplate solitude and silence among peace.
Most of us fall somewhere in between, I'd say, but all of us could benefit from pulling away a bit more. To spend more time in silence and stillness, away from the most, the bustle and the constant "GO" that modernity pushes on us.
In peace, we can better know War.

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Discipline.

Discipline is sexy. Discipline is awful.
It creates an interesting dichotomy in us. It's a trait we admire in others, but neglect in ourselves. Every master in any aspect, when questioned how they achieved their greatness, responds in the same way, with some variant of, every day, they set aside time to grind out and cultivate their skills. I use both of those terms intentionally. When I am practicing my guitar, running endless scales up and down the fretboard, or when I am running, every note, every quarter mile, every rep of the weight is a grind. It is boring, it is unfun. In the moment it is unenjoyable. But, I do it anyway. I take those seeds of ability, I cultivate them into skill. I go from struggling to play notes to effortless sweeps, from panting and sweating a minute of effort into running endless miles, from struggling under the bar to slinging heavy iron.
It is in Discipline, that we find the strength to wage War.

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Just a quick reminder as Faire season begins, you can find me lurking at several of them.

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