This book is a small portion of the continuous flow of ideas that cross my mind continually. This flow is based on life experiences good and bad of myself and others. It is intended hopefully to ignite blazine firestorms of thought, of perspective.

IT CROSSED MY MIND

Short JourneysBy Stephen E. Burnside

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Stephen E. Burnside
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-4543-6

Chapter One

JOURNAL OF STEVE BURNSIDE 11/25/07 – 1/23/08

Life is full of deeps of gales, stresses, shallows. It keeps us in sunny vales in distresses of dark hollows.

Constantly is constantly the most inconsistent unconstituted constant.

I do not fear for my life, I fear not living it.

I like the randomness of ordered clutter, for it is alive, it is of manwoman, akin to the natural meaningful chaos of the universe.

Many of us have the greatest freedom and that is choice, while so many have but one choice and that is to submit.

Thoughts are like smoke that seems to disappear. They may be unseen yet contain the essence of fire and can reach the heights.

Everything has a correct answer which varies with the answerer.

Most of us settle for answers that fit into our lives.

Most are content with answers that seem plausible regardless of the correctness.

"What goes around comes around" sometimes stopping when things are squared.

So many succumb to power, to domination whether good or bad for it is power they do not have and often do not want.

There is always someone who can or will correct what's already correct.

Think about this; we are to our children to our pets as we attribute God to be to us.

I try to be ingenious but I'm always out of genius.

Did you ever notice how many that are, were?

Anger is hard to control, rage is almost impossible to do so.

When "your chickens come home to roost" be sure there's a hen house and a rooster.

Kindness never or seldom shown is like a beautiful singing voice unheard.

Having all you want may not be having all you need.

Make Christmas magic all year around. Its cheer is there, here, waiting to be found.

When we look back upon our lives calm or wild, the best moments will be those we worthily spent with a child.

Do not expect less than what's expected of you nor expect less of yourself than what you expect of others.

Everyday is an adventure even for those who are not adventurous.

Most principled principles are principally affected by the principal unprincipled.

I do not need to go back to the good ole days, I need only to never forget them.

It is life itself that most interferes, most intervenes, most invigorates living it.

Expect and be prepared to possibly accepting the unexpected as they may take you beyond your expectations.

Winter can be so uncomfortable, yet year round I carry snowflake crystals in my heart, evergreens in my mind and the manger in my soul.

Why is sincerity, effort, meaningful intention so unappreciated?

We rally to the momentary plight of a child, but ignore the constant suffering of children.

There is no doubt that excessive doubt is the path to the happening of that doubt.

That which comes easily may depart, be lost even more easily.

The quiet hour is so wonderful in the lives of women, of men, at least until it drags into ten.

To some a thousand dollars is a grand and grand. To others a thousand little things in life are grand.

I reinstated, I restated the understated statements I had stated so unstately before.

When you invite someone into your world, be sure they like its geography.

If things in your life do not add up, check your math.

Your grief is a pain that is primarily eased by you yourself.

Often our children do not understand us as we do not understand ourselves or them, and sometimes there is no reasonable reason for discord.

We mostly point our feet down paths we take but occasionally some small thing detours us, leading to better or worse or both.

The large evergreen reverberated with the sound of a thousand sparrow choir.

We all should be more aware of the dimensions of intentions.

Wishes become reality only if they are real.

If you meet yourself coming and going, slow down and get reacquainted.

The acquisition of vital things is necessary, the acquisition of wealth is not.

The worth of a person or object is based on what our heart feels not what or how high the rating.

It is most urgent that all good people stay resurgent.

For some the eyes of their souls emit endless rainbows.

Goodness becomes wide, bright, crisp, from the very smallest wisp.

Go bumbling, Go stumbling, And though we fall on our face, Let us arise, let us go with grace.

Be a singular person while being part of the righteous whole.

One of the best graces, In all places, Is to sense in mind, in heart, When to start, when to stop, when to depart.

We must not be indifferent to the fact that differences do not make us different.

One of the greatest things of all we can hand to someone is a chance.

Friendly hugs make you feel good, feel tall, but deep feeling hugs are the best of all.

Through winters, springs, summers, falls, a constant was always the crow calls, Calls filling the air, They sit everywhere, Black attired undertakers of the lands, You always could hear their demands, For they are the raider, But we are the invader, Big, loud, extremely bold, Like the squirrel they seemed to scold.

Among the unsung heroes of this earth are they who rise, ascend above the wrongs done to them, who being deemed unworthy stand tall in their worth.

Far too often happens all too often.

We must talk to angels now before they become an escort.

Why should there be such disparity Between quality and rarity, The sun shines equally when it comes to pass, Through diamonds or glass?

Just when did being a good person bring sneers.

When you can be yourself with grace in spite of all, you have it all.

Truly having it all encompasses everything, everything that is really important.

Your all can be held in a warehouse or in your heart depending on what you treasure.

Dissatisfaction comes when we forget or misjudge what is truly satisfying, when we do not realize that it comes not from what we desire but what is good, what is best for us, for all.

Happiness comes not from greed, nor settling for less, but comes with finding the more in less.

She carried butterflies in her heart, Glistening snowflakes in her eyes, And warmth in her soul.

My times of luck run amok, good and bad in random tandem.

I choose often to ignore the unignorable.

Those who think they are unignorable, are primarily deplorable.

When it comes to people I primarily go warily.

Life is wonderful, even when I'm blunderful.

When you cannot have your hearts desire, consult your mind and soul.

Having riches can make us happy, but it is love that enriches us.

If you are not happy with the wrappings or the contents, become the giver not the taker.

To wish and not receive is unfortunate, but to not have a chance to wish is terrible.

Enjoying life makes it tasty, Friendship makes it delicious.

Because we need answers, favors, help, rewards, because we need explanations, because we need to love and be loved, because we want things, want structure, guidance, because we want to lead, to be led, and so much more, we have found Gods to help us.

To see things of beauty pushes us to find even more beauty.

When going forward to our goals, your dreams we must at times look back.

We cannot reach our destinations by ignoring the road taken, or signs along it.

The temptation to resist temptation is what we to often resist.

We must never be so out of it, Never too skeptical or aloof, Never have a doubt of it, And listen for the reindeer on the roof.

Fear scars the mind, horror, terror wounds the heart, but it is neglect that most hurts the soul.

There are many trinities in our world, but it is a fourth, the quad, the essence of nature that contains, that sustains them all.

Everyday is a walk in the dark until we turn to the light.

I do not go resistant, I do not go insistent, I only deem to go, going this instant.

When you stand up to the bullies of the world, you stand up for the world.

Tens of thousand of times a day in any given city or town thousands of wrong judgments are made, or many more right ones.

I rarely ask for help having learned help is almost always close and mostly given when volunteered.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust is not the end I trust.

I do not trust anything held in trust.

Many things are factual but not necessarily true.

Facts make many truths from many different personal perspectives.

The biggest requirement in life after life itself is a chance.

Given a chance gives you a choice.

We all get away with things. Most of them are minor unless they hurt someone.

People who mind their own business are mindful.

Christmas has become about winning, losing, forgetting. Winning and losing sales and forgetting the birth of the greatest winner of all.

Christmas in our nation should be spent in only goodness and adoration.

Decorations, twinkling lights make a good Christmas start, but the greatest lights of Christmas are in the heart.

If we only gave most of our Christmas toys up, just imagine how we could fill poverty's empty cup.

Why is it the most ignored, Are they who rarely can afford?

When tragedy arrives, In some lives, When gloom harks, I've seen beyond the sadness such brave sparks.

It is the far horizon of which I am so fond, but oh the pull of the sky, the stars beyond.

None of us can really rest until the rest of the world is resting also.

I do not know if blondes have more fun but they certainly get more publicity.

In a world where honors are overbooked, so many honorable workers are overlooked.

Many of those who give out with "the humble pie" have far too much "crust"!

We all if we are honorable, honor those who have made us so.

Most of us walk old and worn paths, hopefully with new lively steps.

Sometimes I wish I were a rock and I would wash upon every shoreline in the world until I became a single grain of sand.

Going into some areas of thought is like trying to explore a cave into which you simply cannot squeeze into its natural entrances without some human reconstruction bordering on demolition.

My thoughts go back far beyond recollection, The beginning connection, And I have a notion, It was when we first crawled out of the ocean.

She always had style even when nothing around her was stylish.

I have heard the music of the spheres of these many years, Siren songs haunting, rich, of which require no switch.

My life I do not seek to justify, For any how or any why, As I have never been a slacker or slattern, And though I've never determined the pattern, As each minute renews, I hope I have added to their views.

The music, the drive, the spirit that drives men and women of glory, Comes from the common women and men the forgotten of every story.

Inside most every dog is the heart of a wolf, the mind of a dolphin, the soul of a bear, the delight of a child.

I saw blue rainbows at midnight, Though I do not know if the effervescent sight, Was in the skies, Or in my eyes.

Sometimes the hardest of people in the world to relate to are your relatives.

I hike every day by rushing streams of thought.

I am not as concerned with my attitudes as much as my ineptitudes, though they may be related.

Why should God, any God, need warriors?

So sad that many who are honored are not honorable as well as most honorable are never honored.

The deceased are released, But we remain with the pain.

You have helped to make of the hours of my life, The flowers of my life.

The paths we take are not always the wishes we make.

Can it be we long for, Not wish for nor want, The peace of the grave?

A wonderous scene to me, Is watching the tapestry of history.

Everyone has opportunities and requirements for courage.

My angel casts a shadow even when there is no sun.

If you are loved, remembered, If your fire is ever embered, You are glorious, Victorious, Yet for the ignored there subsists, A later glory that exists.

I think, at least I think so.

It's not just our beliefs but also our disbeliefs that can be troublesome or wonderful.

There is a wistful wind that begins in my mind.

Often when I try to sell myself I get short changed.

The wet wind crushes, At early dawn, Through the rushes, As the pine cones sing, As the night pales, As sparrows on cattails Are taking wing.

Everyone in the world of adult age should look at their loved ones and then consider what they are doing or planning to do.

They say We have but a day That life moves on Then we're gone But for me it's not true I live anew

In the forest sound Hitting the ground Ever then, ever now Of a fallen bough.

From skyscrapers to mountain ranges, I glory in cottages and molehills.

The wind moves through the trees, With gales, with breeze, Causing as it grows, Causing as it goes, The cascading tones, Of ten thousand xylophones.

It seems among our sports these days, marathons for triathletes in lying, crying, and denying are very common.

It is all of us, our reactions to actions that determines the ways of the world.

I will not languish in anguish, Nor give in to the languor of anger.

Wishes are free, wishing is not.

How is the flute in my heart atune to the song in my mind, the balladeer in my soul?

Swallow your pride? Sometimes it would be easier to swallow formaldehyde.

When we stumble, run aground, rely on your heart that nothing, no one can impound.

The trouble instigators are the agitators.

Among the saddest things we hold inside, Are feelings denied, Are dreams, plans, untried, It Crossed My Mind

Are tears cried, Tears never dried.

If you are touched, keep in touch.

My heart resides in canyons that once rang, with the sounds of the wild mustang.

There is nothing awesomer than hopes gossamer.

Sadness can come from pain, from discomfort, from shame, from loss or from never having had anything to gain or lose.

Some people just will press their wills at will on the unwilling.

When there's "the devil to pay" you better have a lot of credit.

Being in someone's dream is sometimes too much to bear, nightmare or otherwise.

Caring forms a rainbow mist of all the colors of compassion.

There is no final. Everything that is becomes the contents of extended life.

Our first objective is participate. To join in or to individualize. Then if honors and winning come, they are only a bonus, not a necessity.

All things are just that, all things.

I am so sorry partner of my life for the dreams we did not accomplish, but am now sustained by the effort and by those we did accomplish, especially these we did not dream, but were blessed with.

I weep for this world and exalt because this world is the best and worst of me.

We often build so many worlds within this world that we find it hard to know the real one, though that is the biggest reality.

Privacy is wonderful until is slips into loneliness.

Uncontrolled rage causes explosions, Controlled rages implosions.

Some people take stars and fashion a crown, others a milky way.

"If you build it they will come" and if you do not build it, others will.

If you think you are the best, you live in a small world. If however you strive to be one of the best, you have widened the world.

Vanity, power, riches, are most important to most of those exposed to them, and most sought by most of those neglected by them.

If we are not worthy, the doing of worth will increase our worth.

No domain is mundane, For every spirit thrives when music arrives.

Too often in our society, propriety is shadowed by notoriety.

The incidence of incidents is often incidentally incidental.

I am not by justice awed, but am by its mantles appalled.

Everyone indeed deserves a defense, but who is it that deserves to turn their backs on truth.

Miracles come to those who look past possible grief to belief.

The deeper we must reach within ourselves the brighter the flames of hope.

Worthy intentions are sunglasses for the soul.

We all fashion our Gods or have them fashioned for us, except for the very young or the totally innocent.

It is very seldom that the givers of the world give up.

Giving is the greatest receiving of all.

There is nothing so feel good as making others feel good.

So many people in this world need to be rescued, but not by professional rescuers.

So many of the lonely are lonesome unalone

Most of us can figure on not figuring it out, figuratively.

Now days only the indifferent, the illogical or diabolical are not ecological.

There are no strangers where barriers do not exist and hearts are open.

So many have a predilection for addiction.

Every day the wildness within me continues migrating to the wilderness of the wild.

Animal, vegetable, mineral, we are all specks of dust, minerals, drops of water and we will all be on our way to the sea from which we emerged too emerge once again.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from IT CROSSED MY MINDby Stephen E. Burnside Copyright © 2010 by Stephen E. Burnside. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.