Author: Admin

Reposted from “Empty Shells” on Substack.com

I was raised by a professor and a teacher. I went to an “elite” international school. I studied law and philosophy. I completely identified with what I believed was my ability to think.

Thinking was mandatory: no thinking, no result.
Everything needed an intellectual approach, by default.

But I was incredibly lucky to eventually find out that thinking about things does nothing. It is pointless. And instead of turning me into an incapable idiot as I feared, all it did was uncover peace.

It’s not like there’s nothing left to think about.
It’s that thinking doesn’t do anything and there’s no one in control of it anyway.

Thoughts are about an imaginary future or past, things not under control, or fictional separate agents. The body doesn’t function because of thinking. Interactions are smoother without thinking. Speaking, writing, and other pursuits only flow while ignoring thoughts. Pleasure and joy are ruined by thinking, as we all know …

Even planning, reasoning, calculating … do we have to think about them for them to happen?

Things happen and don’t happen despite voluminous thinking, just look around.

Thoughts are empty shells. And so is the thinker.
Where is this thinker we simply assume exists?

I can’t remember why I cared so much about thinking.
I prefer peace now.

On 28 Jan 2026, at 5:09, Ralph wrote:

1. “Be mindful when it comes to your words. A string of some that don’t mean much to you, may stick with someone else for a lifetime.” -Rachel Wolchin
2. “Be careful with your words. Once they are said, they can be only forgiven, not forgotten.” -Unknown
3. “Words are free. It’s how you use them that may cost you.” -KushandWizdom
4. “Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” -Rumi
5. “…But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will run wild and cause you grief.” -Unknown
6. “The secret of being boring is to say everything.” -Voltaire
7. “One kind word can change someone’s entire day.” -Unknown
8. “Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.” -Pearl Strachan Hurd
9. “Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble.” -Yehuda Berg
10. “My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel–it is, before all, to make you see.” -Joseph Conrad
11. “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” -Mother Teresa
12. “The tongue has no bones, but is strong enough to break a heart. So be careful with your words.” -Unknown
13. “Be careful what you say. You can say something hurtful in ten seconds, but ten years later, the wounds are still there.”
14. “All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
15. “Don’t mix bad words with your bad mood. You’ll have many opportunities to change a mood, but you’ll never get the opportunity to replace the words you spoke.” -Unknown
16. “Don’t ever diminish the power of words. Words move hearts and hearts move limbs.” -Hamza Yusuf
17. “Words are seeds that do more than blow around. They land in our hearts and not the ground. Be careful what you plant and careful what you say. You might have to eat what you planted one day.” -Unknown
18. “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” -Edgar Allan Poe
19. “A broken bone can heal, but the wound a word opens can fester forever.” -Jessamyn West
20. “Good words are worth much, and cost little.” -George Herbert
21. “Your words have power. Speak words that are kind, loving, positive, uplifting, encouraging, and life-giving.” -Unknown
22. “Kind words are a creative force, a power that concurs in the building up of all that is good, and energy that showers blessings upon the world.” -Lawrence G. Lovasik
23. “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” -John Keating
24. “The best word shakers were the ones who understood the true power of words. They were the ones who could climb the highest.” -Markus Zusak
25. “Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.” -Abraham Joshua Herschel
26. “If we understood the power of our thoughts, we would guard them more closely. If we understood the awesome power of our words, we would prefer silence to almost anything negative. In our thoughts and words, we create our own weaknesses and our own strengths. Our limitations and joys begin in our hearts. We can always replace negative with positive.” -Betty Eadie

On 1 Feb 2026, at 6:06, Ralph wrote:

CHURCH BULLETINS
Thank God for church ladies with typewriters. These sentences, with their typos or slips of tongue, actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:

The sermon this morning: “Jesus Walks on Water.” The sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus.”

Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don’t forget to bring your husbands.

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community.

For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack’s sermons.

The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: “Break Forth Into Joy.”

A rice-and-bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be “What Is Hell?” Come early and listen to our choir practice.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM–prayer and medication to follow.

The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

This evening at 7 PM there will be hymn-singing in the park across from the Church. So bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this great tragedy.

The rosebud on the altar this morning is to announce the birth of David Alan Belzer, the sin of Rev. and Mrs. Julius Belzer.

This afternoon there will be a meeting in the south and north ends of the church. Children will be baptized at both ends.

Tuesday at 4 p.m. there will be an ice cream social. All ladies giving milk will please come early.

Wednesday, the Ladies Liturgy Society will meet. Mrs. Jones will sing “Put Me In My Little Bed” accompanied by the pastor.

Thursday at 5:00 p.m. there will be a meeting of the Little Mothers Club. All wishing to become little mothers, please see the minister in his study.

This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Lewis to come forward and lay an egg on the altar.

The Associate Minister unveiled the church’s new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: “I Upped My Pledge–Up Yours”