Stories - FD Thornton

Have you noticed more and more political ads popping up lately? Lord knows I have. I mean, whoever created the mute button on the TV remote deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. I suppose it wouldn’t bother me so much if the campaign season don’t last two years. But it is what it is, besides if it helps pay the salary of my local weatherperson than so be it. We’ll promise people anything if it gets us your way. Rather it’s promising to not stay out too late when we hang out with the boys. Or promising a country we’ll drain the swamp if we get elected. We will say or do anything to get what we want. Listen I’m as guilty of this as anyone, just ask my wife. And while most of us make empty promises nearly every day, the person we are most often disappointing is ourselves. I got a little friend that coaches individuals in achieve weight loss and other positive life goals. Her story is incredible, about how she overcame a life of crap to achieve her goals. But the thing she runs into th...

I picked the last head of cabbage out of the garden today. The rest were either too big or too rotten to use. I rinsed it off, cut it up, and set it in the fridge. Later I fried it for supper to make me a vegan dinner with some onion and garlic. I’m not vegan, but my meat consumption is a lot less and more selective than before. I get asked a lot about my weight loss (130 lbs. and going) and how I do it. The first this was not an overnight thing or magic pill. In fact, it’s been a 5-year process. I cut out as much processed foods and meats as I could. I stop taking in caffeine and limiting my sweets.   But I think the most important thing I learned to do is to eat mindfully. I am not a devout Buddhist, but due to my mental health issues, I follow many of their practices. One of the aspects of the living mindfully is becoming aware of your surroundings. Within that eating mindfully is one of those practices. I discovered that by eating slowly you appreciate the flavor of...

From '62, first born, the clone of a troubled man that stares back at me every day. But I am still my own person, right? Declining in years to 59, though 60 would be better. I see the passage of time much differently now, as the waves of change look me in the eye. The world is racing, but to what end? So I slow the hands of time by looking outside. Tracing my consciousness through sunrise and sunsets. I like to think I’ve evolved, though my actions may make me a liar. But looking out at the chaos and the greed, the modern enslavement of a whole generation. I cast my lot with the dreamers, sympathetic to the cause. Housed in this white man’s body, I’m not an elitist. I was instilled with the awareness of common folk. For I see bullshit as bullshit, not blinded by convenience. So I ask myself, what makes us so mad? Is it paranoia? Or believing we’re the victim? Even when our belly’s are full and our 401K’s fat. So I turn to nature, but even this our hands have damaged. Leavi...

One of my favorite side effects in taking medication for chronic heart failure is peeing. One medication in particular keeps me going to the bathroom. It helps drain excess fluids and salt from my body since my heart doesn’t pump as well as it should. Another funky side effect is constantly having to rehydrate, even if I’m indoors. It sounds a bit like an oxymoron, but it is what it is. I don’t know what got me thinking about this, other than needing to go to the bathroom. I mean I should be used to this by now. But I do what I’m told and take my medication, besides the alternative is pushing up daisies. I shock a lot of people with the attitude I have towards life and death. It’s not like I have a death wish, in fact quite the opposite. I enjoy life. Still my fascination with mortality kinda freaks people out. But I like to think of it as my way of being at peace with the inevitable. Through the depths of depression I experienced, I always maintained a certain degree...