We Learn From Our Past How To Live Today

June 26. Hello everyone, today was a fairly long workday but I had some excitement to break it up. I hope everyone's weekend is going well & finishes strong on the spiritual side. So after a slow but steady day of customers spending small amounts here or there, I made enough to stay in business, get some new things, and buy my mom a purse & wallet with her favorite lil lady Tinkerbell on it. But during the course of the day I had an incident at my stand. A couple who I've seen many times before & dealt with alot prior also decided that if not for the first time, at least this time, they were going to steal from me. The woman put two necklaces with matching braclets into her pocket & tried to walk out of my stand. Knowing the laws from the many times I have broken it or gotten around one, and having paid the embarassments & pentalties for my acts of desperation to fund my addiction back then, I knew the rules on concealment & that it was a crime even if I didn't let her leave. She of course denied stealing anything & pointed to my perfume table where no jewelry was or is kept & said they were there.

Of course I could see they werent there I said, "show me where" & as I said that she removed them from her pocket & threw them on the table before me. I picked them up & yelled thieves leave this market before I have you arrested for stealing. Leave now & don't come back. They of course misunderstood my dedication to doing whats right & having countless other vendors that are friends & in danger of their theivery I knew it was right to get rid of them for good. They did not follow my request & so I got security, we stopped them in the parking lot & gave them an opportunity to be honest instead of denying what she did (and there were other vendors who witnessed it) in exchange for a break. Her husband, who was her accomplice & visiual barrier (or so he thought) kept rambling on how he was sorry "my friend" & that he was a man of God. I told him that friends don't steal & that men of God would not hide their wives theivery knowingly. Because she would not budge on her lie about the theft I had the security call the police, he was a cop but off duty & only working security at the time.

The police showed up & asked what I would like to do, I thought back to a few times I got in trouble & the breaks I had been given after getting a good scare from the police. So I said regaurdless of their confession I will let them go with a lifetime ban drom the market, but give them a chance to tell the truth under the belief they will be getting charged if they do not tell the truth. They kept the lie, I had offered an act of faith that I had truly hoped they would learn & be honest from but I cannot change them merely offer help as I did in this case. They were let go as I agreed with no charges & banned from the market, trying to appologize to me & shake my hand while mumbling they were sorry continuously & the man mumbling he was a man of God & his wife was a woman of God. I had replied that God, Allah, whomever they reffer to him as, because I generally use the term "higher power" in my writings but this was live action, that they must learn what they have done & change or that same God he claimed to be a man of will punish him if not.

See I don't have a problem with folks stating the entity which crafts & forms their faith, the one that drives their life, actions, and existance. There is nothing wrong with that, until you use that power represented in a named higher power to cover up an act that is not favored by that entity. That higher power is to be given credit for great things we accomplish, because without it we may never have done so, but the horrible acts that we have commited in selfishness, diseased alcoholism or addiciton, and many other defects of character are not to be shadowed by its awesome power of good in our lives. That being did not create or empower us to do these evil acts of theft and worse things that can be done including lying, our selfishness & fear empowers these sorts of actions & lies. Today I am glad that I only use the name of my higher power in credits to great things & not as a justifaction or covering for my selfish actions. Those actions when they did occur in the past were my pure selfishness & if they were to occur again it would be that same cause.

So thank you for all those out there that use a higher power as intented, not to take oaths of lies, speak with forked tounges, to justify immoral actions, or to cut someone down in their own beliefs or life. We can all learn from our past as I have, that woman being arrested would have done little to no good in improving her chances to truly live spiritual & sound. I was arrested so many times & it did not change a thing, instead it was when my actions & faith were contested against a true moral base & when I had been embarassed in society, wrought in pain for my selfishness on a continual basis, and one day alone & cold with no grace of my higher power to warm my spirits.. then & only then was I finally able to change. I can only hope that I did the right thing today. I can only hope this woman never steals again & one day gives of herself & what she can to others instead of taking. I can only lead by my own kindness in not procecuting a theft when I recover my merchandise, not calling someone names who hurt me when they are simply sick to begin with, & not hurting others because of own selfishness. Thanks for blogging in. Good Night.. Good Morning.. <3 Jimmy