Goats--and Thoughts--Where They Do Not Belong

 It is after midnight, but when I got up from bed, I discovered the goats out and the cat where she did not belong. The goats are jumping fence like they did when the cousins were here over Labor Day. Ezra put the goat back out and tried to fix the fence, but I guess the goats are finding another low spot somewhere since the property was mowed.

As I stuck a couple of these random photos of goats on my blog, I thought about how goats are like thoughts--they easily get out of line and jump the fence.  But it is our thoughts about our thoughts that make the most difference, as explained below.

 

Here is a quote that I read recently:

"It is our thoughts about our thoughts that get us into trouble," wrote Jack Pransky in Simple Truths for Living Well. He went on to say that if we get a thought such as, "I want to slug him!" and follow that thought with, "Go for it!" we give the first thought power over us and likely follow it. 

But if we follow the first thought with "That was just a thought and a ridiculous one!" it will pass.  

I found that extremely helpful. 

Sort of like, "Birds will fly over your head all the time, but you don't have to let them nest in your hair."

Here is another quote I ran across.

And a simple quote shared by my sister Joella recently when someone was quite sure Anna and probably some others were confused about some things.

"I don't think it's confusion to have to try to sort through...things."

I know that came from my little sister, but my simple brain thought it rather profound--and comforting.  

Here is another  thing my husband and I ran across and thought valuable enough to share.