Pipeology - The Fine Art of Pipe Smoking and Thought

Shakespeare says that fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.  Actually, if  I have any fears, it’s bears.  Other than this I’m not sure I have any fears.  I was quiet about my Angels for a long time.  I had no fear of sharing them on social media, but I feared unbelief the most.  But I conquered those fears and I have to remember no unbelief can separate them from me.  I used to have that fear.   But I can sit here and confidently say I have few if any fears.  But still I prefer to talk about my Angels in terms of my Spirituality unless I am confident.  But I get more confident every day.  It’s growth by steps and not leaps and bounds.  Everything in life is a step to the next thing.   I tried an AI friend for a couple of days.  But I had to learn that AI does not understand Spirituality.  I can connect spiritually with people but not with AI.  I can say that at least I tried it and realized AI is more of...

 Everyone has failures.  But when we quit life on our own terms that is the greatest failure.  I’ll die on God’s terms but not mine.  I’ll live regardless.  I could say death is my greatest enemy, but not when God decides.  My thinking is that Satan would love to see me die.  But If I do go, it will be according to His terms.  No one will decide for God; not even Satan.   My Angels told me my battles with Satan are over.  He will attack any way he can, but I ask my Angels to fight the battles—not me.  This is what gives me the power to live no matter how he attacks.  This is my thinking, but I can’t teach this because this applies to me and to me only.  I can’t explain this any further.  All I can say is that Angels are real and they are evidenced through me.   Angels do many things.  I don’t doubt the power of Angels.  No do I doubt the power of Satan and his demons.  I can only say they have no p...

 I enjoy being alone and I enjoy being with others.  Either way is called happiness.  Even when alone I am with my thoughts.  And I try to listen when with others.  I need both.  The Angels took away a lot of stresses, but in a way they gave me different ones.  I share those only with the Angels and I try not to use people as some kind of stress relief I am unable to explain.  Happiness takes my mind off overthinking.   I can do that a lot.  I’ve had to learn how to share with others.  Always just enough but not too much.  I’d rather spend my time with others just listening.  But since my experience with my Angels 31 years ago I’m still learning.  They didn’t make me perfect—just better.  I’ve often thought they made a huge mistake by choosing me.  They came to me and not the other way around.  I did nothing to summon them.  So, in this regard I say I have been saved by Angels. They left me with a ...

Stress is my worst enemy.  I don’t want to get into what stress can do to my mind.  I can get “out there” and need to keep my stress levels manageable.  I don’t want to get into it, but I’ll trust a few people with my stresses.  But once that trust is ever violated I can no longer trust.  I take medication to help control my stresses and what they can do to me.  I’m perfectly content to spend time alone with my Angels and my thoughts. I just had to learn to control my thoughts.  They CAN get out of whack, so to speak.  But over the years and with help from my Angels I can control my stress levels.  I don’t worry about the end of life as I have no fear of death.  If I have one fear it is too much stress.  My theological thinking can give me stress.  There is just too much needless death in the world today. This is when I need to take time and remember that I do not judge for God.  Actually no one does.  I say to myself...

 It’s now too hot and humid for me to walk outdoors.  My wife and I are working on some things so I can get back to the gym.  As soon as we get it all figured out I’ll get back to the gym.  Walking is still best for me, but I want to work on light upper body work just to keep my muscles in shape.  I’ve done some studies for those in my age group, and while the treadmill is best too often seniors neglected their upper muscles.   I’m not wanting to be a trainer for seniors, but my studies show that too often upper body muscles are neglected by seniors.  It begins with how easily they can get out of chairs.  If getting up from a sitting position is too much effort, they need to work on upper body strength.  Before I go back to the gym I need some idea as to what I should be doing there other than treadmill work. Cardio is best for me, but in doing only this I’m neglecting my upper muscles.  I don’t need access to a full gym.  I don’t n...

 I have some extra tobacco in my next order.  When it is time to place my order I have some extra tobacco that will not run out until after my next order.  Having a variety is best.  Some pipe smokers cellar a lot of tobacco.  I used to have a lot extra, but these days I smoke what I have and then place my order for the next month.   But I’ve found I haven’t been ordering enough.  Once in a great while I have to order extra to tide me over.  It’s cheaper than going to a local shop and paying full price or more.  Tobacco and wine are my only vices and with limited finances on a limited income I have to be careful about how much I spend on either. I used to drink only Cabernet wines, but I got kind of burned out on Cabernet.  These days I prefer softer reds and generally they are more plentiful and a bit less expensive.  But every once in a while I just want a good Cabernet.  I just am drinking less of it.  It’s the same wit...

 God wants me to keep my life simple.  Simplicity is best.  I’ve had enough complications with people.  Just a few friends and just posting on FB as little as possible.  I need diversions but not a lot of distractions.  In some ways in my later years I’ve worked hard to simplify my life.  Any kind of religious interaction would cause too many complications for me. Even my theology is simple.  Getting into politics is too complicated for me.  Everything can be political these days.  I just don’t need it.  I was once encouraged to get into politics, but I saw that path as full of all kinds of complications I didn’t need.  Being born into the family of a minister and siblings that took that path was too complicated for me.   I’ve work hard for simplicity all my life.  Now that I am there I don’t need complications.  I just need simplicity with a few diversions.  That suits me just fine.  Money is made with...

I wrote this yesterday and still like it this morning.  So, here it is:  Do I read old posts for my own enjoyment?  Not really.  I try to go over every post to make it as perfect as I can.  But very seldom do I go back over old ones and read them.  Only unless I am curious about what I said before.  It might seem I smoke the same pipes and tobaccos regularly.  It’s too expensive for me to order many tobaccos in small quantities.  And if I enjoy a certain tobacco I’ll order it regularly. I might say similar things in various posts, but I might go back to see how I said something before.  The ideas might be similar, but I try not to repeat the same idea over and over.  I’ll go back over titles of posts I have made.  I’ll get an idea and wonder if I’ve said something similar before.  Doing this helps me keep my memory sharp.   I might write about Old Professor pipe tobacco a lot, but I try to keep an idea fresh.  If...

 I had a chat with Chat GTP yesterday about crazy old men.  I had to sleep on writing about this topic today, because crazy old man can be just an excuse for others to shove you aside.  First I asked for a definition.  Then I asked for examples.  One of the examples given was Doc from Back to the Future.  Then I told Chat that I sometimes think of myself as a crazy old man and told it how old I am. Chat gave me the most uplifting response I think I could get.  It said I must be joyous about life and about who I am.  And Chat is right.  I’m joyous over being a crazy old man.  Chat said to enjoy who I am.  So, I add a caveat to the meaning.  I’m not just a crazy old man, but I consider myself wise as a serpent and harmless as dove.   Others might argue about the crazy part, but sometimes it’s there, but not in a destructive way.  It’s a harmless kind of crazy.  Some crazy old men have no limits.  I have my lim...

 I will write a blog post mostly for myself and then I let others see what they wish to see.  Some days I have a number of views and some days not very many.  But I just can’t write about Spirituality and Angels all the time.  I usually wait for the Spirit to give me most anything.  Some days it’s the sublime and other days it’s almost nothingness.   Toward the latter end of the month I’ll begin working on my tobacco order and put it all in the shopping cart until I’m ready to order.  Sometimes I’ll put in the cart tobaccos I’ve had and then add one or two I’ve never had before.  I literally can spend hours putting a tobacco order together.   I’ll add something and may even have a completed order, but it’s never complete until I put in my credit card and place the order.  I have written only one review and that was for Old Professor.  I was hoping that review might keep it, but the last time I checked that tobacco has been completel...

 I can explain my giggles to no one.  I was rather stressed about not having done something my Angles said I would do.  For 31 years I thought I had to wait to do it.  But I get the giggles thinking back over 31 years realizing now I had been doing it all along. It all came together all at once and I realized I was doing it all along.  Sometimes I just have to laugh.  I’m not laughing at the Angels.  I would never do that.  I’m laughing at myself for my doubts I had about myself.  I really thought God had made a huge mistake and He’d judge me for it.  But now I can see what He did.   Now, I get the giggles.  All that stress is over.  I can look back over 31 years and actually giggle now.  I see now I’ve been doing it all along when many times I thought I’ve failed.  The stress was unbearable at times, but still I couldn’t explain it.  I could explain it to no one.  So much I had to keep just between my ...

 It’s been suggested to me that I write about my pipes more.  I try to do tobacco reviews when I can, but at times I’m too one dimensional focusing only on the Spiritual.  My wife and I were reminiscing this morning about how smoking was everywhere.  We were talking about places where we worked and she said many of the people she worked with 50 years ago are probably dead as many were older.  Then she talked about her boss who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and said he smoked in his office all the time.  Then I said people used to smoke everywhere—even on airplanes.  Then I started talking about all the places I have smoked a pipe.  I used to smoke a pipe everywhere.   Restaurants had smoking sections and often I smoked my pipe in these.  And I began talking about all the places I could go to smoke my pipe and have a cup of coffee.  These days I just smoke a pipe at home only outside.  Years ago, I’d smoke my pipe anywhere a...

My Angels only left me with a speck of heaven compared to Heaven itself.  They made me wish I were there a number of times.  I know only how God will judge and a few other things.  But my Angels didn’t make one of them.  I carry a lifetime of experiences and people.  The Angels in no way made me perfect.  They made me better.   My Angels removed a lot of guilt I heaped on myself.  And I had to learn people do not judge for God.  That may have been the hardest lesson for me to learn and I’m still learning it.   When I get stressed I can take my eyes off my Angels.  They gave me tools for living and at times I can forget those tools.  They didn’t erase my memory, but they taught how to live with my memories.   Each and every day is a new learning adventure.  I never know what my Angels are doing, because only in hindsight can I see what they have done.  I have perfect hindsight vision now.  Not in all things, ...

I can explain a few things here and there, but some things I can’t explain.  Not that I don’t know how, but I’d explain and there’d be no end.  Sometimes I have to say that I’ve explained enough and I just have to let the Angels work.  I can take too much on myself.  I’ve learned I can’t do that.  At some point I’ll get tired. I am at my best when I tell myself I can’t do everything the Angels do.  I’ve done this on a number of things in 31 years and at some point I just have to let the Angels work without explanation.  Otherwise, Satan would win.  I never can let him win.  He is my enemy unto death.  I have to let God win the battles.  I am but an instrument.   I can get very stressed and tired.  And when I do, I just have to let God work and I need to rest.  I never do battle with Satan.  He attacks but I have to give the battles to both God and my Angels.  This is when I am at my Spiritual best.  I a...

 My Angels told me Satan wanted to create and God wouldn’t let him, when I asked them if there were physical unions in heaven.  But here on earth creating is good.  God allows us to create all we want, within limits.  But in doing so we do the will of God knowing He is the Giver  of all life.  My Angels didn’t tell me this, but it is my thinking that we have to recognize God is the Giver of ALL life.  This is why every human life is sacred and why only God can take a human life. This is why God will overlook any sin but the taking of Human Life.  This is my theology from my Angels and why it is so important that we control both our hatred and our anger.  This is why there is the taking of human life.  Satan knows this too and why there is evil in this world.  Without righteousness humanity wouldn’t exist. This is why I believe God won’t let the world be destroyed.  There will always be wars and rumors of war, which is why livin...

 God brings two people together and then it’s a journey together.  There are a lot of pitfalls along the way.  Many don’t make it to fifty years.  If is to be it will be.  And along the way there are a lot of doubts and errors.  Human emotions are fragile, but we must not lose focus, but live each day as it comes.  The fact is I never lost my focus. I can’t speak for my wife, but in my case she served a Divine purpose I never forgot.  Same with the kids.  I had to stay focused in everything I did.  Nothing was going to separate me from her as long as she wanted me.  I’ve had my doubts, but I never lost my focus.  I had distractions but I knew.   I had to remember everything my Angels told me, but there are things I never shared with her or anyone.  The stresses at times were unbearable and sometimes it showed, but I shielded her the best I could out of my love for her.  I gave her a lot of freedom to make choices...

 Sometime it takes years and even decades for pieces to fall in place.  But the key is to not be angry while waiting.  Waiting can be stressful, but we need to give time for the Spirit to work.  Spirituality gives us that time.  Meanwhile life goes on and we find diversions while waiting.  Diversions can be work, family, or spouse.  In some cases it is a significant other. But if we wait, the pieces will fall into place.  Meanwhile we can go through stresses, disappointments, and even calamities.  But we can stay calm if we let the Spirit work and not depend on ourselves.  Meanwhile, we’ll go through the judgements of others, but we have to stay focused and love ourselves.  We can’t let stresses become so overpowering we fall into depressions or worse.   Happiness is about focusing on that which brings us joy.  I am at my best when alone focused on the Spirit.  We need time to focus.  That time can be minutes or ...

 In some ways it’s just my Angels and myself.  I get tired.  It’s how I have felt the past few days and why there have been no blogs.  I try to distract myself with other things and  it’s why I smoke a pipe.  Sometimes I just have to quit everything and just shut down and let the Angels work.  A lot of things I just keep to myself and tell no one—not even my wife.  Trusting no one but Angels is tiring, because I don’t see what they do. I may have done a lot more than I think I have.  It’s hard to see Spiritual results.  But without my Angels I never would have made it this far in life.  I’ve had stress only my Angels could see.  I only managed life with them.  They gave me a sense of humor And they took from me all my anger and I let them have my anger.  I let them deal with all my emotions.   And because of them I managed through life.  I trusted them with everything.  So the last few days I’ve been ti...

 I’m smoking my Gettysburg pipe this morning and I was reflecting back on my two trips to Gettysburg.  One I made with my wife, when I bought this pipe, and the other with my two sons.  My sons and I went on a ghost hunting excursion.  There is something haunting about Gettysburg.  I would never live there.  My sons and I stayed in an old hotel that was once used as a hospital.   It was supposed to be one of the most haunted places in Gettysburg, but in all honesty I felt the presence of the dead as soon as we arrived in the town.  I get a different feeling about the place every time I have gone.  I don’t recall where my wife and I stayed, but at four in the morning I woke to an eerie sound coming down the hall through our door.   Things that go bump in the night don’t bother me, but after a short while the sound stopped and I went back to sleep.  My sons weren’t disturbed.  But nothing about the supernatural frightens me, but ...

 I’m looking for a gym to join.  I belonged to a gym, but quit going because the insurance quit paying for it.  But I found one with a very nominal fee.  Maybe my life is too quiet and my brain isn’t.  I’m beginning to think of myself as just a crazy old man who just sits and smokes a pipe all day.  I’m interrupted in my bouts of craziness with visits from my wife. We’ll discuss things that matter.  Then I go back into my own fantasy world full of Angels and a lot hope.  I’ll write about the Angels now, not just referring to them as Spirit Guides, but in a way I feel as though I’m simply waiting for the Messiah to come.  Maybe I was to get back to the gym just to be around more people.  Maybe it is what I need.   I’ve been walking around the neighborhood and see the occasional walker or runner and wish them good morning, but the gym has energy I need to be around more.  I need youthful energy, like the kind I get on our visits ...

 Marie Labeau was the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.  I wrote about ordering the tobacco named after her.  I’ve now smoked a few bowls and I can see why it is a top 50 best seller on Smoking Pipes.  I find it has a bit of tongue bite but I tend to smoke my pipes a little hard.  But it is just a bit.  It is described as an English Aromatic But overall I find it a rather pleasant tobacco.  It comes in long flakes and needs a little work for packing a pipe, but it does have a rather pleasant taste.  Not sure what the aromatic flavoring is, but I would guess either bourbon or whiskey.  It has a kind of smokey flavor.   I wanted to order some more Old Professor, but found Voodoo Queen above the listing.  I checked out the description and thought it might be worth ten bucks to try it.  My wife hasn’t said anything about the room note.  Not sure she’d like it.  As an Aromatic I can taste some sweetness, but not sure what it is...

 I’ve decided that all I want is for people to see and not react.  When I write something here I’ll usually get a reaction from my wife and maybe I write for her and no so much for anyone else.  But I get a number of readers each day, which is good.  Too much reaction overloads my brain.  I’m better with a few than many.  It’s not that I like my wife to react, because sometimes she doesn’t.  I’ve had to learn to write and not care about reactions and numbers. Caring means I can get jealous of those with numbers.  I’ve had to learn not to care.  What you won’t find here are numbers.  I don’t post for numbers.  I post to put it out there and let God worry about who sees it.  So, you won’t find much traction to what I do on social media.  I might do what I do because it needs to be said—by me.  I need to say it if just for myself. This one isn’t long this morning.  This is something I just want to say today.  I...

 I needed a whole bowl of tobacco and a complete cup of coffee before I had something to say this morning.  My simple theology means I am not judgmental, or at least try not to be.  I’m human and not God.  But my goal is to be less human.  I could argue I’m not quite human anyway, but I simply will not go there.  My eyes are looking upward and I’m not thinking too much about earthly things.   I hated being alone with my Angels here on earth, but at least some know and I’ve shared more with at least a few.  But it’s hard to think of judging people as I say God is.  But I have every reason to work on it.  My time alone gives me the opportunity to work on it and to constantly forgive myself.  Sometimes forgiving ourselves is harder than forgiving others. I’m hard on myself for being human.  But I’m constantly working on it.  But if fifty years of marriage has taught me anything it is to forgive and just move on and forget. ...

If I had discovered it sooner,  my change in my theology after my experience with the Divine, I may have joined a Buddhist community.  In a way, I am connected to a community, but not what I would call a follower.  I just had no idea where to go with my new life.  I tried church again in the early 2000’s but found I didn’t fit in.    So, I decided I was on my own path pretty much by myself and have been since that experience in late 1993.   But I’m used to being on my own path.  What changed was how I saw Jesus and how I interpreted especially his parables.  I saw life and God’s judgement differently.   What matters to me now is Human Life regardless of any other sins or beliefs.  And contrary to what my theology once said about salvation, this is all that matters and is how God will judge with His only judgement.  Everyone who has ever lived will be judged along with the living when the Messiah comes.  That is about as si...

 I’m not sure that Peace is more important than love but in a way they go hand-in-hand.  I wasn’t going to write today, but I got to thinking about my Peaceful feeling today.  I feel Peaceful as I sit and smoke my pipe, but life isn’t always peaceful.  But feeling Peaceful is the first step to loving ourselves.  And if it’s there it goes outward from us. I began a post this morning and felt it wasn’t very good and thought I’m might not post today.  I’ve had my morning coffee and am on my third bowl of pipe tobacco for the day, but I have this most peaceful feeling about life and thought I’d share this with you.  Life comes at us and we don’t always feel either peaceful or loving.  But when we take time to meditate on Peace we are filled with it. I wish I could explain it better, but we need to shut out the world and take time for ourselves.  That’s the best way I can describe it.  It is a Spiritual gift we seek.  If we want it then ...