August 3, 2026

A New Contract

I wish I knew where to begin. If I could find the start, it would be there. When I arrived at the races where I kept challenging myself to move the time shorter instead of longer, there was always a starting line. It was easy there to find where to begin the race. And before some wiseacre states the obvious, the time has lengthened to where the watch battery dies before the finish line comes into view.
But I know that for me, I have been grieving the Holy Spirit by not taking time from my busy day to pen a few words. The pounding on the keyboard is for my sanity and obedience, with the possibility of the masses being entertained only a fleeting and unattainable fy in the ointment.
I imagine putting the words above count as a starting place. Hooray! But what have I started that I have not discontinued in previous days? If I am honest with myself, which is a title of a book, “Tell Yourself The Truth”, I need to give it to me and acknowledge my procrastination. I need to sign on the dotted line of that contract floating around the room each and every day I have found 100 other things to do besides place my fingers on the keyboard and put letters of the alphabet together which spell words and make sentences, which find themselves grouped into paragraphs, being grouped together and finally resting in that domain on the internet, named, “thegristforthemill.com”.
The detective has the bright light in my eyes and I have to confess. I answered the phone and went downstairs to get the charger cord for the phone and decided to pull the last of the chicken off the carcass in the refrigerator. I was gone long enough the screen saver closed the window.
As I walked back up the stairs, I realized that was one of the ways I sabotaged my daily pressing of the keys on the keyboard. Don’t get me wrong, I still pressed the keys and quite often during the days leading up to today, but just not in the program that puts together the content for my daily grists. I get started, and looking back over the unfinished “grists”, there are a few lone paragraphs waiting for their brothers and sisters to join them on partially filled pages.
I have tried to teach Ali, and anyone else who stumbles across my path for more than a millisecond, that you have to know who you are. I have many ready examples from my life to use and probably use more of them than I need to in order to get my point across. As that bright light shines in my eyes, I find I am being caught in the snare I lay for unsuspecting others and have to use my own logic on myself. Describe yourself, Roy.
When that task in completed, albeit in a shortened version, I have to answer the question posed at the beginning with a scream for everyone to hear, that the start is the new day, the new hour, the new minute, and the new second, determined by when that is occurring. That means I must sign a new contract and begin a new round attacking the keys with vigor and vim. Now, believe it or not, I am making the rules and bargaining with myself for the terms of the contract and I am known as a pretty tough bargainer, I am an even better cross-examiner and debater. That is why I lose so many arguments with myself.
The day is half over and I have accomplished many things, just nothing that was on my list to get accomplished today. If I can finish this exhortation, at least I will have one gold star on the calendar. So let’s finish what I finally started.
I had to sign a NDA, (Non-Disclosure Agreement), so I am unable to tell you what is in the contract, what the penalties are for Breech of Contract, and what the rewards are for keeping the contract, other than to tell you it is in my best interest to follow through and keep the terms as they apply to me. And, I guess I can tell you the contract is not with myself.