What Are Thoughts?

In my travels, I have been to parts of the world where the internet is not readily accessible unless you’re area resident and pay for the privilege.

In other words, “No FREE WIFI”…

Even visiting my sister in Dutch Harbor several years ago… Yes. It was in Alaska. Dutch Harbor, way out the Aleutian Chain. Essentially there was NO INTERNET unless you had a paid connection.

We’ve grown so used to being connectable to the world. In the palm of our hand, we hold the access point to the entire world. Without even thinking, we “google” something to see what knowledge is available. Stories, gossips, news, knowledge, travel tools, ease of study, and social media.

Without this access, we are often left to our own devices of finding a news source, or computer access that hopefully gets us temporarily connected to the world, or thinking thoughts that come from out of the blue and, Poof…gone to whatever place they came from.

I’ve been thinking about “thoughts” lately… How do they work?

Without distractions…How Does Your Mind Work?

The phone connected us to the distraction of silly things. Remember? You used to dial for a weather report, quote of the day, or even a prayer.

We all live with distractions. You name them for yourself, but my daily habit of playing “Angry Birds Friends” requires me to connect up to the internet… and without the internet the game is useless.

I love the distraction of a game that does not require me to look for a WIFI signal! Solitaire with a deck of cards, anyone? When all else fails, playing against myself with Tic-Tac-Toe does not work very well.

Its almost like you return to the yesteryear of doing math by hand – wait, can you still do long division? How about flipping through card catalogs at the library? Wait. Do they still have them? Or manually flipping through pages of research and phone books instead of talking to Alexa, Siri or Cortana. Analogue is the process of doing it manually, such as, picking up a pen, finding some paper, and then writing down the results!

Less I make this a more laborious thought than necessary, what I realized is that my mind is full of thoughts. All the time! Ofttimes fleeting, sometimes lingering, and way too many times requiring me to dig deep and ponder the results.

Just about every day I think, “This would make a good thought for a blog!”

My Platform

My blog has become my platform for my thinking mind. This is easier than thinking things through in the midst of a conversation, and ultimately getting lost in the journey from Point A to Point Z.

Early morning thoughts are often the focus of the days writing exercise. My mind is fresh. The overnight melatonin has thinned. Now, the concept of taking the thought and making it part of my morning devotion has opened up ideas that are worth recording and sharing.

Future thoughts are recorded in E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E! I use various media tools like Notepad, Word, Evernote, Calendar, even draft blog posts that will be revised in the future.

This collection becomes sorted and collated, merged, and categorized. Eventually, they make it into a blog post.

In my older days of no computing device, my bible would become the log of scripture thoughts as I read or heard from others, scribbled notes in the margins, pertinent words and phrases underlined or highlighted, and names of all those that I paid attention to as they spoke.

This Morning

This morning, while preparing my day, I had several thoughts plop into my mind, and then just about as quickly they disappeared, not easily recalled. Where do these thoughts come from? Where do they go? They seem to come and go faster than I can pick up a pen! Yet, each one seems to be worthy of consideration. How do I slow down my mind and focus on one thing at a time? For the life of me, I cannot remember them!

Then I think, I wonder how God’s mind works? I’ve used this a lot lately, and it seems to be always appropriate.

For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. [Deut. 4:29-30.]
(Jeremiah 29:11-13 AMP)

Most think of God’s thoughts and plans for their own personal success. I think God is interested in us individually, but also collectively. We are not in this path of life alone. We are in this with others.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
~Unknown

David mentions “thoughts” a lot. His own, as well as how he imagines God thinks.

How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God!
How vast in number they are!
If I try to count them, there would be more of them than there are grains of sand.
When I wake up, I am still with you.
(Psalms 139:17-18 GW)

The Dying Thought

I hear the whisper of these thoughts. In my mind. I ask.

Where do they come from? Where do they go?

They often cause me to pause and consider them deeply, saying, “I’ll remember this in a little while when I have the time to write it down.” And then I don’t! That thought dies, and no wisdom is gained from the moment.

Where do thoughts come from,
And where do they go?
Why don’t they linger longer?
Do you ever take the time to notice them?
How long will they stay if not entertained?
Will they return on their own, or begone forever?
And when they fade into the background,
Feeling unwelcomed, unwanted, unconsidered,
Are they gone forever or simply waiting for another time to reappear?

This process of thinking about thoughts has been with me for a long time. I researched where thoughts come from, especially those random ones, out of the blue. What causes them to Pop, be there, and then, Poof, be gone?

Well, trust an engineering mindset to provide an answer.

Given the physical complexity of what’s happening inside your head,
it’s not easy to trace a thought from beginning to end.
(Click the sentence, read the article, I dare you!)