Showing results by author "James Nugent" in All Categories

During the winter of 2004 I had a medical surprise - I found out that I was very sick. I was 43 years old and it looked like I might not make it to live past my father's age at his early death - only 49 years old. Here is my story.

This is my story of how I became a Right Wing Fundamentalist Roman Catholic and of course a Republican. I eventually became politically incorrect, and finally at peace with my church and my politics.

If a Catholic couple chooses to avail themselves of the spiritual resources available to a Catholic married couple; the relationship will last a life time and thrive while doing it. A failure of a marriage is directly related to the spiritual heath of the individuals involved. Even if only one of the parties embraces the spiritual principals the marriage can be saved.

In 2012, I read that Amazon.com had ways to self-publish e-books, paperbacks and audiobooks. They would make them available in more than 100 countries via the Internet and produce them when they were ordered. They would mail the paperbacks to the customers at no charge to me! Then, the company would direct deposit the royalties to my bank account. Best of all they paid a 35% to 70% royalty!

The fog is just beginning to disperse after sunrise but this is not a problem for navigation because you are just going to follow the western shore. You are the first person in when the gate opens at the West Bay Park and your hand launched vessel slides effortlessly into the water. You are off. You pass a tiny Island 50 yards from the launch. Islands no matter how small always excite my mind. The island is perhaps 20' wide and has one small stick like tree growing on it.

In Catholic tradition, there are numerous forms of prayer. All of them are valid and productive and suited to the temperaments of different people. There is a common denominator in many of these holy methods and techniques of prayer. We are spending time with our loving creator. We are trying to have a sacred conversation. And when we manage to slow up enough to listen; prayer becomes a two way conversation.

Sometimes a house is a house. Sometimes a house is a home. And sometimes a home is a spiritual base from which a person can have a lifetime of adventure and love. I do suggest you use this short story as food for thought. Even one new idea can make all the difference. Most of the unique things about our home come as adaptations from Roman Catholic culture. Some are uniquely my own. I invite you to my home through this book. Our home is a reflection of our values and temperaments.

This is a story about what it is like to spend 40 days of your life with the "forty days for life movement." During the 40 days of fasting and praying out in front of Planned Parenthood; I tried to be there for some part of each day. Work and other distractions kept me away 6 days; but even when I wasn't downtown at the corner of Adams and Legion in Olympia WA, the pro-lifers were on my mind and in my heart from 8:00am to 8:00pm.

My wife and I began this voyage of self-discovery about two years ago. Our kids were gone and we wanted to use our living space a little differently. We wanted to clean out some of the clutter we had accumulated from raising two teenage boys and generally clean out our home. Little did we know that before we were done, we would change our view of material belongings, and actually begin rejecting our cultural addiction to owning more stuff.

When one is doing what God wants us to do; God will turn all our problems into positive events. These converted events will actually support the mission that God has desired for us. When trouble befalls us, we must return to the Father and trust His bounty and love. We must trust that He will not waste the efforts of even one of His servants.

I climbed into my orange plastic Kayak and zoomed off to the green shallows of Young Cove. Just what is it that makes paddling this waterway such pleasure? Sometimes I think it is the kayak music. That is the musical sound of the hull traveling through the water on a quiet day. It is constantly changing and it is always calming to me.

Then the economy turned on the middle and upper middle class. Then suddenly, it wasn’t possible to always find a job that provided a suitable amount of money to maintain our chosen lifestyle. After that millions of our generation became the new poor. A strange thing happened after coming to accept the new economy. The new poor had little or no poverty survival skills. Things that might be obvious to a child of poverty eluded the new poor.

In the fall of 2015 I saw an advertisement on the Port of Olympia web site. It was looking for volunteers to serve on the Olympia Harbor Patrol. In exchange for a year commitment, people would be trained in boat handling, search and rescue, and port security. Being a long time recreational boater and sailor, I was interested in giving back to the community which had given me so much over the years. I applied online and waited. Several weeks later, I was invited to an interview

No survival kit can guarantee one's survival. However, if one were to gather these very portable items and carry them whenever they leave the sidewalk, their odds of surviving an emergency would be greatly increased.

I have spent decades trying to get closer to God. Since I was 20 years old; I have been aware of our loving God longing to be with us and heal us of our hurts. I have found this intimacy with God through many techniques. God can be found in meditation, contemplation, Holy Sacraments many other kinds prayer techniques.

The book is called Social Jujitsu and Powerful Principles for Managing Social Conflict by James Nugent. It teaches the three key strategies of evading, deflecting, and redirecting social aggressors. This book moves on to teach about drawing the aggressor in getting them to react to you, putting the aggressor in a double bind, and helping them self-destruct.

From my earliest days, my father taught me to survive in multiple scenarios. He taught me to survive in three environments. They were: an aircraft crash in the mountains, a ship wreck, and being lost in the forest. In each scenario he taught me that a person needed to have seven types of tools in order to survive. Over the decades I have added an eighth type of tool. While the category of "communications" is not critical for life support, it can facilitate escape from a difficult situation.

There is too much intentional and mistaken misinformation in our present culture about the purposes and practices of modern Catholicism. This had led to endless bigotry and needless hate speech and deeds against Christ's original Church. This little audiobook is an attempt to explain to fellow Christians what it really means to be Roman Catholic. It is not a debate. It's an honest attempt on my part to share. It is not an attempt to convert you to joining the more than 1.2 billion Christians who call themselves Catholic.

From time to time all of us have social conflicts. Sometimes we are invited to dance with people who have more external power than us, for example, a supervisor or an elder sibling or parent. Sometimes we might be invited to struggle with someone we don’t care so much about; like a stranger or acquaintance or a distant in-law. In either case the choice to engage or abstain is ours. If we engage, it is important to do our best to leave our dance partner some dignity and show some respect.

What follows is a frank discussion about the Catholic view of sin. It can be painful to engage in such a discussion. If we are honest, we are all involved in some aspect of sin. Thankfully Christians have a way out of the destruction, guilt, and misery which sin inflicts on every sinner.