Eccentric Realizations

💭 Free Thought • 🌹 Truth • 🌱 Growth Exploring politics, spirituality, health, and personal transformation. Honest reflections, bold questions, and eccentric realizations that challenge the norm. https://rustylampe.carrd.co

[rustyll89]

Healing Doesn’t Fix Broken Systems: A Life Update on Boundaries, Healthcare, and Growth

The past few weeks have been emotionally charged—marked by medical upselling, unanswered questions about care, and the realization that pers

The last few weeks have been emotionally intense—navigating healthcare systems, advocating for myself, confronting misinformation within my own family, and learning (again) that personal growth doesn’t automatically transform toxic systems.

Healing doesn’t mean everything suddenly becomes safe or supportive. Sometimes it simply gives you the clarity to see what never was—and the strength to stop blaming yourself for it.

This week’s post is about medical self-advocacy, boundaries, family dynamics, and what it really looks like to grow inside environments that haven’t grown with you.

🖤 Awareness can be lonely—but it’s also freeing.

[rustyll89]

Full Moon. New week. New month. Imbolc.

No wonder today feels powerful. This isn’t about forcing change—it’s about recognizing what’s ready to shift. Imbolc marks emergence, the first stirrings of clarity after a long winter. Today feels less like a beginning and more like alignment. Seeing clearly. Choosing differently. Letting what no longer serves fall away. 🌕🔥🌱

[rustyll89]

This isn’t about seeking conflict — it’s about boundaries. For a long time, I avoided speaking up and let people walk all over me. Setting limits may look combative to some, but it’s actually part of my growth. Standing up for myself isn’t aggression — it’s healing.

[rustyll89]

The Constitution does not protect only citizens — it protects persons. That word is intentional. The First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments all use language that applies to people within U.S. jurisdiction, not just those with a specific status, skin color, or language.

When the government claims it can suspend rights for one targeted group, it is not creating a narrow exception — it is setting a precedent that weakens protections for everyone. History shows this pattern over and over: rights are first stripped from the most vulnerable, then expanded outward.

If authorities can ignore due process, enter homes without warrants, restrict protest, or detain people without hearings for some, they can eventually do it to anyone. Rights don’t erode in isolation — they erode collectively.

You don’t defend freedom by deciding who “deserves” rights. You defend freedom by defending the principle that rights belong to people — not just to those in power’s favor.

An attack on one group’s rights is always a test run for attacking everyone’s.

[rustyll89]

Watch What They Do, Not What They Claim: Character and Values as the Real Measure of a Person

Words and labels shape identity, but they rarely reveal truth. When political, religious, and ideological labels are stripped away, what rem

We talk a lot about labels—political, religious, ideological—but labels aren’t truth. When you strip them away, what’s left is character and values. This piece explores why behavior matters more than belief, why power reveals integrity, and why democracy depends on ethical consistency—not identity.

[rustyll89]

Reclaiming My Authority: Healing, Boundaries, and Starting the Year Aligned

January didn’t unfold the way I planned—but it gave me exactly what I needed. Recovery, reflection, and the courage to reclaim my autonomy s

The past two weeks reminded me that healing isn’t linear—and neither is reclaiming your autonomy.

From navigating illness recovery, to setting firm boundaries around my time, energy, and worth, to letting go of systems that no longer serve me, this chapter was about listening inward instead of performing outward.

Rest counted. Saying no counted. Standing my ground counted.

This week’s post is a reminder that recovery is progress—and self-advocacy is a form of healing.

✨ Read the full life update on the blog.

[rustyll89]

✨ Read the full year-end reflection here.

Realignment in Action: How Choosing My Values, Health, and Truth Transformed My Year

This New Year’s Eve reflects on personal growth over two years, emphasizing the importance of choosing oneself and prioritizing mental healt

As the year closed, I’m reflecting on what real transformation actually looks like.

Not sudden change—but quiet realignment. Choosing myself. Honoring my values.

Doing the inner work, tending my mental health, and making intentional choices that support who I’m becoming.

This post is about shadow work, authenticity, and rising from old patterns into a more grounded, aligned life.

A phoenix moment—earned, not rushed.

[rustyll89]

How I’m Ending the Year with Intention: Progress, Recovery, and Long-Term Wellness

As the new week begins, the author reflects on their journey toward wellness through balanced movement and recovery. They emphasize the impo

This past week was about progress without pressure. Honoring my body, refining habits, supporting my future self, and letting rest count as growth. Healing isn’t linear—but it is intentional. Momentum continues.

[rustyll89]

Light doesn’t argue with darkness — it simply shines.

One flame won’t fix the world, but it can soften it.

Love is an action: tend it, protect it, and pass it on.

Be the warmth. Be the clarity. Share the light.

[rustyll89]

A world without LGBTQIA+ people has never existed — and never will.

As long as humanity has existed, so have we. Not as an exception, not as a trend, but as part of the whole. Woven into human life before borders were drawn, before laws were written, before shame was taught.

Older than fear. Older than erasure. Not new — just no longer silent.

Human diversity isn’t a deviation from history. It is history.

[rustyll89]

Three years ago, my life looked very different. I was surviving more than living—reacting instead of choosing, carrying patterns that no longer served me, and measuring myself by standards that weren’t even mine.

Today, I’m not claiming I’ve “arrived.” What I have done is something quieter and more powerful: I’ve become more honest with myself. More intentional. More grounded in my values. I’ve learned how to pause instead of spiral, to choose boundaries over burnout, truth over comfort, and growth over staying small.

Progress hasn’t been loud or linear. It’s shown up in better decisions, deeper self-awareness, healthier limits, and the courage to unlearn what never belonged to me. Some days the win is clarity. Some days it’s rest. Some days it’s simply not going backward.

My goal was never to be better than anyone else.

My goal was to be better than who I used to be.

And by that measure—showing up with more integrity, compassion, and self-trust than I had three years ago—I’m already succeeding.

Here’s to progress. Here’s to becoming.

[rustyll89]

A Weekly Life Update on Progress, Boundaries, Recovery, and Reclaiming Myself

In this weekly life update, I reflect on progress, recovery, boundary-setting, and the ongoing process of reclaiming myself after a year of

This week reminded me that progress isn’t always loud or linear. Sometimes it looks like slowing down, honoring recovery, and holding firm boundaries—especially when it would be easier not to. I’ve been learning to listen to my body, protect my energy, and reclaim parts of myself that were sidelined for a long time. Healing doesn’t mean doing more; it means doing what’s true. This is a snapshot of where I am right now—choosing alignment over chaos, rest over burnout, and authenticity over expectation.

[rustyll89]

This is what media capture looks like.

When a fully vetted, legally cleared investigative report is killed because the government refuses to participate, journalism stops and propaganda begins.

A government’s silence is not a veto.

It is not an editorial standard.

And it cannot be allowed to function as a kill switch.

If the standard for airing a story becomes “the government must agree to be interviewed,” then the press no longer holds power accountable — it answers to it. At that point, investigative journalism becomes stenography for the state.

What happens when news becomes politically aligned?

Truth becomes optional.

Discomfort is avoided.

And the public is told nothing happened.

CBS has been here before. Spiking a major investigative story once nearly destroyed the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover. Repeating that mistake — this time for political optics rather than legal necessity — trades decades of trust for a moment of quiet.

Journalism does not exist to keep power comfortable.

It exists to tell the truth — especially when power objects.

These sources risked their lives to speak. Killing their story to preserve access or avoid backlash is not neutrality. It’s complicity.

CBS: air the story.

Protect journalism before it’s gone.

[rustyll89]

Labels Aren’t the Problem — Weaponized Meaning Is

“Woke.” “Antifa.” “Patriot.” These words once described ideas. Now they’re often used to end conversations before they begin. This essay bre

Labels aren’t the problem — weaponized meaning is.

We rely on labels to communicate complex ideas. But when words are stripped of their original meaning and repurposed to trigger fear, shut down thought, or signal loyalty, language stops being a tool and starts being a weapon.

This piece explores how labels like “woke,” “Antifa,” and “patriot” get distorted — not by accident, but by design — and why that distortion makes real conversation almost impossible. It looks at how ideology gets mistaken for organization, how emotion replaces evidence, and how simplified narratives feel comforting even when they’re false.

This isn’t about defending any one label. It’s about defending meaning, precision, and the ability to think without being told what to feel first.

If you’ve ever felt like conversations collapse the moment a label is introduced, this might resonate.

👉 Labels Aren’t the Problem — Weaponized Meaning Is

[rustyll89]

“Trump Derangement Syndrome” didn’t start as a diagnosis — it started as a deflection.

It’s a phrase used to dismiss criticism without engaging the substance of that criticism. Instead of addressing lies, corruption, authoritarian rhetoric, or harm caused, the response becomes: you’re obsessed, you’re hysterical, you’re irrational.

But here’s the reality:

Recognizing wrongdoing is not derangement.

Calling out abuse of power is not obsession.

Defending democratic norms is not hatred.

If anything, what we’re witnessing is something closer to moral inversion — where accountability is treated as extremism, and loyalty is treated as virtue.

MAGA, as a movement, isn’t just “supporting a politician.” It’s characterized by:

treating one man’s words as truth, even when they contradict facts or the law

reframing criticism as persecution

excusing behavior that would be condemned instantly if done by anyone else

prioritizing identity and grievance over democratic principles

That’s not strength. That’s authoritarian conditioning.

Knowing right from wrong doesn’t require obsession — it requires standards. And when someone reacts more strongly to criticism of a leader than to the leader’s actual behavior, that’s not clarity. That’s allegiance overriding judgment.

Calling this out isn’t “derangement.”

It’s discernment.

And history is very clear about what happens when people are taught to distrust reality, dismiss accountability, and worship power instead of principles.

Awareness isn’t hatred.

It’s resistance.

[rustyll89]

This resonates because it names something I’ve lived, not something I chose for aesthetics.

Being a spiritual wanderer isn’t about rejecting people — it’s about refusing to abandon yourself to fit systems, beliefs, or roles that never felt true.

Some of us are called inward before we’re ever called outward.

The path isn’t loud. It isn’t linear.

But it is honest.

[rustyll89]

This graphic gets part of the story right — and that part matters.

Yes, the U.S. still relies on a poverty formula rooted in the 1960s. While we now have a Supplemental Poverty Measure that adds some context, our system still largely uses an absolute threshold that doesn’t reflect modern realities like housing costs, healthcare, childcare, or transportation.

That doesn’t mean 30–40% of Americans are officially classified as poor — they aren’t.

But it does mean millions of people are struggling while technically being labeled “not poor.”

Most modern countries use relative poverty measures — comparing income to what people actually need to live now, not what a household needed decades ago. When you view poverty through that lens, the U.S. problem looks far larger than our official numbers suggest.

Here’s the truth we keep avoiding:

If we don’t adjust how we measure poverty, we will never meaningfully reduce it.

You can’t fix what you refuse to measure honestly.

As James Baldwin warned, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”