A lot of the time....

.....it doesn't feel like it, but nobody on this planet is ever completely powerless. We all have options, alternatives and possibilities that we can explore. It is just that these may seem to us to lack immediacy or efficacy. We wish that we could do this but it turns out we can only do that. Disappointing though such a state of affairs may be, we owe it to ourselves to look at whatever our only choice may constitute.

That 'precious little' may turn out to be all that is required in order to make an enormous difference. Rising to a small challenge, may improve a lot.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Let your light shine....

Don't let me stop you....

....from reaching for the best, but be aware that the best is not always out of reach. We often mistake elusive targets for desirable ones. If something is rare, we figure, it must be precious. That's not always the way. Some of the finest things in life are not only free, they are right under our noses, available to us in plentiful supply.

Often, what we need most of all, is not an object, an item or a change of circumstance, it's just the ability to feel grateful for some simple, yet wonderful gift.

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  

It's the life in your years.  

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Parents of small children....

....often wonder if they will ever again know what a full night's sleep feels like. Parents of babes now grown into adults, often wonder if these really were the infants they once held in their arms. We all treat our current reality as if it is the only one there has ever been or can ever be. To pine for the past is as foolish as to force tomorrow to become today.

But if we ignore the possibility of change, we deprive our flame of wisdom of vital fuel. Remember - slow growth is not the same as no growth.

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.  (Marc Chagall)

Can someone please explain....

....to me why we have colour TVs and vibrant colours in clothing etc?  After all, most people seem resolutely determined to view the world in black and white. They want clear-cut, simple, unambiguous answers to even the most complex questions. They yearn for rights and wrongs that they can easily relate and react to. It is a very natural human thing to seek certainty but it is often, too, a dangerous and divisive quest.

If something is unclear, that is most likely because it is multi-faceted. Seek a deeper understanding, not a swifter resolution.

You can not tell a hungry child that you gave him food yesterday.  (Zimbabwean Proverb)

Run through the rain....

 A little girl had been shopping with her mum.  She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence.  It was pouring outside.  The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout.  We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the shop.

We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day.  I am always mesmerized by rainfall.  I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world.  Memories of running, splashing, so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.

The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in, 'Mummy, let's run through the rain,' she said. 'What?' mum asked. 'Let's run through the rain!' She repeated. 'No, darling.  We'll wait until it slows down a bit,' her mum replied. This young child waited about another minute and repeated, 'Mummy, let's run through the rain.' We'll get soaked if we do,' her mum said. 'No, we won't, mummy.  That's not what you said this morning,' the young girl said as she tugged at her mum's arm. 'This morning?  When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?' 'Don't you remember?  When you were talking to daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!''

The entire crowd stopped, dead silent.  I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain.  We all stood silently.  No one came or left in the next few minutes. Her mum paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly.  Some might even ignore what was said.  But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life.  A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.

'Darling, you are absolutely right.  Let's run through the rain. If God let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing,' her mum said.  Then off they ran.  We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles.  They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case.  They got soaked.  But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars. And yes, I did.  I ran.  I got wet.  I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health.  But no one can ever take away your precious memories... So, don't forget to make time and take opportunities to make memories everyday.  To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.
 

Imagine being given....

....a mathematical equation to solve. Rather than attempt to work it out, you simply pick your favourite number and make it become the answer. Then you recalculate, adding an additional process here or there until it justifies the result that you want. Very often, we all do something along these lines. We decide how we think things ought to be, then retrospectively create a set of arguments and explanations to support this idea.

Isn't it better to be more open-minded and honest?

In a gentle way, you can shake the world. (Mahatma Gandhi)

We consider ourselves so sophisticated....

.....and experienced.  For all our sophistication and expertise, we humans know little about how the world really works. This makes us anxious and insecure. To compensate, we focus like lasers on the few factors we can feel sure of. They become, to us, like lifeboats on the ocean of confusion.

Sometimes, though, new events cause us to question even our greatest certainties. At such times we fear we may be in danger of drowning - but, actually, whenever we reassess old assumptions, our boats get bigger, safer and stronger.

Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.  

(Malala Yousafzai)

Have you ever asked....

....What power do I have? What difference can I make? In this vast world, full of so many people, what can one individual do to create change? Who will listen when you talk? Who will notice when you act? It is easy to feel helpless and hopeless, forlorn and frustrated by all that's wrong.

Yet you have a unique position in this world. Just as, when you smile at a stranger you can send a cheerful mood halfway around the world, when you shout into the wind you can send a message for miles.

  

Don't underestimate your ability.

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.  (Rabindranath Tagore)

Nature, they tell us....

....is all about the 'survival of the fittest'. That is a very bleak way to look at life. Why can't it be about the survival of the nicest, the kindest, the friendliest or the most open- minded? Who cares whether or not the strong survive? If strength were all there is to life, life would not be very much worth living.

 

Better to be wise, real, honest... and happy. Better to accept a weakness courageously than to pretend to be superhuman out of a sense of misplaced pride.

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.  (Marcus Aurelius)

The Apron...

I don't think our children know what an apron is.

 

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she  only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.         

And when the weather was cold Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.        

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.   After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.        

In the autumn, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.        

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.        

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron - but love....

As we grow older, do we become wiser?....

Wouldn't we love to say 'yes'!! Some of us, though, choose not to learn. We go round in the same circles, playing out the same dramas, testing the same theories, yet refusing to accept the evidence that our experiment presents us with.

As we grow older, we become more experienced but wisdom requires experience plus something else - a willingness to learn.

God expects but one thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you are

a created being made and let God be God in you.   (Meister Eckhart)

We all have closets....

...Those closets all have skeletons in them. Those skeletons, though, have long since lost most of their identifying features. They are not very interesting. The only power they possess is the ability to seem slightly shocking when you first open the cupboard door and they leap out at you from the dark. Shine any kind of a light on them for any length of time and they soon become a pile of boring old bones.

If you want to conquer a fear from the past, stop hiding from it.

What a liberation to realize that the 'voice in my head' is not who I am. 'Who am I, then?'

The one who sees that.  (Eckhart Tolle)

When we put a lot of effort....

....into something, when we try as hard as we can yet get nowhere, we can easily conclude that we must have wasted our time. That phrase, though, carries a lot of weight, so it should never be used lightly.
Did we enjoy trying? Did we learn something from it? Did the process of doing one thing cause something else to happen? Is there a possibility that one day we may look back on what we have been through and feel better about it?

You will only waste time if you worry about wasting time.

Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood.  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Some time back there was this....

.....man who went by the name of Reinhold Niebuhr.  A theologian, apparently.  He wrote what's come to be known as The Serenity Prayer - 'Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.'   It remains highly favoured, to this day, amongst many who seek wisdom and inner strength, regardless of their religion.

Feel free to make it your own personal, private, recitation today. If you say it with sincerity, you may find it actually works.

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to 

anything on which it is poured.   (Mark Twain)

Most of us try hard....

.......not to become upset or irritated. We know that some topics of conversation are bad for our blood pressure and that the very mention of a particular, contentious situation can be enough to bring forth an avalanche of exasperation, especially when double-standards seem limitless. The thing is though, we cannot create a fortress and live within it. Sooner or later, our journey through life will inevitably take us into close contact with the very force or factor that is most likely to provoke an adverse reaction.

At, at such time, we really don't have to respond in the most obvious way.

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.   (Demosthenes)

It's a relief for most to know....

....that you don't have to be a mechanic to know how to drive a car. Nor is it a prerequisite for any great artist to be an expert in the chemical composition of paint. There may be many forces and factors that are difficult to understand in our lives, but that doesn't mean that we can't cope admirably and gracefully with them. We just have to make the most of what we've got.

 

And when life gives us an opportunity to understand a little more, we should seize it, of course.

The best angle from which to approach any problem is the try-angle.

Will you spend part of the day....

....wondering what happens when a relationship counsellor has a marriage crisis?  You won't..!!  Well, what about when a doctor gets sick? Should we discount all that such individuals know? Should we question their integrity? Not unless we wish to prove ourselves dreadfully arrogant, smug and narrow-minded.

We learn more from experience than we can ever learn from books or teachings. Sometimes, the only way to get that experience is the hard way. Don't look at 'how something should be'. Instead, value it for what it is.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,

the ocean does not become dirty.  (Mahatma Gandhi)

They say....

.....(Well, it's been a while since I started with those words, hasn't it?)......They say, 'success breeds success'. But success can sometimes create overconfidence. Great errors can be made by the victorious. The defeated tend to be more careful. Failure is a wonderful teacher. When we get it wrong, and we work out why we got it wrong, we can then see how to get it right.

As long as we learn from our mistakes, success will never be far away. And it will taste all the sweeter if it replaces the sourness of disappointment.

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.

(Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel)

There's no such thing....

...as a conflict that cannot be resolved. It is, though, much easier to reach a peace if both parties truly want it. Some people feel that to give way in a tense situation is to show weakness. But, then, to give way to a base emotion can hardly be considered a strength.

 

Troubled waters always need oil pouring on them, not wave-generating machines lowering into them!

Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts  (Soren Kierkegaard)

We all have things we're.....

....not proud of and parts of the past that we would alter if we could. While some of us, though, draw a discreet veil over such matters and some go into a frenzy of self- justification, others swear blind that certain things never happened. Denial is almost as unhealthy as guilt.

    

There's never a need to enter either state.  Just own, honestly, what has gone before and then set out to make your next move 'right' in every way.

A rumour goes in one ear and out of many mouths.     (Chinese proverb)

My Christmas wish....

Some of you may remember.....

....the song with the words 'Everybody's got a hungry heart.' How true. We all want to feel loved, appreciated, cared for and needed. We all know, too, that if that's what we want others to supply us with, it had better, in turn, be something that we supply to them. (There are many who can give in the material sense, but not the emotional one.)  Some people, it seems, do a lot of giving but not much taking. While for others, the reverse is true.

 

If we get an opportunity to redress such an imbalance, we should always take it.

For it is in giving that we receive.    (Francis of Assisi)

I came across this prayer......

..........by Blaise Pascal -

 Lord, help me to do great things as though they were little, since I do them in your power; and little things as though they were great, since I do them in your name.     Amen

 

A beautiful prayer. A simple prayer. A stunning prayer.  A prayer that should be tattooed on everyone's hearts.

We are fast approaching....

....Christmas Day.  That means it isn't New Year yet. Does that make it too early to begin a diet, embrace a fresh priority or start a new regime? Are you somehow stuck in the old cycle, rather like a towel trapped in a washing machine that must continue spinning too hard, too fast, for too long? If you really believe that New Year's Day has some special, magical, significance, feel free to wait.

But if you truly want to change your future, remember that you are not a towel and life is not an uncontrollable engine. Today is as good a day as any to commence.

You’re subject to sorrow, fear, jealousy, anger and inconsistency.

That’s the real reason you should admit that you are not wise.   (Marcus Aurelius)

Some of you may have started....

....to wonder what 'they' are saying at the moment.  Wonder, no more.  They say, 'Money can't buy you love'. But few people know what love is. They mistake lust for it, or romantic excitement, or some other form of emotional intensity. There are some who argue that the only real love is 'unconditional'. Yet, who can swear that we will continue loving a person, no matter what they do? Perhaps we don't really know.

Maybe money can buy you love, and maybe it can't. It certainly can't buy health or happiness. Or wisdom, or peace of mind.

You give but little when you give of your possessions.

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

You wouldn't eat food...

....that was way past its sell-by date. You wouldn't say, 'I got a really good night's sleep in 1997, so it doesn't matter if I stay up late tonight'. We all know that the past, no matter how good it may once have been, is not much use to us now. Why then, do we hang on to old worries and resentments? Why do we keep on going over the same old tired ground?

Dramas, once played out, have nothing left to be extracted that isn't already known.  They should always be left behind. 

Forget what hurt you in the past. But never forget what it taught you.

Alice In Wonderland. Ever read it?....

.....If you have, you'll recognise this - 'If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what it is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?' 

There are times when it seems as if we are all living in Alice in Wonderland's world. But the maddest thing about this crazy place called Planet Earth, is that the people who live on it keep expecting to find some sanity!

Don't try to understand, just try to enjoy.

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.  

(Sholom Aleichem)

A long time ago....

......there was a man is crawling through the desert, racked with thirst. Eventually, a passing stranger on a camel threw down a package. He eagerly tore it open. Inside? A necktie! He was barely able to contain his disappointment. Later, he heard a babbling brook. It was a real oasis, not a mirage, but it wa fenced in and heavily guarded. At the gate there wa a sign. "Formal dress code only!"

 

Often we are given exactly what we need. It's just that we may not yet be able to see what this is or why it is so good.

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and

success have no meaning.      (Benjamin Franklin)

You really shouldn't make....

....a commitment that you cannot keep. Sometimes, though, no matter how much integrity you have or how carefully you make your promises, circumstances change. Factors that you could never have allowed for arise. Then, what are you supposed to do? Force yourself to live a lie? Try to reconcile two opposing imperatives? Or just question your reality?

No human being will ever manage to live their life without some degree of inconsistency.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'  (Martin Luther King)

People who exercise....

....every day grow stronger. People who regularly practise a skill become more adept. People who eat a lot become capable of eating more. People who indulge their anger grow irritable. People who frequently criticise others find ever more reasons to be critical. Our thoughts and feelings are like seeds. We reap what we sow.

 

What are you giving a lot of time and attention to? Is it a negative activity or a positive one? Invest your time and energy wisely.

Don't talk, just ACT.  Don't say, just SHOW.  Don't promise, just PROVE.

Many of us spend....

....a lot of our lives trying to figure out what it is that we are supposed to be doing. We want to get it right. We want to fulfil our purpose. It does not always occur to us that what we are supposed to be doing is wondering what it is that we are supposed to be doing!

There is nothing wrong with uncertainty, nor is there any reason to feel that the best thing you can currently think of is anything less than the best thing you could possibly come up with. Ignore your doubt. Relax and be spontaneous.

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel.

I want to extend a....

....welcome to Solutions R Us. We are on the outskirts of your town or city.  Other major stores are often full from floor to ceiling with commodities to purchase. You will notice if you look around here, though, that the building is empty. That's because we don't believe in keeping stock because we have no off-the-shelf supplies. Nor are they tailor-made. 

The idea is that you walk in and hang around until inspiration strikes you. Then, you go away with a solution you have created all by yourself. Our success rate is 100 per cent.

The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.  (Richard Bach)

Just focus, keep aiming....

I am....

Mother Teresa is often quoted....

....and one of her most powerful comments was 'I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.' By saying that, she was recognising something that we could all benefit from seeing. 

When we find life painful, we tend to put up barriers. Ultimately, these don't protect us. They just make us even more vulnerable. The more, though, that we give, the more that we love and the less that we care about what we may get in return for any of this, the more we find true contentment and real freedom.

The past is your lesson. The present is your gift. The future is your motivation.

If you look at a window pane....

....the glass will look pretty solid and secure.  But glass is a liquid, not a solid. Take a window pane that has been in position for a couple of hundred years and look at it closely. You will always find that it is thinner at the top than at the bottom. Presumably, if you take it out and turn it around, it will flow back the other way over the next few generations. That's not the only example of something that seems to be immovable but contains hidden fluidity.

There are often factors in our lives that we discover are changeable - in a matter of days, not centuries.

Being a person is a matter of birth. Being an adult is a matter of age.

But being a loving, caring friend is a matter of choice.

Have you ever seen....

....the Disney cartoon film, Pinocchio?  In that Disney classic, Jiminy Cricket advises the hero 'always let your conscience be your guide'. But matters of conscience are not always as clear cut as we might wish them to be. The idea that there is some ultimate standard of impeccability might even be considered an expression of moral or cultural arrogance. What one person can easily live with, another may feel racked with guilt about.

The cricket is right. Your guide must be the voice of your own conscience, not someone else's!

The opinion which other people have of you is their problem, not yours.  (Elizabeth Kubler-Ross)

Now here's a stunning idea....

....Go and build yourself a fortress on the top of some remote hill.  Then you could surround it with a moat filled with giant piranhas. You could then post soldiers all along the approach road. Right, now what would this protect you from? More crucially, what might it be absolutely no defence against? 

If you were worried that someone or something could steal your happiness, you would be wasting your time with it all. 

We can only rob ourselves of that through letting fear or negativity dominate our thoughts. 

All glory comes from daring to begin   (Eugene F Ware)

Once upon a time....

....people were completely convinced that the world was flat, and that the Sun went round the Earth.  (Come to think of it, I suspect I know a few people who still believe this!!)  To argue otherwise was to risk the wrath of the authorities. It took generations for a conventional belief to change. Now, we are obliged to rethink our old ideas almost every time we open a newspaper. Subconsciously, though, we yearn for the stability of what we used to feel sure of.

There are times when we are urged to adapt old ideas.  That's unnerving, but usually very beneficial.

Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits

Much of the time....

.....it's just a matter of degree, isn't it? One mouthful may be tantalising, two may be satisfying, three could be overdoing it and four, would be a sure-fire recipe for indigestion. We cannot always see how to draw the line... or where. Often, it seems, the only way to find out when enough is enough, is to carry on until we've had too much, and then try to edge back a bit.

That's an easier process than many of us fear. We should never assume that a passing sense of discomfort will become a permanent disability.

In order to improve the mind, we ought less learn than to contemplate.    (Descartes)

My guess is that you have....

.....already noticed that the world seems overflowing with people who have strong opinions. If only the strength of those opinions were a reliable reflection of how accurate and appropriate they are. 'Oh, you believe this very deeply do you? Well then, you must be right.' How simple the world would be then. 

  

In attempting, to distinguish between what's wrong and what's right, there are times when we shouldn't rule out the possibility that what's really wrong is the amount of determination that's being applied to proving how right something is.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.  (Lao Tzu)

I'm working on the third point....

You shouldn't underestimate....

....your own intelligence. It's all too easy to look back and say, 'Why did I do this?' Or, 'Why did I jump to that conclusion?' The chances are that you were acting on all the information you had at the time; and you made the best possible decision that you could have done under the circumstances. You may well, now, know a little more.  All this does is it merely gives you the perspicacity that only hindsight can ever supply.

Don't look back in doubt; look forward in hope. Use your imagination and summon your faith.

Our intentions become clear through the fruits of our actions, not through the seeds of our words.

Don't ruin today....

There's no poison....

....so powerful that it cannot be watered down to the point where it is eventually rendered ineffective. It's just a matter of dissolving it in enough water. And there's a serious amount of water in this world. Now think of what happens when negativity meets positivity. If there's more of the former, the positivity may get overwhelmed.

But in this wonderful world of ours, there is vastly more hope than fear, more optimism than pessimism, more love than hate.

The pot and the lid do not break on one day.  (Congolese Proverb)

None of us can argue that....

.....an academic education isn't  is all well and good - but until or unless you live and breathe the practice, all you will ever know is the theory. Theory is fickle. It sounds good, it seems to make sense, but you can never really be sure whether you have reached the right moment to apply it.

Yet some experiences don't seem to teach us anything.  Until we really know something deep down, we will just keep repeating the same old mistakes. When we learn something, we need to digest it properly to help things improve.

If you worry about yesterday's failures, then today's successes will be few.

We have to be honest....

The secret of all good....

....communication is relocation. If you want to understand someone, you had best begin by trying to put yourself into their shoes. How would the world look to you if you were in their position? What might you value? What might you fear? And what if you don't want to understand someone? What if you just want them to understand you?

Then you just need to remember one thing. We all find it so much easier to understand someone else if we feel that they are at least making an effort to understand us.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility; never an opportunity.    (Khalil Gibran)