You know those seriously minded people....

.....who claim to be interested in nothing but the facts?  Well, more creative characters understand the importance of somewhat subjective signs and signals.  Hints and suggestions are often much more revealing than blunt, bald, statements. Those suggestions can prove more enlightening than any number of complex explanations.

If you want to understand something or someone, you may well do better to give less attention to a noisy announcement and pay slightly more heed to a whisper on the wind.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.    (Plato)

I'm sure you all know that....

....there are some wonderful people in your world, people you should be proud to know and glad to have a connection with. People are, of course, only people. Even the best have their faults and foibles. They can be annoying and exasperating. We can become so conscious of their limitations that we fail to recognise the amazing possibilities within their personalities.

Even the people you find it hard to coexist with are wonderful people in their own way. If you want to see the proof of this, you must be willing to look for it.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life 

you doubt, as far as possible, all things.     (Rene Descartes)

More often than not....

....it's easy enough to get your own way. It's not so easy, though, to be sure that your own way is the best way. If, as you set out to meet your own target, you cause someone else to miss theirs, you may end up with a hollow victory. It is easily forgotten in this money-mad world, but people matter more than things.

A compromise which keeps alive a sense of warmth and trust has to be preferable to a battle fought, and won, which leaves a deep resentment.

Two things define you: Your patience when you have nothing, 

and your attitude when you have everything.

Many people have tried....

....over the years, to measure love, but, of course, they never can. It may, just conceivably, be possible to assess the quality of a particular emotion. There is, though, no way you can ever evaluate the quantity of it. Why? Because, if a love is true, it will never run out. The more it is expressed, the more of it there will be.

Faith is also famously self-replenishing. If you need more of something in your life, stop worrying about the possibility of getting less of it.

Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows 

which hope has opened.  (C Spurgeon)

Have you ever considered the....

....experience that deep-sea divers often get - cloud followed by clarity. First, they reach the ocean floor and their weight displaces a large amount of sand. Until it settles, they can't see anything. After a little while, though, they can see everything!

There is a reason why we put ourselves through difficult processes. They lead us to rewards that can be attained in no other way.

Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.    (Baltasar Gracian)

Passions and moods.....

....are not logical. We don't sit down and plot the emotions that we intend to feel soon. Our feelings sneak up on us when we least expect it and rarely do they ask reasonable questions like, 'Have you got time for this, right now?' You can't change, nor fully control some of your deepest yearnings and most profound reactions but you can at least negotiate with them.

They can take over a large part of your heart if they really need to. But they must agree not to absorb all of your energy and attention.

How far that little candle throws his beams. So shines a good deed in a weary world.   (Shakespeare)

Please give a few moments thought....

.....to a topic you'd like to have a chat about.  I was going to add 'anything you like', but it has to be about something like sport, soap operas, fashion or gossip.  It has to be shallow. Do try, though, to avoid questions that none of us can answer or facts that none of us wants to face. It would be very rude and antisocial to draw attention to those. We all like to talk about the need to recognise reality but reality in, er, reality, is something none of us really likes to look at.

Fantasy is invariably preferable and the best pretence of all is the illusion that we are under no illusion.

Love is a glass which shatters if you hold it too tightly or too loosely.  (Russian proverb)

Easter eggs are fertility symbols....

.....as befits a time named after the ancient fertility goddess Ostara or Eostre. 

The venerable Bede tells us 'Eosturmonath' was once the English name for April. In Germany, April used to be known as Ostermonat. 

Easter's other traditional theme, of resurrection, also goes back a long way. The Egyptians believed their god Osiris had died and risen again while the Greeks had similar stories about Aristeas of Proconnesus.

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.   (Mahatma Gandhi)

As another week draws to its inevitable....

....conclusion, why not have one of those 'they say....' moments.  They say you can't judge a book by looking at its cover.  But is this old maxim true? Perhaps someone should produce a book with a cover that says, How To Judge Books By Their Covers. That should confuse a few. So many of us read so much significance into labels, that contents are hardly noticed. Wherever there is a focus on style, many assume there must be substance.

We should always be careful about the conclusions we reach.  There are times when, if you look beyond the obvious you could very well manage to reveal a true hidden treasure.

Action expresses priorities (Mahatma Gandhi)

It seems some time since I shared....

.....with you what 'they' have been saying.  Let's remedy that.  They say - Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.

So, if you want to enjoy life more, should you stop making plans? No. Experiences are usually richer when our days contain a little space for spontaneity. Plans, though, can be rewarding to make and enjoyable to stick to. We just have to remember that they won't always work out and that we need to be philosophical when they don't.

Even if your plans are unravelling a little, don't worry. Just reweave the threads.

Recognize the difference between thoughts coming from around 
and thoughts coming from within.

There is a very big difference....

....between something that you can't do - and something you can't do without a great deal of effort. The question is, how much effort are you willing to put in? Before you answer that, consider this: life is often the equivalent of effort.

The circumstances we endure and the factors that we force ourselves to accept, all subtly shape our ability to achieve.

Desire backed by FAITH knows no such word as impossible

You can't have everything....

....you want but, then, nor can anyone else. Anyway, thankfully, the reverse is also true. You can't have everything you don't want, none of us can. No matter how hard-done-by we may feel, there will always be areas of our life that deserved to be savoured and celebrated. We all have gifts that nobody can take from us. Assets for which we should be ever grateful.

What stops us from recognising these? Wanting something we can't have.

No person was ever honoured for what he received. 

Honour has been the reward for what he gave.   (Calvin Coolidge)

Back in the last century....

....I was thrust in to our education system.  Personally, I blame a certain Mr Pestalozzi, but I digress.  At Primary School we played a game - Simon says.  Let's relive it.  Simon says, 'put your hands in the air.' 'Simon says, put them down.' Now, put them up again. Hey! What are you doing? You are supposed to keep them down. Simon did not say put them up.

That's the way of the world. Everything is okay, as long as you have got the appropriate documentation from the relevant authority. If not, it's not okay.

There are times when we should never mind the whys or wherefores, the rights or the wrongs. Instead, trust to common sense, regardless of what Simon (or anyone else) says.

You do not need to learn a thing to become wise, 

you need to unlearn all those bad habits that take you away from love.

I don't know about you....

....but I'm in urgent need for a 'they say...' moment -

They say, nothing ventured nothing gained.  Well, so much for that bit of advice, but hang on just a moment. What would you rather have in your life now? A little bit of something? Or a whole load of nothing?

Well then, don't venture nothing, venture something! Take a risk. Put your head above the parapet. (Oh, my, I'm suggesting that we step out of our comfort zones!!!)  Face the possibility of failure if you truly want to embrace success.

Your beliefs pave your way to success or block you.   (Marsha Sinetar)

The heaviest thing to hold....

....is a grudge.  Well, there's some truth in that.  Never known it to benefit anyone.  A hard heart is a heavy heart. A closed mind is a mind no longer free to float on the ocean of possibility. Whilst there is always a danger that we can let ourselves drift too far or be receptive to those who might seek to take advantage of our generous spirit, we often do ourselves far more damage when we strive to protect ourselves.

It is one thing to draw a line and try never to cross it again. It is another to build a wall or create a defensive barrier that leaves you isolated and imprisoned. Kindness is a key to comfort.

There is never a bad time to count your blessings.

The world is full of....

....celebrities but, actually, our impression of those characters is based mainly on a superficial façade that they have chosen to project. What they are truly like may be a very different story. But, largely, it suits us not to ask too many questions and it suits them too.

Just as we get surprised when someone famous manifests an unexpected quality, so we surprise ourselves when it turns out that we are capable of more than we think.

The poetry of the earth is never dead   (John Keats)

Think of a cook looking....

.....in a pantry.  (Remember them?  You don't?  Oh well Google it.)  Anyway, I digress - The cook concludes that it is impossible to create a particular dish with the ingredients at their disposal. But this is not the only dish that the cook is capable of making. Those ingredients, unsuitable though they may be for one particular recipe, may yet prove the ideal combination for another meal.

It is not enough just to say, 'I haven't got what I need.' You have to ask, 'How can I turn what I've got into something worthwhile?' If it is worthwhile, it will yet turn out to be exactly what is needed.

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.   
(Ayn Rand)