Virtually all children....

....go through growth spurts. Sometimes, they can seemingly put on a few inches in just a few weeks. Adults, if they are lucky, don't increase their size. (Or if they do, it happens horizontally rather than vertically.) Still, though, no matter how old we are, we never lose the ability to increase our understanding. Ideas about life that once used to fit us perfectly become too tight and constricting.

We have to shed our old beliefs and opinions so that we gain greater insight. If you are going through such a phase now; be glad of it.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. 

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

So often 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.

We are afraid of the enormity of the possible.  (Emile M Cioran)

Experience is....

.....the greatest teacher, and when the lesson that needs to be learned is important enough, it hardly matters whether that experience is positive or negative. When we look back on all the events that seem to confirm our wisdom, we have to wonder whether these have helped us or just conditioned us to remain upon a path that is so straight and narrow that it offers no scope for discovery.

Through looking at what has gone wrong in the past, you stand the best chance of making things right in the future.

Our best thoughts come from others   (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Does every closet....

....hide a skeleton? Does every statement disguise a hidden agenda? There are times when we can look around at the people in our world and wonder just what it is that they are trying to cover up. 

But then, we have all got private thoughts that we would rather not share. These become problematic only when we pretend otherwise and try to persuade ourselves that something is true, when deep down we know that it isn't

The doer alone, learneth.  (Friedrich Nietzsche)

Everything looks....

....difficult when you don't know what it involves. Knowledge isn't just power, it is relief, even peace of mind! Now, I know what you are thinking. 'What if you happen to know for a fact that something really is as difficult as it looks?' Well, even so, at least you know what you are dealing with. The unknown is always more nerve-racking than the known. And the known, if it is really known, is never without hope.

There is a world of difference between the difficult and the impossible and that's all you need to remember.

One fails forward towards success  (Charles Kettering)

Another Easter Reflection....

Some of you may have heard of this –

At the time of the Battle of Waterloo there was a man at a signalling post in Winchester Cathedral anxiously
awaiting the signal as to whether or not we had won the war.  As the lighted signal began to shine, a fog came down. The watchman read the signal which said, “England defeated”.  He signalled this news to other watchmen. This message spread along the countryside, and Britain began to despair of this news.  Then the fog lifted, and the
watchman discovered the true signal said, “England defeated the enemy”.  The despair, like the fog, lifted because England had won!

On Good Friday it seemed the message was "Christ defeated".  But three days later the fog lifts and we discover that the message had not been received in full.  The resurrection reverses what we initially thought and declares "Christ defeated the enemy”.

An Easter Reflection...

Some time ago I heard a story.  One of those stories that you can’t easily verify, but know that it’s worth remembering -

A young boy named Jonathan, who had quite severe learning difficulties,
loved going to Sunday School and listening to the passages and the hymns we know so well. Unfortunately, although the other children didn’t mock him, neither did they include him in many of the activities.

One week before Easter, the assistant gave all of the children plastic eggs and asked them to go home and fill the eggs with something that represented Easter. The next week all of the children gave their eggs and the assistant opened them one by one and they talked about how each thing
represented Easter. One had a flower petal, another had a leaf and so on - all representing spring and new life.

The assistant then came to an empty egg. Assuming it was Jonathan’s, she put it aside thinking he must not have understood what she asked him to do. Jonathan became a little agitated and asked. “Why won’t you talk about my egg?” She said, “But Jonathan, your
egg is empty.” To which he replied, “So was the tomb”.

Jonathan became accepted by all the other children that day.

In years gone by....

....people would talk about the ticking of the clock. Clocks don't tick any more. Time sneaks past us silently like a thief in the night. It doesn't draw attention to itself by trying to evade our gaze. When we seek it out, it shows itself. But it knows that sooner or later, we will stop looking. We cannot bear to look for too long. 

The moment we stop looking, it can get right back up to all its old tricks. It can carry on robbing us of our youth..............and our sense of perspective.

Too clever is dumb.   (Ogden Nash)

Most children I know....

......like ice-cream.  Never did I hear any of them moaning because they aren't getting enough broccoli. Yet children, as everyone knows, are much more wise and intuitive than adults. So if they can't tell, inwardly, what is good for them, what hope do the rest of us have?

We think we know what we need, but all too often our needs seem suspiciously close to our desires.

Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay. 

(Simone de Beauvoir)

Lean forward....

....I want to share a secret with you.  (Ummm, I wonder how many of you just leant forward.)

The secret of 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.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to 

play with your hair. (Khalil Gibran)

Nobody likes....

....flattery but we all appreciate a compliment. If people say nice things to us, especially when it is clear that they have taken the trouble to recognise a quality that we ourselves are quite pleased with, we feel good. We feel good about ourselves and we feel good about the folk who are making such comments. And if they then go on to gently point out some less than satisfactory factor that we might want to address, we are at least half-inclined to hear them out.

Diplomacy will almost always be a key to success.

Our intentions become clear through the fruits of our actions, 

not through the seeds of our words.

What are we supposed to do....

....about the things that we don't approve of? Or the things we dislike? We may wish that they were different but how much power do we have to change them? If we feel we have no power, we can either grow resentful or become philosophical. Of those two less-than-ideal options, the latter is surely, by far, the healthier.

But better yet is to make a concerted, sincere, effort to set the world to rights. Until or unless you try, how can you say for certain that such an enterprise is beyond your ability?

Life is a song - sing it.  Life is a game - play it.  Life is a challenge - meet it.  

Life is a dream - realize it.  Life is a sacrifice - offer it.  Life is love - enjoy it.  (Sai Baba)

If you are....

....enjoying life, it hardly matters what trouble you face. If you are not enjoying your life, you can be surrounded by all the trappings of wealth and success yet they will not make a shred of difference to your inner experience. Happiness is not just 'a bit more important' than money or power - it is infinitely more important.

Also, if you do have happiness, you tend, automatically, to summon whatever power or money you truly need.

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

A funny thing....

....happens to people in love. They find their capacity to care is seemingly limitless. Even if, prior to the experience, a person or situation hardly mattered, suddenly it matters more than anything. Love and concern are not the only emotions that can be 'self-replenishing'. 

Our reserves of compassion, patience, tolerance and kindness are inexhaustible if we only allow them to be.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being

superior to your former self. (Ernest Hemingway)

They say....

.....'Time and tide wait for no man.' That is so true, and these powerful natural forces wait for no woman, either. The reference books date this phrase to the 14th century, but it is hard to imagine that, prior to this, they either had no such saying or it didn't apply. If only we had a time machine, we could go back and check.

Meanwhile, with no such facility, the risk could be in expending too much energy dwelling on a past you cannot alter, is that you may miss the chance to seize your next big real chance.

Forever is composed of nows.    (Emily Dickinson)

Let's have a....

They say moment..... 

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.

If your plans are unravelling a little. Don't worry. Just reweave the threads.

The hardest battle you are ever going to have to fight is the battle to be just you.   (Leo Buscaglia)

Each breath....

....you take is an affirmation of your own existence... and of your own importance. Fortunately, you don't need a license to breathe. Nor is there a tax on this process - well, not yet anyway. It's about the one process in your life that nobody can boss you around over. So enjoy it. Allow yourself that luxury. And then, having granted yourself the right to do that much at least, look around at what else is happening.

You matter. You count. You have a right, at all times, to be heard... to be respected, to be proud of yourself.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

A little more...

....than 100 years ago, an amazing event took place amid the carnage of the First World War. At Christmas, British and German troops stopped shooting. They went over to each other's trenches and exchanged seasonal gifts. Some even sang carols and played football. The next day, they got back into their positions and continued with the carnage. Stories like this often leave us wondering whether to laugh or cry.



Through our choices and our actions, we can take what is bad and make it good.

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up 

in order to exist at all.      (William Faulkner)

History is peppered....

....with tales of famous battles. Those who compile the chronicles, name the winners and the losers with great certainty. But that hardly does justice to the immense sense of loss suffered by either side whenever they incur so much as a single casualty. In war, there are no winners. Indeed, the outcome of any conflict can only involve stress and sorrow for every participant.

The only true victory is a compromise, one that allows all to feel as if they have won something. Something we should always remember.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

Let's discuss....

....a hypothetical question. You are a passenger in a vehicle. The driver is reversing round a tight difficult corner. You can see what they can't see, a wall very close to your side. So, should you keep quiet and be polite because you don't want to be a backseat driver? Or attempt a quick, gentle word like, 'You have noticed this, haven't you?'






And if the wall does get hit and you have not said a word, whose fault would it be?

The reward of a thing well done is having done it.  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)