Contrary to a widely held belief....

......(And far be it for me to be contrary.  Perish the thought.)  Leopards can change their spots. They just need to crossbreed. This is the 21st century. We are decoding the secret of DNA, cloning creatures, defying the laws of gravity and generally breaking all the traditional physical boundaries and barriers. Are we, in the process of doing all this, becoming any more psychologically sophisticated?

 

 

Of course not. Leopards, we can change; but people remain as mysterious to us as ever.

 

 

 

Don't let the burdens of your past be obstacles of your future; even though there may people who work in the attempt to make you do so.

This coming Christmas marks.....

....the 100th anniversary of a amazing events that took place amid the carnage of WW1.  So it seems only right to repeat this in the run up to that anniversary -

 

At Christmas, during the First World War, 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)

 

 

 

What way would you...

....like to go? Forward? Backward? Off to the side? There's no right or wrong. Reversals often carry a certain stigma but they really should not, there's nothing wrong with revisiting a part of your past. It's fine to recognise, with hindsight, the true value of something you once took for granted. Nor, though, is there any shame in abandoning one objective and embracing a new one entirely.

 

 

 

Do whatever you truly want to do. Don't do what others think you should.

'They' seem to be vocal today....

.....because they also say that stress is a modern disease. Yeah, right. Our cave-dwelling ancestors didn't find life stressful, coping with all those fierce animals and battling enemy tribes? Do we really think life was any less tense in the Middle Ages? Or even the 19th Century? The only thing that is new, is the understanding that it is a condition in itself and doesn't always have to be related to physical or psychological circumstances.

 

 

That is a key point. The only change that you need, if you are to rise above stress, is a change of outlook.

Some believe that....

....it's always tempting to mull over mistakes. (It is, but to do so ad infinitum is like dragging the past around with you in the present.)  We do this sometimes because we feel we may be able to learn something - and sometimes, through some perverse desire to punish ourselves. Often though, our biggest mistakes are the ones we know nothing about. They may involve opportunities we do not realise we have missed or decisions that have led to a worse outcome than we yet realise.

 

 

And then, there are the moves we made which we thought were wrong, yet turned out not to be mistakes at all.

 

 

The 3 great mysteries: air to a bird, water to a fish, mankind to himself. (Hindu Proverb)

 

 

 

If someone offers you....

.... a glass of wine, at the right time in the right place, you may decide to accept. If someone hands you a bottle and orders you to drink it all, right away, you have to refuse, regardless of who they are. Those are the extremes, somewhere in the middle is the grey area. It can often be hard to know whether we are being cajoled or coerced. Sometimes, people play on our sense of obligation. Sometimes, we just trick ourselves into feeling that something must happen because we don't want a fight.

 

 

You can't do only what you want to do, but you definitely mustn't do what you feel it's wrong to do.

 

 

 

Do something today that your future self will thank you for.

The world is changing fast...

....Even though most people I meet resist change with a passion unsurpassed.  Nevertheless, today's state-of-the-art device is tomorrow's car-boot-sale bargain. As with technology, so with fashion - and sadly, even with philosophy. What once was cutting edge is now blunt and dull. It seems, sometimes, that to survive on this fluid, fickle planet, we must be ready, at all times, to abandon every idea we once held dear. Yet some things don't change.

 

 

There are times when pressure is applied to the likes of you and me to drop a deep belief. Whenever that happens, don't. Not if your heart still sees the sense of it. That's one change too many!