A recipe for success.....

The world is full to overflowing....

....with rules, regulations, protocols, prohibitions, unfortunately. Not to mention social, as well as legal, limitations. We take these in our stride. Until or unless, we discover that they prevent us from doing something that we sorely wish we had the freedom to do, we hardly even notice them. That's life.

We probably can't do much to change it. But we don't have to add to the situation by inventing new restrictions and creating artificial, imaginary obstacles for ourselves.

Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped

Try hard to imagine standing....

....in someone else's shoes. It's easy to find fault with another person's actions, but there may be good reasons why they feel what they feel and want what they want. Arguing against this won't help you make your case. If you hope to put forward an alternative idea, you should consider which words and suggestions would be most persuasive.

You mustn't make false promises nor can you say something that isn't true. But sweetness and sensitivity will take you a long way in the right direction.

Having a good discussion is like having riches.  (African Proverb, Kenya)

In war, there are....

....no winners. In love, there are no losers. We all understand this, yet we all conveniently (or rather, inconveniently) forget it. We convince ourselves that if we fight with all our might for a cause that we believe to be right, we will emerge victorious and vindicated - rather than scarred forever by our tragic losses. And, because we mistake love for 'ownership', we associate it with pain.

But a genuinely generous and giving heart can never be broken.

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. 

(Edith Wharton)

So many of us forget....

If we didn't have rule books....

....where would we be? How confused our lives would soon become without patterns to follow, expectations to live up to, tried and tested formulae to apply and repeat. Thanks to all these habits, established so long ago, none of us really has to think very much.

But sometimes, the most important thing we can ever do is stand outside a situation for a moment and try to see it from a distance while we stop and think.

The important thing is this: to be ready at any moment to sacrifice what you are 

for what you would become.      (Charles Dickens)

Watch....