Time to lie down.

Exercise never played very much a part of my life until I had a memorable and life-changing mid-life crisis. Strange how we used to call your fortieth birthday as your time for a mid-life crisis at the time I became acquainted with the idea living to eighty was a mighty thing. Now of course living to eighty is a fairly common occurrence.

Up until that point in my life when my friend arrived back from his morning run and told me how far he had gone, I would proclaim in no uncertain terms that, "If I ever feel like exercise I will go and lie down until the feeling wears off."

I was one of the 87% of the population who owned a pair of running shoes, trainers, but never did any running. Having a car I was not even familiar with running to catch a bus.

At the time of my fortieth when my daughter quietly told me it was possibly time to take another look at myself. In her opinion, I was overweight smoking far too much tobacco in my pipe and not looking at all healthy, my doctor was a good friend. One evening in his company I asked him if he thought maybe I should do some exercise. His response to me was memorable, Sorry, Ralph, but right now you're not in good enough shape to get in shape." What a memorable moment.

Time to take account of the calories and my lifestyle habits. The calorie chart I was familiar with was not recorded in any calorie counter book, let me share some of my thoughts on calorie burn at that time.

Beating around the bush..................... 75 

Jumping to conclusions......................100 

Climbing the walls..........................150 

Swallowing your pride....................... 50 

Passing the buck............................ 25 

Dragging your heels.........................100 

Pushing your luck...........................250 

Making mountains out of molehills...........500 

Hitting the nail on the head................ 50 

Wading through paperwork....................300 

Bending over backwards...................... 75 

Jumping on the bandwagon....................200 

Running around in circles...................350 

Adding fuel to the fire.....................150 

Opening a can of worms...................... 50

So time to have a new look and take things a bit more seriously. I started by losing the pipe and tobacco and slowly but surely making a little effort on the exercise. A few circuits around the house would be a good start. Again my friends came to the rescue start with some walking.

I felt a bit like the older gentleman who decided to get fit.

The couple decided that they should walk two miles a day to stay in shape. They chose to walk a mile out on a lonely country road so they would have no choice but to walk back. 

At the one-mile mark on their first venture, the man asked his wife, "Do you think you can make it back all right, or are you too tired?" "Oh, no," she said. "I'm not tired. I can make it fine." 

"Good," he replied. "I'll wait here. You go back, get the car and come get me." 

All joking aside I did get myself fit and thankfully it was a wise decision. Like everything else in life my trouble was and is that I never do anything to half measure. If I do anything at all I do it. Running was not enough I had to run mountains. 

So what have I learned that has made me think about this topic today? I have learned that true wellbeing is not achieved by only keeping the body fit. There is no good at all being able to run up and down mountains in record times if your inner being is in a state of flux and lost.

Being fit is about more than moving it is about having the whole self at one with itself. Or as I have said before doing the Tao being at one with the world and yourself. Equally, it is no use being at one with your inner being or the spirit of the universe if you cannot enjoy it.

Before anybody corrects me and points out that old age does not come itself, let me say that one of the fittest people I know lives not far from me. He has lived a long and full life and continues to do just that. I see him often with his mobility trolley.

Have a marvellous day Go with the flow.

The little Skylark.

The Skylark.

Those who want to conquer the world

and make it conform to their own desires

will never have success,

for the sovereignty of the world is a subtle thing

He who tries to shape it spoils it.

I seek your forgiveness this morning, or whenever you find time to read this, that I have for a moment become overcome with a sense of emotion and a feeling of the loss of things that once we took for granted.

I was walking yesterday on my own in silence and thought when a beautiful sound brought me from my thoughts into the world around me. Above my head soaring high two skylarks.

In a blink of a moment, I was back to being a young lad. I was down in the little field at the end of the houses where I lived in a little place called Dollytown.  It was a little refuge of mine where I had built a little shelter from branches and grass. I was lying looking up at the soaring Skylarks signing in the heights. A precious memory of a moment in time I have never forgotten.

Here I was hearing the same song all those years later. It is a song we are hearing less and less in the countryside because intensive farming and the habit of ploughing to the very edges of fields have meant the almost complete loss of these little beauties.

I came home and went onto the internet to search for skylarks. It is hard to believe but what I found was a picture of a rocket. The headline said, "The unsung hero of Brittish Space."  We had developed a rocket with all its potential to do all sorts of things and felt it was right to call it the Skylark.

We have gone on to develop even greater rockets. Rockets that can spy on our enemies. Rockets that can from, a little office in some far-flung place be directed to cause havoc to places and people at the touch of a switch.

We have developed these so that we can with one such machine wipe us all from the face of the earth in seconds.

We who try to be sovereigns of the world have in many ways spoiled it as the author of the words above written 2650 years ago.

I could not resist making my little effort at drawing this little bird that throughout my life has brought me wonderous moments of visions of flight and song.  As I sat and did my little sketch of the Skylark I listened to the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, "The Lark Ascending." I invite you to seek it out and give it a listen, might it do for you as it did for me, along with the little Skylarks of my day, fill you with a deep sense of peace.

It is so sad that in our rush for so many things we are in fact losing the very beauty that makes life such a joy.

Yes, I am a romantic and a dreamer but I thank those two little birds for the best three hours I have had in a long time.

I hope you take up my challenge and listen to that music and just for a while close yourself from everything else and just be at one with yourself.

Have a marvellous and peaceful day.

Take the easy road.

Not so much about what is there as what is not.

The above little painting is a scribble or two and some shading random. yet in its simplicity, there is plenty of space for each of us to add our own interpretation. That little man in the back of the boat, I wonder where he is heading?  Is he concerned about that flurry of snow? maybe he is making the crossing to ask his loved one to become his wife? Who knows? it is in fact up to us to finish the painting.

I was a bit concerned when somebody suggested I was getting a bit serious and heavy when all of the studying I have been engrossed in since the turn of the year has been about going with the flow rather than complicating life at all.

There is much to be said for simplicity. 

When the United States got involved in the space race and began to consider sending men into space, yes at that time only ever men were considered.  One of the difficulties they discovered was that the simple biro pen would not work in zero gravity.

Here was a problem that had to be solved. So the scientists were tasked to find the solution. They took ten years to develop a marvellous pen that would write in zero gravity. It could write upside down right way up, it could even write underwater. Further, the little doodle above could be done by it on the back of almost any old bit of paper because this pen would write on most things.

Amazingly the pen could even write at 300 under freezing. It cost $12 billion to produce but it was a marvellous pen.

The Russians, they used a pencil.

It has been discovered that a lion can not only hunt and catch large animals, they can catch mice, just like a domestic cat.

The facts are though that the energy expended to catch the mouse is more than the food that would be offered would not be worth the hassle. In fact, if it concentrated on catching mice it would slowly starve to death.

A lion cannot live on mice, they need antelopes, they provide all that a lion needs. On such a diet it can live for a long and happy life. It will die on mice.

It is the same for us if we are spending all our life running after the little things of life the complicated details of life we will get nowhere. Short-term we might feel all this activity is giving us a sense of accomplishment. In the long run, we have to ask is all the energy worthy of the results. Sometimes simplicity is good.

Oh, the answer to my question about the man in the boat, somebody just told me they were certain that looks like a woman. Ah yes, indeed it is wearing a red Kimono.

Have a marvellous day and as Wendy said to me the other day, go with the flow. 

Or as all my recent study has said, "Do the tao" 

Simple and easy have a wonderful day. 

You will never manage that!

I watched a little boy yesterday trying to get himself up onto a wall. It was not a wall of any great height so the young lad was not going to come into to much bother or injury if he did not manage to get up. At the worst, he might bump his knee. The first attempt he almost made it he just had to get the second foot about an inch or so higher. The second attempt he again got very close to achieving his aim. His third attempt was cut short by the appearance of his mother who in no uncertain terms told him to stop. It was she told him dangerous and anyway he could never manage it. I was almost one hundred percent certain he would have made in one or two further attempts.

I walked away with a certain amount of sadness for that little boy. What he had learned was that goals often cannot be achieved. My mothers favourite saying it seemed to me was you will never manage that. Said often enough and we can begin to believe that it is, in fact, the case. I knew that school was never going to be easy for me and my mother constantly telling me that this was, in fact, the case made it ever so much more obvious that I would never achieve anything in education.

She was to a certain degree correct. I did leave school with no qualifications or certificates to show that I had ever been there. 

I remember finding an old encyclopedia in the back shed of the place where I had a job. I had been tasked to clean the place out. I laid the book aside and at the end of the day, I took it home with me. I saw in the book pictures of an experiment that had been done with a large white shark. I read it through.

A marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank. As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked and ate the smaller fish.

The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fibreglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one side of the fibreglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.

Again, the shark quickly attacked.  This time, however, the shark slammed into the fibreglass divider and bounced off.  Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behaviour every few minutes to no avail.  Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed in the second partition.  Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.

This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks.  Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, until eventually, the shark got tired of hitting the fibreglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether.

The marine biologist then removed the fibreglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack.  The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish, so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.

The shark had learned that those fish could not be got, so it stopped trying. 

Many of us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, emotionally give up and stop trying. Like the shark in the story, we believe that because we were unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful. 

In other words, we continue to see a barrier in our heads, even when no ‘real’ barrier exists between where we are and where we want to go. Once we understand the barriers that have been erected for us are not necessarily a fact we can break through and achieve much.

In my case, it was my mother who erected educational barriers for me. In the case of the little boy and the wall, his mother had started to do the exact same thing. She was doing it for what she thought were all the correct reasons but planting you can "nevers" in the boys head would not encourage him to try again.

I am sure the following practice would not be permitted now but it worked for me and my pals. We lived together near a naval swimming pool. One summer the boys from my street and the next one along were invited to attend a daily swimming lesson at the pool.

None of us could swim. The naval instructor told us all to line up along the side of the pool at the deep end. We did as we were told. He and another sailor came up behind us with a long bamboo pole and we all went into the water together. "Now get out," said the instructor. We did each and every one of us. Swimming lesson number one a success. He never told us we could never manage it he just assumed we would.

I have a friend who has been learning to swim and doing so very well. Gone are the swim aids and helps and my friend is swimming. But five lengths of the shallow end. She has convinced herself she cannot, as yet, do the length of the pool even though that is a shorter distance than five breadths.

We do not always need others to build barriers for us we make a good job of doing it ourselves. The shark taught me a lesson if you want to do something enough the barriers might slow you down but do not let them stop you.

I have many friends who for one reason or another say they cannot paint or draw. Take the barriers down the little painting at the top took me five minutes. Even if it takes you an hour you can do it. 

Have a wonderful day go on have a try at something you have been told you cannot do.it really is a marvellous feeling when you discover that you can.

Pride comes before it!

Rejoice in Simple Things.

Those who flaunt themself is not illuminated.
Those who boast of their accomplishments undoes their merit.
Those who take pride in themself impede their own growth.

I learned many things from my father one of the most important came to me in the most unexpected way. He always told me to take pride in anything I was doing. never do something with the thought in your mind, "That will do fine." Usually, if you start from that position that which you accomplish will be not nearly as good as it might have been had you taken pride in what you were doing.

I therefore always felt pleased when my father told me that I had done a job well. Until one day. I had drawn something that he told me was very good. I felt marvellous because I did, in fact, think I had made an excellent job. Having watched me showing my drawing to two or three people he spoke to me in his quiet way, "I told you to take pride in what you did, I do not remember telling you to be proud about what you had done." He explained the difference to me.

In the Tao Te Ching, we can read, "Because he does not flaunt his brightness, he becomes enlightened. Because he is not self-important he becomes illustrious."

The very lesson my father was teaching me that day. Seek not pride. pride comes before a fall. 

I am sure I have spoken before of how my good friend Bert always brought me down to earth. if when we were playing golf together and I was in front at the turn he would make some comment like this. " I was talking to a member of yours. They were telling me Sunday's sermon was not one of your best." From then on my golf would go to pot, pride would be eating into my inner being and distracting me.

Former heavyweight boxer James Tillis is a cowboy from Oklahoma who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s. He still remembers his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa. 

He tells it thus,"I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under my arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. I put my suitcases down, and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, "I'm going to conquer Chicago." "When I looked down, the suitcases were gone." 

That pride that took hold of him distracted his attention from his cases and in doing so he lost most of what he had already gained. 

A young woman asked for an appointment with her minister to talk with him about a sin about which she was worried. 

When she saw him, she said, "Minister, I have become aware of a sin in my life which I cannot control. Every time I am at church I begin to look around at the other women, and I realise that I am the prettiest one in the whole congregation. None of the others can compare with my beauty. What can I do about this sin?" 

The minister looked at her and replied, "Mary, that's not a sin, why that's just a mistake!" 

Anyone who travels to Edinburgh will find Edinburgh Castle a tower of seemingly insurmountable strength. But the truth is that the castle was once actually captured. 

The fortress had an obvious weak spot which defenders guarded, but because another spot was apparently protected by its steepness and impregnability, the Captain of the guard never posted sentries at that point.  He boasted he did not need to.

At an opportune time, an attacking army sent a small band of men up that unguarded slope and surprised the garrison into surrender. Where the castle was strong, there it was weak.  Where it was weakest was in the head of the proud Captain.

Pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick except the one who has it. 

Take pride in the tasks of the day and have a wonderful day. 

Why should I care?

 

Apathy! Piglet. I do not know what that is or if I really care. Where is the Honey?

I was walking home one night from a meeting. The local council offices had a large pool in front of it. It was late at night and there were a number of people standing to look down at the pool. A young woman was laying in the pool pushing her head under the water. Nobody was doing a thing. I went into the pool shoes and all and talked to her up and persuaded her to get out of the water. An ambulance arrived and I went with her to the hospital. Sounds like a small event but it took more than an hour from my getting into the water and her getting into the ambulance.

The poor girl was in a terrible state she just wanted to die. She was sectioned and taken to an appropriate hospital. It was sometime later that she visited me at the manse and told me of the treatment she had been given and thanked me for helping her. I still wonder to this day why nobody at all offered her or me any help that evening?

I surprised one or two friends the other day when I told them that in my youth I had been arrested and spent a night in a cell. I had been one of many taking part in a protest march against war, I was a young man at the time and had high ideals. Some of the things I believed in then I do not now, but at least I believed enough in something.

I often hear people make comments almost boasting that they have never taken the time to cast their vote at an election. Of course, they always have a good reason for not bothering usually it is because in their view those who are standing in the hope of being elected are just a shower of crooks. Now that may indeed be the case some of the time but I do not for the life of me believe it is so all of the time. 

It is the same with so many other things, litter, people blatantly breaking the law. The cry can be heard, "I don't care, nothing to do with me."

First, they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the religious

And I did not speak out

Because I was not religious.

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

In fact, the company that makes those humourous stickers for putting on your car bumper have brought out one with nothing on it. They are for all those people who do not want to get involved. Leave me alone nothing to do with me.

I heard this true story which illustrates what I mean.

When Rosina Hernandez was in college, she once attended a rock concert at which one young man was brutally beaten by another. No one made an attempt to stop the beating. The next day she was struck dumb to learn that the youth had died as a result of the pounding. Yet neither she nor anyone else had raised a hand to help him, or even use her cell phone to call for help. She could never forget the incident or her responsibility as an inactive bystander. 

Some years later, Rosina saw another catastrophe. 

A car driving in the rain ahead of her suddenly skidded and plunged into a river. The car landed head down in the water with only the tail end showing. In a moment a woman appeared on the surface, shouting for help and saying her husband was stuck inside.

This time Rosina waited for no one. She plunged into the water, tried unsuccessfully to open the car door, then pounded on the back window as other bystanders stood and watched. First, she screamed at them, begging for help, then cursed them, telling them there was a man dying in the car.

Eventually one man, then another, finally came to help. Together they broke the safety glass and dragged the man out. They were just in time -- a few minutes later it would have been all over.

The woman thanked Rosina for saving her husband, and Rosina was elated, riding an emotional high that lasted for weeks. She had promised herself that she would never again fail to do anything she could to save a human life. 

She had made good on her promise. 

The nice thing about apathy is you don't have to exert yourself to show you're sincere about it.

Somebody once asked the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"  I make no attempt to answer the question I simply leave it hanging. 

Getting back to those who complain all the time about government both local and national. Many years ago a man by the name of Plato once said, "The penalty that good people pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by people worse than themselves. 

We live in troubled times and the danger is that those of us who care can get caught up in the apathy. We can end up like the lad who said to me, "Apathy! I do not know what that means and to be honest I do not care."

Have a wonderful day forgive me my little Friday rant.

I want some of that!

Green With Envy.

How easily you can fall into the trap of wanting what you see others having and enjoying. In fact, you do not even need to see the other person merely talks to you about what they are up to and you feel jealous. I was joking with my friend who at the moment is enjoying some time abroad. They were sitting in the sun enjoying a little cocktail while I was out in the wind and rain battling to get the bins out for collection. For a moment I was wishing we could have swapped places. Trivial I know but the beginning of envy.

There is a fable of an eagle which could out fly another, and the other didn't like it. 

The latter saw a sportsman one day, and said to him, "I wish you would bring down that eagle." The sportsman replied that he would if he only had some feathers to put on the arrow. So the eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow was shot, but didn't quite reach the rival eagle; it was flying too high. 

The envious eagle pulled out more feathers and kept pulling them out until he lost so many that he couldn't fly, and then the sportsman turned around and killed him. 

My friend, if you are jealous, the only person you can hurt is yourself.

There is another little tale that illustrates this well.

Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other, and they would spend each day keeping track of each other's business. If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival. 

One night in a dream a genie appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, "I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. 

Would you be rich? You can be very rich, but he will be twice as wealthy. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier. What is your desire?" 

The man frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, "Here is my request: Strike me blind in one eye!" 

One true sign of jealousy is when it's easier to show sympathy and "weep with those who weep" than it is to exhibit joy and "rejoice with those who rejoice." I am not sure I am expressing this as well as I might if I were a literary genius like Walter Scott. 

I end with a tale about him, a true tale. 

For many years Sir Walter Scott was the leading literary figure in the British Empire. No one could write as well as he. Then the works of Lord Byron began to appear, and their greatness was immediately evident. 

An anonymous critic praised his poems in a London Paper. He declared that in the presence of these brilliant works of poetic genius, Scott could no longer be considered the leading poet of Britain. 

It was later discovered that the unnamed reviewer had been none other than Sir Walter Scott himself!

There is a distinction between jealousy and envy. 

To envy is to want something which belongs to another person.  

In contrast, jealousy is the fear that something which we have may be taken by another person.

Although jealousy can apply to our jobs, our possessions, or our reputations, the word more often refers to anxiety which comes when we are afraid that the affections of a loved one might be lost to a rival. We fear that our mates, or perhaps our children, will be lured away by some other person who, when compared to us, seems to be more attractive, capable and successful.

Such belief can eat deep into our inner being and spoil the wonder of what we have.

Have a marvellous day rejoicing in the good things that surround you. 

Beauty Lies With the beholder.

Without even a glance I know what the object of the painting is, but I invite you to make your own suggestions to yourself. What on earth is it with the little blue patch and other bits? Added to play little minds games with the eye. Those little doodles will be difficult to ignore and may even play a little part in your overall idea of what this little abstract is all about. 

When my son was very young and just new to school he all of a sudden wanted to play at pirates with an eye patch. It took a little time for it to dawn on us and realise what was going on. He was being bullied by name-calling at school. He had been born with a birthmark that affected not only his forehead but also his eye which he later had to have replaced with a false one. But children being as they can be were calling him all sorts of names and he felt a patch might help.

My heart went out to him, in his own way and in his own time he overcame this. 

Charles William Eliot, former president of Harvard University, had a birthmark on his face that bothered him greatly. As a young man, he was told that surgeons could do nothing to remove it. Someone described that moment as "the dark hour of his soul."  

His mother gave him this helpful advice: "My son, it is not possible for you to get rid of that hardship...But it is possible for you, to grow a mind and inner strength so big that people will forget to look at your face.

This I think is exactly what my son managed to do. Speaking to friends of his recently they all to a person stated that his birthmark and glass eye was something they never noticed.

Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.

My friend was grading a science test that he had given to his elementary-school class and was reading some of the results to me. The subject was "The Human Body," and the first question was: "Name one of the major functions of the skin."  

One student wrote: "To keep people who look at you from throwing up." We were left in no doubt about where he thought beauty lay.

On the other hand, we also know where the farmer who placed the following advertisement thought beauty lay, it read, "Farmer wants to marry woman, 35, with a tractor. Send picture of tractor."

I remember attending a meeting where missionaries were telling of their experiences. They were saying that in that culture the larger the women were the more beautiful they were thought to be. 

In fact, a young missionary who had a small, trim wife said that the Nationals had told him she was a bad reflection on him, he obviously was not providing well enough for her. 

A proverb in that part of Africa says that if your wife is on a camel and the camel cannot stand up, your wife is truly beautiful.

One last little true tale.

A well known Quaker preacher was preaching of the importance of having a radiant countenance.

After his address, a woman "with an almost unbelievably plain face" came up and asked him what he would do if he had a face like hers. 

He replied, "While I have troubles of my own of that kind, I've discovered that if you light it up from within, any old face you have is good enough." 

It seems that real beauty may indeed be more than the superficial we so often measure it as. So back to the little painting above, what is it all about? It is really very simple. It is a piece of twisted heather root I saw on the track in front of me. I just could not resist lifting it and bringing it home.  If you have seen anything in it it will probably differ from the beauty I see and feel each time I look at it. 

Beauty is indeed with the beholder. Shine you little inner light and let your beauty shine forth.

Have a great day.

In Him I Put My Trust.

Three Loyal Friends Look East.

I heard a comment that made me wonder.Two young lads were talking about their relationships with their girlfriends. One of the lads was heading off for four days with his work, he would be living in a hotel for the three nights. His friend immediately said to him, " Four nights away I am sure there will be some nice girls there."  The lad looked at his friend and in a very serious voice replied, "Oh I cannot do that."

"Why not said his friend?"  I thought I was about to hear some really nice words about how he would never cheat on his girlfriend. What he did say surprised me. "It is only forty miles away. I never cheat within a fifty-mile radius." So the bottom line was that his loyalty could be measured at fifty miles. 

I remembered this conversation when walking yesterday and saw a single swan flying over my head making a beautiful beating sound with those large powerful wings. Now, you might ask what was so special about that and the story.  

Believe it or not, you do not see swans flying as singles very often. Swans pair for life and from the moment of pairing only ever part when one or other of the pair dies. The only other time you will see them flying separately is while one of them sits on the nest and the other seeks out food. Even then they do not travel far from each others company. So the loyalty of a swan cannot be measured in anything other than constant and true. Till death do they part, seems to mean something special to them.

I have spoken about geese on this blog before, but having seen a field of over a hundred yesterday I was reminded that they too are loyal to the group. If while in flight one falls behind another will peel off to give it assistance and stay with it. Loyalty to each other and the group cannot be measured in time or miles. 

I have never really been a true football, fan but I do from time to time watch one particular team, if they are being televised. I would never consider that being a loyal supporter. I neither help with the upkeep of the team or the ground I merely watch at my convenience. 

Football, however, cannot be said to be high on loyalty. It almost seems if a manager loses three consecutive games his coat is on a shaky nail, even if he won trophies in the previous season.

I do though remember the true story told me by my headteacher. He spoke about a particular player who had played for only one team all of his playing life. He had scored a record number of goals and been a great team captain. Like all players, he began to show his age and was finding top-class football difficult, so he left the team, with great regret. He moved to a team playing in a lower division and for a time scored many goals and played well for this team. 

It seemed the supporters had taken him to their hearts.

Then one day he had a disastrous game being responsible for the loss of an important match. As he left the field of play he was booed by the supporters, some even shook their fists.  Some terrible things were being shouted at this once great player.

Then something remarkable happened. A little lad jumped over the barrier, tears streaming down his face. He ran out to the great player and unashamedly threw his arms around the players' legs. The player reached down lifted the lad up spoke to him and put him down again. He took off his jersey and gave it to the boy and they walked off hand in hand.

His loyalty could not be measured in distance time or even pride. He saw this athlete for what he had been and in his eyes still was, a good and loyal servant to his game and supporters. 

Loyalty has no age barriers, distance or space or time.  It is a two-way street. There is nothing more wonderful than a loyal and true friend if you are blessed to have one rejoice.

I give thanks for the love and loyalty I am aware of in so many little ways. 

Have a wonderful day, may you be blessed by knowing you can rely on others, and they, in turn, can rely on you.

Nothing Like a Little Hear Attack.

Music Fills the Air.

I was lying in bed thinking it was time to get up but I was listening quietly to a radio broadcast. I cannot for the life of me remember the whole context of the broadcast but I had for a moment a hear attack. Not that is not a typo I did not intend to write heart attack, I meant to say hear attack. 

What did I hear? I heard a group of singers singing a hymn I had written many many years ago. I had to listen twice just to reassure myself I was not, in fact, having a heart attack, but no I was hearing correctly. 

I spent the rest of the morning thinking about that little blast from the past, how it was possible to do something and many years later discover that it was still giving some joy. I felt my inner being applaud. 

There will in future be many more who will have such similar experiences when you see and hear the music of the very young. I listened to a teacher of the very young telling of how he began teaching very young children how to play the violin. I was surprised, he told how the first few lessons were taken up not by holding a violin but simply learning how to stand properly. His second set of lessons was how to hold a violin, not yet playing it just holding it and the bow. 

Having got this you would assume the next thing would be playing some notes. NO, the next thing he taught his students to do was to take a bow. He thought this was probably as important as anything else he ever taught them. I wondered why?

I was pleased when he explained. "If children just play the violin and at the end of the music just stop, people may forget to show their appreciation." He then went on to say, "If on the other hand children bow at the end of the music, the audience will invariably applaud. Applause is the best motivator we've discovered to make children feel good about performing and they want to do it well."

There is nothing better than a hear attack to lift the inner being.

It is not only the case with children. There is not one of us who would not benefit from the hear attack of a bit of praise or applause.  When I heard the hymn being sung from all those years ago I felt affirmed. I doubt if I sat down to try and write a song now I would end up with that one but yet I felt affirmed that it was still meaning something to others. 

Being so affirmed makes us feel good, makes us feel better, if not even wonderful. If you want to rekindle or keep the flame of love glowing, give the person a hear attack of some praise or even applause. A little word of appreciation goes a very long way it makes a persons day so much better, but it also makes them want to hear this again so they become a better person for it. 

Put some more applause into your life. Put some more praise into the lives of others. Give somebody today a, "Hear Attack"  Make there day and probably even their tomorrow. 

 Might I suggest a little thought, "Hear Attacks are the food of Love."

Have a wonderful day and have many such hear attacks as you go on your way. 

Trust in Me.

If there is anything My wife Irene does not like, this must rate fairly high on her list. One of the longer walks that we do involves crossing two such stiles. The walk I sure seem so much more pleasant ones these two are out of the way. One of the two does rock a bit as you climb it, here in Scotland we would call it shoogly, one of the legs on one side is shorter than all of the other three. This makes for a rather awkward crossing if you do not like such things. 

In weather, like we have been having ice on the wood steps does not help either. Another walking friend wrongly thought they were ice-free and had a fall that could have been nasty. Fortunately, she survived her fall.

I was thinking about this the other day and it reminded me of another incident of many years ago.One day I was out walking with my son and we were climbing something similar to this only much higher.  I was over and firmly planted on the other side but as yet not looking behind me.All of a sudden I heard a voice, "Hey dad catch me!" I turned around to see my son happily jump off the top step straight at me. 

He had jumped and then yelled, "Hey Dad!"

I became an instant circus act as I reached out to catch him. We both fell to the ground, him laughing me happy it was not worse. When I caught my breath and found my voice, I asked him if he could give me a good reason why he had done that?

He looked at me and calmly answered, "Sure, because you are my dad." His actions rested on the fact that his father was trustworthy. He could live life to the full because I could be trusted to be there for him.

If this is true for a son or a daughter of their father, surely it is even more true for ourselves. If we can learn to know and trust ourselves knowing our limitations we can live life to the full, moment by moment day by day.

A man who lived in a part of the world where the weather was known to be unpredictable had wanted for years to own a good barometer. After a bit of saving and some study on what type would be the best purchase, he made his purchase.

When the instrument arrived at his home he thought that it looked great in terms of the workmanship but he was bitterly disappointed when the needle remained stuck, even after some shaking. 

It was constantly pointing at the word Hurricane. He gave it another few shakes but still, it remained the same.

He sat down and wrote a scorching letter to the store expressing his annoyance at the shoddy goods they had sent him. The following morning on his way to his office he posted the letter in the mailbox.

That evening he returned home to find the barometer laying on the floor the glass broken and scattered, as was all the glass from his windows and doors unlike those of his neighbours who had shuttered up for the predicted hurricane that had in fact arrived.

Sometimes life and relationships and day to day living can be much better if there is some trust in the air.

I remember being moved the first time I watched blind skiers hurtling down a slalom course on a very steep mountain. They had trained hard and with the help of a sighted skier had learned how to ski and slalom. 

The sighted skier shouted instructions as he or she skied beside the blind skier calling left or right. The blind skier had learned not only how to ski but how to trust.

The father who persuaded his daughter to jump from the fourth step of the patio promising to catch her but let her fall when she jumped did his daughter no favours when he said, "Let that be a lesson in life. Trust nobody."

Trust is a two-way passage between the trustee and the truster. To be able to put your trust in the hands of another can lead to an uplifting experience. To be trusted fully by another is to be in an honoured position that must never be betrayed. 

I trust you have a marvellous day.

Music Fills me with Gratitude.

Music Fills Me With Joy and Gratitude.

I have often wondered if I have ever affected the lives of people in such a way that one day they might remember. I would like to think I have, but may never know.

I do know that my life was affected by others whom I will never forget. Some I remember so very well and have in the past mentioned them on this blog. But one very humble teacher I am most grateful for. She was Little by name and little of stature but had a tremendous heart of giving and encouraging and I will be eternally grateful to her. 

I will never forget the lunchtime break when she reached into her drawer and read me the following words.

"Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably of their own will never come to be. Make big plans, aim high in the hope they work for you. Remember this your children are going to do things that will stagger you."

How true those words were. I remembered them later when I was planning on leaving my job as a butcher and trying to do something more. many told me I was being silly, I would never achieve anything. I remembered those words read to me by one of the few teachers who ever seemed to have any hope for me.

Later in life when I was giving a speech to a large gathering of students I retold this story and what was on the bit of paper she had read to me.  I told them how she had inspired me when everybody else seemed to be putting me down.

Somebody told her about that speech and she got in touch with me. She thanked me. She then told me that when she was going to be a teacher, members of her family told her continually she was wasting her time. When she heard about the speech I had given she proudly went to her family and said, "You see I was never wasting my time."

Encouraging others has a ripple effect, they, in turn, may inspire others and so it could go on. I do hope so because then my teacher Mrs Little would still be inspiring others even though she is no longer with us.

A famous preacher was one day having a meal in a very busy restaurant. Just as he was about to have his meal another man came and asked if he could sit in the vacant place at his table. He was told yes.

Then as was his custom the preacher bowed his head in quiet prayer. When he had finished the other man asked him, "Do you have a sore head?"  The preacher replied, " No I do not have not have."

"Is there something wrong with the food you have been served?"

"No, I was simply giving thanks for the food as I always do before I eat."

The man looked at him and said, "Oh you are one of those, are you? Well, I want you to know I never give thanks. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow I do not have to give thanks to anybody when I eat. I just start right in."

The preacher looked at the man again, "Yes, you are just like my dog. That is what he does too.!"

The gratitude may sound like a really old-fashioned word, but I do not think the reality of gratitude should be allowed to slip from out thinking or vocabulary. We all have something or somebody in life to whom we are grateful.

Have a music filled day of joy and gratitude. 

The Art of Saying Thanks.

A wee selfie.

The World is Mine.

Today upon the bus I saw a lovely lass with golden hair,

I envied her so happy did she seem, I wished I was so fair.

She rose to leave and hobbled down the aisle.

She had one foot and owned a crutch

She passed me with a smile.

Forgive my whine I have two feet,

The whole wide world is mine.

I stopped along the way to buy some sweets,

The lad who served had such a charm.

He seemed to radiate good cheer, his manner so kind and warm.

“It is nice to deal with you,” I said,

“Such courtesy I seldom find.”

He turned, “oh thank you, sir.”

I saw that he was blind.

Forgive my whine, I have two eyes.

The whole wide world is mine.

Walking down the way I saw a child with eyes so blue.

He stood and watched the others play.

Seemed not to know just what to do.

Why don’t you join the others, do not fear?

He looked ahead and never a word, I knew he could not hear.

Forgive my whine, I have two ears.

The whole wide world is mine.

With feet to take me where I go.

Eyes to see the sunsets glow.

Ears to hear what I would know.

I'm blessed indeed, the world is mine.

Forgive me when I whine.

How easy it is to get up each day get washed and dressed and head out to enjoy the world around me. I am so grateful that this is for me the case. It is sad when we see how others take such things for granted and day in and out spoil the beauty all around. No sense of either gratitude or thankfulness.

I can say from personal experience that so often people accept help that is given freely and later can pass you by without a nod or a word. Maybe they would rather I had not known they needed the help, but never a simple thanks.

A lecturer I once had as a great friend told about a ministerial student, who was part of a life-saving squad. A ship went aground on the shore, and the student waded again and again into the frigid waters to rescue 17 passengers. In the process, his health was permanently damaged. 

Some years later at his funeral, it was noted that not one of the people he rescued ever thanked him.

Oh, how simple it is to just take things for granted.

In Budapest, a man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?"

  

The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you."  The man is incredulous, but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week." 

A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before.  "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy." 

The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week." 

A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there's no goat -- only the nine of us." 

I remember while I was a minister preaching on the story of the ten lepers helped by Jesus. One of the ten came and sought out Jesus and thanked him for his help.

Later I wondered about the other nine, what happened to them? I speculated.

One waited to see if the help was real.

One waited to see if it would last.

One said he would see Jesus later but never did.

One decided that he had never had leprosy so had never needed help.

One said he would have got well anyway.

One gave the glory to the priests.

One said, "O, well, Jesus didn't really do anything."

One said, "Anyone could have done it."

One said, "I was already much improved."

Whatever happened to the art of saying thank you. It costs little, no, it costs nothing.

Have a great day and thank you for taking time to read my words.