Bitterness.

I cannot begin writing anything this morning without first thanking all the very many friends and family who got in touch with me yesterday to make what I had called just another day into something so very far from that. I have never been good at surprises, yesterday I had to learn to do just that. So many times yesterday I was surprised and overwhelmed. 

From people and places came kind actions and moving words that left me speechless and gave me a day that will be in the memory bank for the rest of my sojourn.  I will find it very difficult to thank everybody individually but I will make the effort. 

I hope my response is a very positive and thankful one because that is how I am feeling this morning. As I sat at the end of the day contemplating I just could not for the life of myself understand how, in such a world, people can have bitterness in their hearts. 

It is like the two friends who some thirty years ago had a difference of opinion, and their friendship had never been restored. At New Year they both ended up in the same room and the same party. A friend went to one of them and said,"You must make the effort tonight of all nights to put this behind you. Go over and say to James that you wish him a Happy New Year."

So James crossed the room rather slowly towards the one time friend, he said, "I wish you a happy New Year, but only one."

The truth was that neither of them could even remember what it was that had come between them.

Sigmund Freud, it seems was even worse.  He wrote just before his death, "I have found little that is good about human beings on the whole. In my experience, most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all." 

Freud died friendlessly. It is well-known that he had broken with each of his followers. The end was bitter. 

"I've had a few arguments with people," someone once confessed, "but I never carry a grudge. You know why? While you're carrying a grudge, they're out dancing." 

A rattlesnake, if cornered, will sometimes become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harbouring of hate and resentment against others is, a biting of oneself. 

We think that we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves. 

It is never good to have a heart of bitterness, it achieves nothing. Those who make an effort to make amends have a life filled with friends.

Think about the oyster. It takes a grain of sand and turns it into a beautiful pearl. 

Too often we are just the opposite, we take pearls and turn them into grains of sand. 

Once again my dear thanks my friends, all of you who made my day so special. Have a wonderful day today.