Is that a compliment or an insult?

I was heading through the door of the hospital and was about to stand aside to let the lady behind me through before me, I still believe in manners even though I believe also in equality.  As I stepped aside she looked at me and said, "Age before beauty." How tempting it was to make a ripost about dirt and shovels or pearls and swine but I resisted and took the remark right on the chin. I feel it is so sad that with the acknowledgement that we are all equal that we can no longer be mannerable to one another.  It is an age thing I am sure.

Insulting others seems to be something that is sadly found to be amusing. I watch the trailers for some of the programmes produced for young people to enjoy and find myself in despair that it is found very funny to insult people and make fun of them. At the same time, we have campaign after campaign to stop the increasing amount of bullying taking place among young people and in schools and worse in the cyber media.

I remember my father giving me a very serious talking about both swearing and insulting. He told me there was no room in life for either if they were done just to cause hurt. I found it difficult to get my head around but he assured me that swearing was a fine art if it was done properly. I only ever once in all my years with him heard him doing it once, I learned that day what he had tried to teach me.

Insulting he said should never be used to cause harm because it did just become a form of bullying. You wisely and with wit, it could be a simple way to make a person think about their words or actions.

Not sure if I ever mastered the art as he did but I can say that I never insult to hurt or harm.

I was once attending the first evening of an art exhibition I had a few paintings in it. I was standing quietly when a rather pompous man, who wrote for the local paper,  came up to me and asked if I liked one of my paintings. I told him I was the artist. He made the comment made the comment that I must have some good brushes to get such detail. I looked at him and said, "You also must have a good word programme." I hope he later thought about that and got the message.

I often tried in a gentle way to let students know that I was not being fooled by the quality of their work. I could see and identify that large portions of it had been plagiarised from the internet cut and pasted together not very well. I thought often about how to do this but never came up with anything as good as Samuel Johnston who said, "Your manuscript is both original and good. But the parts that are original are not good, and the parts that are good are not original."

Another I learned and wished I had the brains to have concocted, "His argument is as thin as the homoeopathic soup made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death."

I am sure some of you reading this can come up with better than I could but remember they are not for the sake of hurt or harm just a gentle lesson. 

My friend used gentle insults to help him while golfing. If at the ninth hole I was leading he would find some witty insult about my preaching that would put me off my game for the next few holes allowing him to take the lead. 

I wondered how I could stop this. it came to me from who knows where but it worked. I retorted after one of his remarks. "You are probably correct but your sermon reminded me of the mercies of God. I thought it would endure forever."

Have a marvellous day.

It just cannot be done.

It was brought to my attention once again during a conversation that my family dread when somebody says to me that I will never manage to do something.  They know that such words are like a red rag to a bull. I can see my family physically cringe at thought of me with no other thoughts in my mind than proving whoever said that to being proved wrong.

I all started when I was just a very young boy. I am not at all sure if my mother had discovered the secret of how to get me to do things or if she genuinely believed that I often had ideas well above expectations.

I remember the year, my second year at secondary school. I had got my eye on a Trent Tourer bicycle in Halfords window in Dunfermline. I was not in the habit of asking for things but on this occasion, I had tried to strike a deal on pocket money and household tasks. Eventually, in despair, my mother put down the challenge. if your report card comes home showing that you are in the top three of the class we will get the bicycle. I am sure she felt this was never going to happen. I am sure that I also felt I had been set an impossible task. never had I been anywhere near the top three.

The report cards came out, I had worked my socks off, I was placed at number three in the class. true to her word the Trent Tourer was mine a week later. I had to cycle every Friday after school the four miles to Halfords to make the weekly payment but it was worth all the effort. I got years of pleasure from that first bicycle I ever owned as a youth.

It is possible to make the impossible possible.

I remember the day s when a group of us from my teenage period had been brought together by the new local minister. he challenged us to write some modern hymns. A group of us almost randomly brought together. Did we have any experience? I do not think so, but that did not stop us from trying.

Together we did produce some modern hymns that even to this day I hear being sung or am told about them being sung. I am not sure of any of those will ever survive for any real length of time but for a group of us to even manage any at all was something.

There is a true account of an event in 1912.  Two Irish music hall players were spending an afternoon in a pub at Stalybridge in Cheshire, England. They were extolling the musical traditions of Ireland. 

It is said that on that day they boasted they could write and perform a song on the same day.

It might have been a gimmick to stimulate attendance or it could have been genius jumping out of its bag, for It's a Long Way to Tipperary was performed that night at the Stalybridge Grand Theater by Jack Judge and Harry Williams. 

It was an overnight success that gained tremendous popularity during World War I as an Allies marching song. Produced written and the music to go with it all within about an hour. 

The next time you feel yourself feeling confident, challenge yourself to do the impossible. You just may. 

I firmly believe that each and every one of us has something of value within us waiting to burst forth and bring joy and pleasure to others. 

Have a marvellous day.

If

It is one of the smallest of words and yet it is probably one of the most important words in our language. A two letter word well known to all who play the game of scrabble. "If."

it is a word that we all use at least once a day and just accept that we have used it without really giving it much thought. Rudyard Kipling wrote one of the worlds most well-known poems simply called, "If."

I have thought often of this poem and in the last few days have learned it off by heart. I remember when I was at school being asked to learn a much shorter poem and it gave me nightmares for weeks because I found such rote learning so very difficult. 

I have of course since learned that if you can be shown that there is a worth of such learning it comes so much easier. 

Please forgive if this looks like a simple out for a blog but I would love to share it with you once again. Of course, if you know it you will not need to read it.

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams

your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Such marvellous words and thoughts.

Some thoughts I had yesterday while walking inspired by the above. 

As long as we have what we have inside, the capacity to love, to work, to hear music, to see a flower, to look at the world as it is, nothing can stop us from being happy.

But one thing we must take seriously. We must get rid of the ifs of life. 

Many will tell us, "I would be happy - if I had a certain job, or if I were better looking, or if a certain person would marry me." 

There isn't any such thing. We must live our life unconditionally, without the ifs. Just simply grasp the day and the hour and live it.

I hope you have a marvellous if free day.

Time to rest?

I am not good at learning the lesson of life, that we need to take time to rest.

I listen to enough music that this is a lesson that I should be well aware of. I learned to read music while learning to play the clarinet. it is a simple fact of music that it the times when the instruments are not playing that add to the intensity of the other ones that are.

I read a lovely tale not long ago about the famous fable teller, Aesop.

According to the teller of the tale,  a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. 

He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.

Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian, "Now, answer the riddle if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bows imply."

The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make.

Aesop explained, "If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it."

People are also like that. That's why we all need to take time to rest. 

I was brought up to see the importance of having a day of rest. This had nothing to do with religion or that the Sabbath had been set aside by Jews and Christians as a day of rest, even though they both had different days they called the Sabbath. My father was neither yet he considered it worthy that one day a week we ate less, often nothing more than liquid, and that we took time to relax and just walk together. 

Sadly I did not learn the full value of that and have turned walking into an almost daily task. I rejoice in the fact that I can still enjoy the many things my father taught me to take in.

The question I ask this day, shouldn't we take the example of Aesop seriously? 

Start by setting aside a special time to relax physically and renew yourself emotionally and spiritually. You will be at your best if you have taken time to loosen the bowstring of life.

Forgive my thoughts if they sound a bit like the preacher coming out, but it struck me yesterday as I walked. That we should.

"Carry some quiet around inside us.  "Be still and cool in your own mind and spirit, from your own thoughts, and then you will feel the principle of life to turn your mind to the beauty of nature from where comes life.  Then  you may receive the strength and power to allay all storms and tempests that come your way." 

I offer it as something I wrote down while walking and will give it further thought today. have a marvellous day. 

A little Zeal goes a long way.

After all the snow of the past month, I just could not resist stopping and enjoying the beauty of these lovely crocus growing in my front garden. it was as if they were reaching out reminding me that spring is here and the winter will soon be no more than a memory. Quietly with little song or dance, they have underneath the snow pushed up through the soil to brighten the day.

I came in and as I sat and painted them I listened to Spring from the Four Seasons. My mind wandered back to the many concerts of the Berlin I have watched since Christmas. A great variety of conductors each with their own interpretations of the music and each with their own way of bringing out the best of the orchestra. The older gentleman who conducted the Japanese Youth Orchestra, a bit shaky on his legs requiring support behind him as he gently conducted with little movement or expression, yet it was so clear that he was in control of the orchestra and its music.

Then Sir Simon Rattle, full of expression and much movement of his arms and the obvious tension as he tried to bring out the best from his orchestra. The sweat running from his brow. 

I read of one conductor who dislocated his shoulder while conducting the famous 1812 Overture. 

I wondered and asked myself sadly, "Did I ever dislocate anything, even a necktie?" I am not sure that I have ever given anything so much of myself at any one time. I would, of course, like to think that I had. I would like to think that during my life some things have mattered enough to bring out a sense of zeal. 

That being said there has to be a measure of the amount of zeal, for an overabundance can bring the wrong end result. 

A minister friend tells the story of one of his members who was caught up in an evangelising sense of zeal. Sadly the member was bereft of a sense of timing to go with his zeal.The man so often got carried away that he forgot to consider all the consequences.

He worked in the local barbershop. One day he was busy soaping up a customer for a warm shave. The customer was looking like a good version of Santa Clause with a beautiful face of lather. The church member approached him with a very sharp open razor in his outstretched hand, he looked at the customer straight in the eye and asked, " Are you prepared to meet your God?"

The customer was last seen running down the High Street with shaving foam like snow flying behind him.

Of course, when you do something do it to the very best of your ability but always remeber the time and the place when you do so. 

Have a marvellous day. 

A cup of tea.

There are some people in life who never seem to learn from the lessons of life. Sadly I am one such person.

I awoke yesterday to a lovely sunny spring morning and just could not resist tidying up my back garden and my fruit plot. So before getting washed and ready for the day, I did just that. Then having got ready I ventured forth to enjoy the sun and the day. 

Yes, you got it correct, I walked far too far and arrived home exhausted and my ankle not back to being pushed each day was complaining. 

I rejoiced in the thought that the Christmas gift that keeps on giving, my subscription to the Berlin Philarmonic had a live concert on.

I made ready to sit back relax and enjoy. A nice cup of tea and a little tea ceremony the order of the day. 

As I relaxed and prepared for the concert I went through my little tea ritual. Amazing how that little cup and teapot can speak such wise words. I clearly heard it saying, "Stop being a fool and take life easier until you are back to full strength."

This reminded me of another lovely tale about tea and the sage. 

A group of elderly, cultured gentlemen met often to exchange wisdom and drink tea. 

Each host tried to find the finest and most costly varieties, to create exotic blends that would arouse the admiration of the guests. 

When the turn most venerable and respected sage of the group entertained, he served his tea with unprecedented ceremony, measuring the leaves from a simple box. 

The assembled epicures praised this exquisite tea. 

The host smiled and said, "The tea you have found so delightful is the same tea our peasants drink. I hope it will be a reminder to all that the good things in life are not necessarily the rarest or the most costly. 

it is in the simple that we can find the exquisite, in every day that we meet the words of the wise. Have a marvellous day. 

Where did that hour go?

The number of times I was told in the last week to prepare myself for the loss of an hour of precious sleeping time. Clocks Spring forward and in Autumn fall back. A little phrase that my good friend used more than once in the last week.

I did notice when I looked at the timings on the golf course that indeed an hour of golf had slipped off the schedule. Now that did not affect me because as yet I do not think I would manage to play a complete round without setting myself back a bit.

It is really amusing how this hour becomes so important and much time is spent talking about the great loss. In reality, of course, I will not have lived an hour less than I might have or maybe an hour longer. The hands of time will onward move and it will matter not a whit what time we humans put upon it.

Of course, all this talk did what such things do to my little mind, it got it going. I began to wonder about all the things I do with time and asked how many of those were worthy uses of this precious commodity that I can lose an hour so simply. 

I could spend two years making phone calls to people who aren't home? Sound absurd? According to one time management study, that's how much time the average person spends trying to return calls to people who never seem to be in. 

Not only that, we spend six months waiting for the traffic light to turn green, and another eight months reading junk mail. Now that is one bit of time I have saved, I just never ever even look at all that unasked for rubbish.  

These unusual statistics should cause us to do a time-use evaluation. 

Once we recognize that simple "life maintenance" can chip away at our time in such huge blocks, we will see how vital it is that we don't busy ourselves "in vain".

There is a well-known passage from the Old Testament that I frequently quoted on this Sunday of the year, "You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You". 

The author meant that to an eternal god our time on earth is brief. 

Our time is so brief that we should see it as it is.  When we throw away one precious second, we throw away one of the most precious commodities  

Each minute is an irretrievable gift an unredeemable slice of eternity. 

Sure, we have to make the phone calls, and we must wait at the light. But what about the rest of our time? 

Are we using it to advance the cause of a life well lived?  Do we use time to enhance our relationship with those who add to the quality of our lives? 

Is our time well spent?  How many precious moments will we let filter through our hands? 

One of the great secrets I have learned from my study of the sage is that I need not change a thing I do other than to become aware in a deep and meaningful way of the precious gift I have. So today I might have seemed to have lost an hour, but rejoice I am awake and still here and before me a day when I will rejoice in the moments of my day.

Have a marvellous one.

Just a snob.

It was suggested to me just a few days ago that I might be a bit of a snob. At first, I was perplexed and wondered where that thought had come from. Having thought a bit more about it I remembered when a very similar accusation was made about me in the past. 

When I decided with encouragement from others that I should make an effort to get myself into university my mother in no uncertain terms told me that I should remember my station in life and to stop filling my head with such ridiculous ideas. 

For the last few years, I have been striving to follow a code of life that involves causing no harm to others or the environment.  Surely to have ideas beyond your station goes against simply living the life of simplicity and going with the flow. 

On reading the definition of a snob I was in fact deeply concerned. But going with the flow and living the simple life does not mean that a person cannot delight in the pleasures of talent and the creations of others.

The unexpected joy of a piece of music that lifts the heart to another level. The sight of a beautiful work of art that makes the pulse beat harder with the desire to create something of equal beauty.

Where did this word, snob come from?

When Oxford and Cambridge Universities decided to admit commoners as students in the 1600s, the unprecedented flood of new innovative thought had a tremendous impact on English society. 

Each student was listed on the record by name and title. The commoners' names were listed with the Latin inscription, Sine Nobilitate, meaning Without Nobility. The abbreviation was S. Nob., which within the rigid class systems of the time had both positive and negative connotations. 

The word "snob" came from this time and is still in use today it was a word to keep those from a lower class in their place and to know their place. 

My striving after the Tao is the exact opposite it makes me want to experience and enjoy all those exciting things created for the sole purpose of creating peace and harmony. 

AmI a snob? I suspect I am but I hope I am at least a caring snob. In contrast for those who can live with a little swear word or two might I suggest a listen to the famous song of John Lennon, A Working Class Hero. I found my mind in a quandary of just what kind of snob I might be.

Have a wonderful carefree day and who really cares about the finger pointing? If it points in the right direction to peace harmony and love. That is what the abstract painting above is trying to say, not sure if it does. 

Do I really care?

Dreams of Travel

Two young girls on holiday decided that they would go and visit the local dance hall. While they were there a group of young men under the influence of far too much alcohol began to have an altercation with a young who seemed to be having a great time dancing. It seemed very obvious that he was very popular with the girls in the establishment dancing one dance after another with so of the very beautiful local girls.

Not at all happy about this three or four of the lads worse the wear of drink set about him. They were punching and kicking him and he was crying out for help. Nobody came to his aid all taking the same attitude as the two friends who had gone dancing. 

The next day the two were shocked to see that the young man had died that evening in the local hospital. Not a single person had lifted a finger to offer assistance. It had nothing to do with them.

The two girls felt terrible that they had watched and done and said nothing.  One of the girls was so moved that she vowed never again to stand back and watch while somebody was in danger or trouble.

A few years later seeing a car accident it was she who managed to pull an elderly gentleman from a burning car while others stood looking.  She had made a promise all those years earlier and now somebody was alive because of it. 

Apathy is a terrible thing. The most dangerous thing about apathy is you don't have to exert yourself to show you're sincere about it. 

How often I hear people say that they just do not care about politics or any such thing. The trouble with such apathy is that if we take that attitude to life then we can be sure that we will be governed and ruled by people much worse than ourselves. Such is the way of apathy

There is a company who print designs and posters. One of the other things they are well known for are those stickers that you often see on the back windows of cars.  So many of them purport to be funny sadly I seldom find them at all amusing.  I did laugh though when I was told they were now producing blank ones for all those people who just do not care about anything.  

Go on and smile and have a thought filled day. is it going to be a good fun filled day? I am not sure, maybe I just do not care. 

Have a good one.

Hate !

I so often find myself pulling back when tempted to say that I hate something. I just find the word an impossible word to allow over my lips. It is such a very harsh word and action. That being said I have more than once been on The receiving end of hatred. 

Hatred is like acid. It has the ability to destroy the container in which it is held but can do even more damage to that on which it is poured.

I think the worst story of hatred I ever heard about was of the man who obviously had a serious issue with his two daughters. Before dying, he wrote a will leaving his two daughters £1each. He also left them a curse hoping that their deaths would be soon after his own And that it would be lingering and painful.

He also hoped they ended in hell and suffered for eternity. I am sure like me you find this a most terrible thought. Here certainly was a person who had a sad end and probably an equally sad life.

A man who hated being patted on the back decided to do something about it. He packed explosive into a pack on his back and waited to be patted on the back. Determined to rid himself of such people. Of course in the process he also killed himself.

Hating is like burning down your house to kill a rat.

I wish you a love filled day, on such a day there is no room for the H word.

Apologies that this is such a short post. Have a great day.

Do we know the value?

I find it more and more frustrating when I listen to what it is that we consider being of value. It seems that so often the things that I have considered to be of value all my life seems less and less so in modern society. When we listen to politicians and those in places of influence it seems that being economical with the truth is the order of the day. I have always and hope I always will found honesty to be one of the most valuable commodity there is. yet time after time I hear all this talk of fake news and such. What is fake news? Lies simply as that. 

We now even have a part of the BBC website devoted to helping young people to judge what is true and what is false. Sadly I often find that even here there is much to be desired in the honesty stakes. 

We seem to live in an age where we know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

A young girl, about 8 years old, mentioned that her mother's birthday was soon approaching. When asked if she was going to make a birthday card on her father's computer. She said, "No. If you make one on the computer they don't keep it on the refrigerator as long as when you make one yourself."

here at least was somebody who seemed to grasp the value of the things in life that matter.

I will never forget the true story I read about a man and his old family Bible.

It was the story of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his ancestral home for generations. 

"I couldn't read it," the friend explained. "Somebody named Guten-something had printed it." 

"Not Gutenberg!" the book lover exclaimed in horror. "That Bible was one of the first books ever printed. Why a copy just sold for over two million dollars!

" His friend was unimpressed. "Mine wouldn't have brought a dollar. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German." 

It seems more and more important in this day and age of shallow thinking and the cult of personalities that we stop and have a little rethink about just what it is that is of value. 

There seems nothing more saddening than the daily hurt and harm caused by those who more and more make statements they know to be untrue, but they fit the message they wish to give and honesty pays the price. 

it is the case that if you have a friend you can rely on and know that when they speak they do so with a genuine to be true and honest those are friends well worthy of holding on to. 

We seem to live in shallow times where elections and all sorts are won and lost on the back of lies and nobody seems to care.

Have a friend filled day and may your friends be like the many I have, honest and true. 

Excuses.

A friends dogs.

As a teacher, I was never amazed to hear some of the wonderful excuses that students could concoct from seemingly nowhere to justify their failure to accomplish a task or to submit homework tasks. of course, the most obvious one that recurred frequently was the old chestnut, "My dog ate my homework." There must have been a great many pretty disturbed dogs lived in the area. 

I was sitting yesterday, wishing I was doing something other than just sitting, and I was thinking about the most used such excuses. 

1. I forgot.
2. No one told me to go ahead. 
3. I didn't think it was that important.
4. Wait until the boss comes back and ask him. 
5. I didn't know you were in a hurry for it. 
6. That's the way we've always done it. 
7. That's not in my department. 
8. How was I to know this was different? 
9. I'm waiting for an O.K. 
10. That's his job, not mine.

But of course, you will probably know even better ones than those!.

Then there were the excuses put forward not by the student but by the parent on behalf of the student.  I am aware that some of those would never have had the deft touch of a parent but were fairly poor attempts at forged excuses, some of them are so obviously so I wondered why they even bothered to try.

1. Dear school: Please ackuse John for bring absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. I wonder how long the parent had been living in a 33-day January with such poor spelling.

2. Chris has an acre in his side. Now that could well be very painful.

3. Mary could not come to school because she is bothered by very close veins.

4. John has been absent because he had two teeth taken off his face.
5. I kept Billie home because she had to go Christmas shopping because I didn't know what size she wears. 

6. Please excuse Gloria. She has been sick and under the doctor.  I felt for that poor doctor.

7. My son is under the doctors care and should not take P.E. Please execute him.

8. Lillie was absent from school yesterday as she had a groing over. 

9. Please excuse Ray Friday. He has lose vowels. 

10. Please excuse Joyce from P.E. for a few days. Yesterday she fell out of a tree and misplaced her hip.

11. Please excuse Blanche from jim today. She is administrating. 

12. Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in his growing part.

13. My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent the weekend with the Marines. 

14. Please excuse Dianne from Being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps. 

15. Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his father's fault. I somehow thought that took two people but thee you are.

Have a smile and a good day. 

Just listen for a moment.

Even in a Crowd?

It has been a very difficult week and more, unable to do very much if anything even the ability to concentrate or do any reasonable thinking seemed to have left me. I cannot ever remember feeling so weak and exhausted in many years.

if there is anything good that comes out of such situations, and I am sure there is, then it is the ability to just reflect and reassess just where one is at. I have done much of that. Some of the things that come home are those precious moments of learning about the things that are important in life.

One of those meaningful moments came back to and fortunately I learned something then that I think I have managed to carry through life with me. 

I remember once I found myself with too many commitments in too few days. 

Of course, I got nervous and tense about it. I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day, Before long, things around our home started reflecting the patter of my hurry-up style. It was becoming unbearable.

I distinctly remember after meal one evening, the words of my daughter. 

She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, "Dad, I want to tell you something and I'll tell you really fast."

"Suddenly realising her frustration, I answered, "It is ok, you can tell me and you don't have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly." I'll never forget her answer. 

"Then listen slowly." 

I learned that day something I have never failed to remember except for the very odd occasion.

The gentle and proper way of handling people. 

1. Listen to the other person's story. 

2. Listen to the other person's full story. 

3. Listen to the other person's full story first. 

Then maybe then open your mouth and say something. 

Being a talker is much easier than being a listener.  It is possible to make a measure of how good we are at it.

1) Since you think about four times faster than a person usually talks, do you use this time to think about other things while you're keeping track of the conversation?

2) Do you listen primarily to facts rather than ideas when someone is speaking?

3) Do you avoid listening to things you feel will be too difficult to understand? 

4) Can you tell from a person's appearance and delivery that there won't be anything worthwhile said? 

5) When someone is talking to you do you appear to be paying attention when you're not?

6) Do certain words and phrases prejudice you so you cannot listen objectively? 

7) When listening are you distracted by outside sights and sounds? 

I would suspect when anybody reads this the answer to what kind of listener we are becomes rather obvious.    

It is nice to be back, not sure if I will manage every day but it is at least a beginning. have a marvellous day. 

Just a little tact.

I have been feeling pretty miserable these last few days and unlike me a bit sorry for myself. Never the less I thought I would attempt and small blog and a quick sketch while sitting in bed. When I said a quick sketch I meant a quick sketch and you cannot get much quicker than this. This involves only a few strokes and put down with not too much thought of what I was doing. I had thought or even noticed it was red white and blue.

 I was reminded of an occasion when such colours would have been the order of the day but being new to the ministry it had never for one minute crossed my mind. I had been invited to give an after-dinner speech at a local group. My wife had made me a large collection of vestment fronts of a variety of colours. I had a white one for weddings a black one for funerals. She had also made me some in other colours so that I could ring the changes.

I thought not a thing about this evening and my speech and turned up with a lovely green one. As I entered the hall everything was decked out in red white and blue and my green went down like a lead balloon. Not exactly the height of tact.

Tact is indeed a wonderful thing if we can remember. I wonder how often in all innocence I have been less than tactful.

There is a story that when a minister friend of mine was speaking at a convention of farmers.  His wife and mine were sitting in the audience with another friend. My friend in his speech said, "I grew up on a farm and one thing I know about farming  is it means manure, manure, manure, and more manure."  

At this point, the other friend whispered to my friend's wife, "Mary, why on earth don't you get Harry to say fertilizer?" 

"Good Lord, Helen," replied the wife, "You have no idea how many years it has taken me to get him to say manure!"  

Another friend was invited to speak at the police Christmas dinner. Everything was going very well and a jovial evening was being had by all until my friend told the following tale. Christmas is a marvellous time but it is also a very difficult time. As a father of three girls finding the money to fulfil the desires of them all is not easy. This year my daughter said she wanted a cowboy outfit. I told her I would do my very best but I was not sure I could afford to buy the Strathclyde Police Force.

He was warned on the way out to be careful not to be seen speeding.

When pointing out a mistake by another person, always consider the person's feelings. Milton Berle was dining with his wife, Ruth, in a restaurant.  When a waiter put too much pepper on her salad. Mrs Berle tasted it and said, "Hmm. Needs more salad."

I suppose the bottom line is simple, think before you act and think twice before you speak. 

Have a marvellous day.

A Waste of good time?

Now here is a real mixture of a painting. You can certainly see those Scottish influences of the trees my French influences in the buildings but yet I have tried to capture the style of Chinese art.

It would be so much easier just to do things all the same way but I have never in life chosen the easy options.

Easy options I do not seem to like but one thing I like even less is waste. I am always looking for ways to use things again and again.

I heard a humorous story about a woman who fell out of a second-floor window and landed in a slow-moving rubbish lorry. Half-buried in the litter, she tried without success to get the driver's attention. 

A foreign diplomat standing on the sidewalk saw her and quipped, "Another example of how wasteful people are. That woman looks like she's good for at least another 10 years."

Sometimes it is better not to try and impress. 

A rich man was determined to give his mothers day present that would outshine all others. 

He read of a bird that had a vocabulary of 4000 words, could speak in numerous languages and sing 3 operatic arias. He immediately bought the bird for £2,000 and had it delivered to his mother. The next day he phoned to see if she had received the bird. 

"What did you think of the bird?" he asked. She replied, "It was delicious."

I suppose in the end whether something is a waste or not depends on who is making the judgement. 

A very well know politician kept a diary. One day he entered, "Went fishing with my son today--a day wasted." 

His son also kept a diary, which is still in existence. On that same day, He made this entry, "Went fishing with my father, the most wonderful day of my life!" 

The father thought he was wasting his time while fishing with his son, but his son saw it as an investment of time. The only way to tell the difference between wasting and investing is to know one's ultimate purpose in life and to judge accordingly. 

There are sometimes in life that is just never a waste because they are times spent having quality time with friends and family.

Apologies this is a short blog this morning but just not feeling at all up to sitting for long hours at the computer today. Have a good day.

Barbed Wire and Roses.

Barbed Wire and Roses.

I had not ventured into the realms of abstract for some time so thought I would just for a bit return to that are of work. I was thinking that the weather we have been having here where I live had two distinct sides to it. There was the fact that all of the roads in and out of the village for times had become impassible. Delivery trucks were not getting into the village so the little local store was having problems getting the much-needed commodities, shelves were looking very empty, apart from the fruit shelf which suited me just fine.

On the other side of the coin when I went out walking I saw some really beautiful scenery that captivated my attention. SO I hoped this abstract in some ways captured my thoughts and feelings and some of the colours. 

The other aspect of the period of snow also brought memories of childhood. Such memories also brought an acute awareness of how things have changed over the years.

I do not remember ever having a day off school because of inclement weather. What I can remember is teachers standing in front of the class dressed in fur coats to keep warm and we wearing outdoor clothing. Now I am aware that teachers now have to travel and must be safe whereas most of my teachers lived locally.

We have come a long way. I just so wish that some would appreciate that this is the case. in spite of all the things that are so much better, there are still some who are just never happy. They manage to find something to complain about and look to blame somebody.

I discovered this in my reading and study, it most certainly shows how things have moved.

This notice was put up in the office to announce the change of working conditions for the good of the staff. Read and consider.

1. This firm has reduced the hours of work, and the clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays.

2. Clothing must be of a sober nature. The clerical staff will not disport themselves in raiment of bright colours, nor will they wear hose unless in good repair.

3. Overshoes and topcoats may not be worn in the office, but neck scarves and headwear may be worn in inclement weather.

4. A stove is provided for the benefit of the clerical staff. Coal and wood must be kept in the locker. It is recommended that each member of the clerical staff bring four pounds of coal each day during the cold weather.

5. No member of the clerical staff may leave the room without permission from the supervisor.

6. No talking is allowed during business hours.

7. The craving for tobacco, wine, or spirits is a human weakness, and as such is forbidden to all members of the clerical staff.

8. Now that the hours of business have been drastically reduced, the partaking of food is allowed between 11:30 and noon, but work will not on any account cease.

9. Members of the clerical staff will provide their own pens. A new sharpener is available on application to the supervisor.

10. The supervisor will nominate a senior clerk to be responsible for the cleanliness of the main office and the private office. All boys and juniors will report to him 40 minutes before prayers and will remain after closing hours for similar work. Brushes, brooms, scrubber, and soap are provided by the owners.( How generous of them)

11. The owners recognize the generosity of the new labour laws but will expect a great rise in output of work to compensate for these near Utopian conditions.

I make no comment but I am sure there are still some who say that things are still not good enough for this day and age. 

Have a marvellous day I have just remembered I do not have to go out, no work I wonder how I can fill my day?