The Shortcut.

I have a love of little back streets especially the ones found here in France. You just never know what you are going to see around the little turn. This little sketch has a sense of humour attached to it.  Who would ever expect to see a barbers pole up such an alleyway? 

I have called this painting," The place of the shortcut." Those who read my blogs know that I just love to visit the hairdresser, twice a year whether I need it or not.  So the short cut would not have much interest for me if it was in a barbershop. But if you are looking for a haircut do not look down this alley because there was not one there.

My mind was indeed on haircuts the other day having been told twice that I should consider getting one.

I also thought of haircuts in another context. I saw some monks who had all cut their hair very short, almost bald as a symbol of their renunciation of worldly possessions, yet some of them were wearing little skull caps.

Why renounce worldly things when you really cannot? Before you cut your hair ask if you can, in fact, give up the things of the world you are attached to. I am sure before they joined a monastery they had asked themselves if they were ready for the life of a monastic order. 

Please be assured I am in no way mocking those who so choose to follow this path.

My thoughts were slightly different even though inspired by seeing them. Every path we choose in life has its sacrifices and its hardships. Before we embark on any path of life we should first investigate fully if we are prepared for what will be called for.

Why join a golf club if you do not like playing golf? Why take up painting if you are not interested in the daily time it takes to become a painter?

Whoever you are live your life completely. If you are a carpenter, be the best carpenter that you can be. If you are a saint, then be the very best saint. If you are common, then be common. If extraordinary, be extraordinary.

People only err and feel miserable when they try to be what they are not.

Have a marvellous day.

A quiet moment.

After a hectic day in the hills, it was my intention yesterday to have a simpler walk on my own my last day in this spot for this visit.  A friend had given me a walk and drawn a little map on a sheet of paper it looked straightforward and fairly simple. No more getting lost.

I was looking for some peace, a silent moment time to just be at one with the world.

I went forth to seek silence,

I looked to gladden my heart in the silence,

I hoped to just look and adore nature.

The simple little walk on the slip of paper looked small and easy but it turned out to be a ten-mile walk along a meandering track on hills and through woodland. But I stopped looking at the mileage. on my watch and just enjoyed.

I have been finding over the past months a desire to find moments of silence more and more. I find it a great comforter and a bringer of peace and meaningfulness. On this meandering path, I found it in abundance. The sounds of birds and chickadees and the many butterflies filled my heart. To find such silence brings no need to be anything other than yourself, here you can just be. 

My phone was off and my watch in silent mode. The only concern was I had forgotten to lift my bottle of water, not a wise thing to do in the present heat.

As I neared the end of the instructions I glanced at my watch, I was just over five miles from my starting point. The path opened out in a glade with a little crystal clear stream. I sat for a moment cupping my hands in the cold water and drinking it tasted like nectar.

The butterfly that I painted settled on a flower, I could swear I heard the beating of its wings. I wished I could have talked butterfly and thanked him/her for being there in that moment with me.

In a noisy world where we seem to compete to talk the loudest and have our music blasting from our cars, silence such as I found was bliss, there was a real sense of wonder that was almost something sacred.

It was time to make my return trip and not concern those who might be worrying about where I was. I strode out with a new found confidence having found that peace that seems elusive.  

Lao Tzu would have said I was living that moment in the heart of the Tao at one with chi.

I do know that the thought of the return five miles seemed nothing and I relished in its thought.

Feeling down? Feeling concerned? Feeling worried? Turn everything off and seek some silence my prescription for a sense of freedom and joy.

Driving to a new site today last time I visited this place I had a wonderful moment with a kingfisher hope he is still there. 

Have a great and peaceful day.

Nothing to worry about!

This is the door of a church I have passed most mornings on my morning walk and a few times later in the day. As of this morning, I have not yet opened that door, which I am sure will not be locked, and ventured inside.

I did enter a little chapel in the last place I visited and came out full of questions about why I had gone into it in the first place. It left me a bit cold because it was small and yet very ornate. A bank of what looked like little tea candles. Some flickering with light other still waiting for the coin to drop and be lit for the allotted time paid for. It all seemed so far away from a man gathering a group of followers by the shores of the sea of Galilee. 

I have spent some time in the company of fellow Scots living on the same site as I am just now. They are fairly committed to their church and so the conversation on more than one evening has come around to my time as a minister. The question of my ever returning to the ministry is no longer an issue yet there are those who feel I should even at my age.

So when I sat and painted this church door many thoughts crossed my mind. The most vivid was that of a large knapsack laying by the pillar at the side of the door.

I spent many years inviting people to come through such door and bring their burdens with them. I saw my job as to help they lay their burdens down. Sadly many left them at the door and collected them on the way out and took the worries of life, and I had made little if any difference to their thinking.

Worry is fear's extravagance. It extracts interest on trouble before it comes due. 

It constantly drains the energy of life and hampers our ability to face daily problems and to fulfil our true potential. One of my meagre success stories was a woman who had lived long enough to have learned some important truths about life but she said I had helped her to understand something very important. 

She one day said to me, "I've had a lot of trouble, most of which never happened!" 

She had worried about many things that had never occurred, and had come to see the total futility of her anxieties.

More and more we hear talk of young people living with stress and worry, it seems rampant. Maybe it is a symptom of our overly advanced civilisation or our loss of any spiritual meaning in life? Whatever the cause there is one certainty worry never does anybody any good.

I learned a long time ago that to say, "Do not think about it,"  is a useful as a placebo. 

What I have learned is this. if we constantly see the world with all its problems it is far too much for any one person to address. You and I can only exercise our compassion to those around us, offering whatever help we can. Having done so we can do no more. 

But if each of us acted in this way whenever we could the worries of the world would be reduced even if only in a small way. But each of us will feel better because we will know that we have acted.

Have a carefree day.

Just a little complaint.

I passed this stairway while out walking yesterday morning and just could not resist sitting down and painting it. As I painted my mind, as usual, was a frenzy of thoughts and images. How many feet had trodden up those stairs and worn them over the years? How many messengers of good news? had anybody been dragged down those stairs during the French Revolution to make acquaintance with a more horrible messenger? 

How many children had been born at the top of those stairs and where were they all now? The stories those stairs could tell. Happiness, joy, love and anger. The feet of youth moving up those stairs with certainty, the unsteady tread of somebody in later years. There was a flimsy handrail but I did not paint that leaving it out like the answers to the many questions the steps posed in my mind.

That only took me up the stairs the questions raised by the little doorway at the top was another world.

I left having my painting and my thoughts and completed my morning walk. That sounds simple but the reality was something else. Where I am living at present we are surrounded by little villages but no shops. In the tiny village where I saw this staircase, I found a tiny little shop come community gathering place. I was able to fill my rucksack with bottles of lemonade. I purchased onions and eggs and a few other things. My rucksack could not take it all but I had another bag I could tie to the rucksack, with all of this on my back I made my way back to my van after having a lovely expresso with the locals.

A wonderfully pleasant though hard walk in the hot sun.

I arrived back to my van just as the afternoon complainers were gathering, how different from the thoughts I had been having. There are about four or five caravans surrounding my pitch. The occupiers gather at one each afternoon to put the world to rights. It is one complaint after another about the government the health service, you name it they would manage it all so much better. Then without fail the immigrants become the topic and at that, the complaints become rather unpleasant.

Rather than rejoice in the blessings they have, they are after all able to be over here enjoying the sun and the culture and atmosphere so life cannot all be bad. In their words, "It would be better if France was not full of foreigners."

"Don't complain and talk about all your problems, 80% of people don't care; the other 20% will think you deserve them," said Mark Twain.   I cannot help but quietly agree with him.

"You will find that, as a rule, those who complain about the way the ball bounces are usually the ones who dropped it."

I heard a lovely tale which comes to mind frequently. 

A heavy wagon was being dragged along a country lane by a team of oxen. The axles groaned and creaked terribly, the oxen turning around addressed the wheels, "Hey there, why do you make so much noise? We bear all the labour, and we, not you, ought to cry out!" 

Those who complain first in life are often who have the least to complain about and do the least to sort things out. 

My experience in life tells me that the gift of grumbling is largely dispensed among those who have no other talents, or who keep what they have wrapped up in a tissue.  

My friends often in a humorous way call me a grumpy old man, but thankfully they are the first to admit I do not just complain I frequently put my hand to the ploughshare and try to put things right.

My complaining about the complainers over for another day. have a marvellous one.

Going with the tide.

I often wonder if I am floating in a dream. My mind is a constant melody of thoughts and ideas, I cannot ever switch it off. Those walking with me will often say to me, "What brought. that idea to your head right now." That really is a very difficult question for me to answer. I find thoughts coming and going and my brain constantly teasing me with thoughts and often doubts.

Those who follow Taoism would say that life is in fact but a dream but it is a dream in which you cannot be a bit player. Christianity would remind us that life is a reality and there are no second chances, so make the very most of this one chance to get it right.

This is a life in which you are the producer, director and actor, you are responsible for all bases. We must never allow ourselves to become aimlessly adrift. 

I have been wondering therefore about this mind of mine that flits like a flutterby. My latest thought is this. I have been trying for many years to master the art of meditation. I think I have come someway along that path where my life is almost a constant act of meditation, awake, in dream, awake, in thought. Moments of delightful enlightenment. I am like a swimmer going with the flow of the tide, rather than trying constantly to swim against it. Sometimes I find myself in the sea of sorrow, but at other times I am in the sea of bliss.

I am no different then from any other person reading this. We all have to face what life throws our way the ups and the downs. We each need to find that which helps us sustain this life and make it a meaningful experience. We have to learn to live in the world but not be stained or broken by it.

I aim to pass through this life without disturbing the water too much for other swimmers. To be ready to assist those sinking under the weight of turmoil.

I hope that my words and actions in life are helpful, not harsh or hurtful, that my actions are true and meaningful and cause as little upset to others as possible.

So daily my mind flits back and forth and you my friends get the aftermath as I blather on. I hope sometimes my words hit the mark and offer some little insight.

This blog is another attempt to respond to a question from a friend I hope it goes some way to doing that. 

Have a good day and find yourself swimming with the tide.

Freedom ?

Waterlillies.

There is something exciting about finding mountain trails that you have never walked before. Even more exciting when you know that there is the possibility of seeing wild boar and possibly snakes that you do not see at home. 

Equally exciting for me are the many wildflowers, birds and those beautiful butterflies some almost the size of the palm of my hand. I am captivated by it all. There is one little bird I hear all the time with its very distinctive call, the bee-eater. It is a very colourful bird but I only know this from looking at it in books and online, as yet I have been unable to spot one.

I enjoy finding these tracks that I do not know where they are going. Every now and then I am faced with a choice of track to follow. of course, the obvious thing to do would be to have a map and follow it. There is a gentleman on the site who I have known for a few years who keeps offering to give me one. I will because he has given a fair bit of time to mark all the routes he knows on the map.

I have to be honest I love the sense of freedom and danger that being without brings me. The total freedom to make wrong choices.

Dorothy Sayers said of this freedom, "The divine "scheme of things," as Christianity understands it, is at once extremely elastic and extremely rigid. It is elastic, in that it includes a large measure of liberty for the creature; it is rigid in that it includes the proviso that, however, created beings choose to behave, they must accept the responsibility of their own actions and endure the consequences.

In her view freedom comes with a price tag. Having at one time fallen some fifty feet down a ravine I am aware that freedom can be a sore and costly matter. But of course, she was talking about another very different day of reckoning. Some reading this will go along with her others will think that the present price is the only one.

"A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes, " says Huxley. All our freedoms come with the added responsibility of living with the consequences when we use our freedom unwisely. 

Throw a pebble into a pool and watch the ripples move out in an ever-widening circle. All of our actions of freedom have the same effect. Each little action has a bearing on others around for ill or good.

In the last two days walking on my own, I have made the wrong choice of track to follow more than a few times. Some have taken me to dead ends other have led me onto a path with those tiny little jaggy plants. At least on track let me on a very long circular route of undulating hills. 

I do not need to draw out the fact that all of this can so easily be related to life itself. Joys and dangers and peace, struggle and the easy path are just some of the consequences of the freedom we have.

"Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free. Both the law of humanity and the laws of nature. 

Freedom to say what we wish, go where we wish and do what we wish come at a great price and must be respected and cherished.

Beware of the soft spoken politicians who would in a moment steal that freedom so costly purchased.

Not often I get political but in todays present climate we ae in grave danger of giving away that freedom.

Have a wonderful carefree day I am off to see new tracks and new adventures. Will I have a map? 

What friends really are?

Some time ago during my time here in France, I painted a sunflower from a photograph I took while out walking. This morning I was again out walking and passed a field of barley where some sunflowers were popping their heads above the stalks of grain and facing the sun.

Again I took some photographs, I just cannot resist. On looking at the photographs I took and the painting I did about two weeks ago or more and separated by more than 200 miles they look exactly the same. They have the exact same number of petals the same developing seed heads and the same pale green leaves. To all intents and purposes, they could have been from the same field in the same place at the same time. So it would be for any flower, nature and evolution have made then perfectly suited for the growing environment.

The beautiful lilies painted by Monet all those years ago would look very much the same as any painted today or tomorrow or photographed the only difference would be the artist's impression of them.

In many respects, nature has done the same with human beings. We have evolved to make the most of our planet and the surroundings we find ourselves in. The big difference is that there is no way we can say that we are all the same. Could have come from the same place and we all look alike. Rejoice nature has decided to make each of us a unique person.

This uniqueness makes us respond to each other in different ways. We have those who just do not like others for various reasons. Then we have those gems of people we are proud to call friends. Friends because of the way they treat us and others. I have spoken of this before but something that happened yesterday made me dwell a bit further on the quality and meaning of, "Friends," How I wish Facebook had used another word to define the those we associate with on the app.

Some people make enemies instead of friends because it is less trouble. True friendship is not simple or easy. It makes demands upon us and it never uses those we call friends for our own ends.

I was walking yesterday as I have said already and passed some sunflowers. I took some photographs. A little further on I met an old man carrying and a large bunch of some he had picked from the very field. We exchanged greetings and I asked him if I could photograph his fleurs. He held them up proudly and I took some photographs. He then understood why I was doing so as my wife told him I would paint them. He took the biggest bloom from his bunch and handed it to me putting his hand on my shoulder. 

This could so easily have been the beginning of a new friendship starting out with the open act of giving. His bloom is now in a bottle of water on the table before me making me smile, as friendship does.

I will paint his flower and I will make every effort to find out how I can send him the file or even a print out of it. I will do this as an act of friendship.

Some other thoughts I dwelled on as I thought of friendship," Our opinion of people depends less on what we see in them than upon what they make us see in ourselves."

A small boy defined a friend as "Someone who knows all about you and likes you just the same."

"He who loves 50 has 50 woes. He who loves 10 has 10 woes. He who loves none has no woes." said the Buddha.

Once again I wish to thank those here who know me and still call me a friend, I hope I do not cause you too many woes. 

Have a marvellous day. 

The choices we make and the route we travel.

A friend made comment that I have been in a somewhat contemplative mood these last few days How very perceptive of them to notice. It is true I have been trying to discover the flow of my life.

I was out walking and took a moment to visit a little chapel, something I have not done for some time. In the stillness of the tiny place, I found myself wondering about the journey I had travelled to reach that moment. Later I watched the river as it made it endless journey towards the sea.

One of the first days in that part of France we had a thunderstorm but even with all the rain that fell in the hour of its duration this mighty river had not changed its course it had kept to its movement and the additional water had not altered its course.

That is the way of a river, it flows where it can to reach its destination. If it were dammed, if the cliff walls were moved, if some boulders were shifted it would simply find another way to travel.

So it is with the flow of our lives. Once the fixed objects of our lives shift, our circumstances change. if we move from one place to another, life changes. If we marry one person rather than another, life will or would be different.

If we take up a job in one place rather than another, If I had chosen to teach in one school rather than another, how different life might have been.

If we choose to live in a house in a good setting with good air, life will be more healthy. If we arrange our furniture in a particular way, according to some, life may be more comfortable. 

If we eat the right foods, life may be prolonged. in short, if we set our life to enable the ongoing flow to be smooth, then we will face fewer hardships and pain. 

Life is the flow of energy. it is the air we breathe, the force that moves. The chi of life comes from the combining of our energies hopes and dreams. it keeps the river flowing, our hearts beating, and the sky blue.

Therefore by taking care of the cardinal points of our lives, we can change the flow.

We have the freedom to make choices about the decisions we make. The freedom of choice is ours and it is always important to consider the choices we make.

Have a good day, as I say frequently, "Go with the flow."

Hero’s All.

Some years ago I was out walking in Spain. I passed a flower very similar to the one I have tried to paint, it was growing up a telegraph pole. Each day as I passed I saw these flowers and were captivated by their beauty. Wrongly, I was determined to try and cultivate this flower back at home. 

I took a tender cutting collected some of the earth from around the bottom of the pole cut a plastic lemonade bottle in half to us as a pot. On the long journey home I took great care of this little plant watering and feeding it. It arrived back in Scotland still alive. I selected a place in the garden and carefully planted it. With my help, it clung on to life all summer and even grew some new leaves. At the end of the summer, it seemed to die off but this was what was to be expected. Over the winter I gave the roots some protection and in the spring it began to grow again. That first year all I got were leaves but I still had much hope. The following year I sprouted again and produced flowers, white ones like those that grew in wayside patches all over Scotland. My little hero had let me down.

I had expended much effort to little avail. I moved house and never found out what happened to my little flower.

We so often put a great deal of trust and energy into things with a heart filled with hope only to be let down.

I remember my first ever human hero. A man of talent as a jazz musician. I bought his records and had a signed photograph of him. I looked up to him in so many ways only to learn later that he was a man with feet of clay and some very human addictions. I felt so let down I vowed never to hero worship anybody again.

Emmerson the well-known philosopher once said of heroes, "A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer. "

Researchers in the USA asked 2000 American eighth-grade students to name prominent people they admired and wanted to be like.

Those most frequently mentioned by the teens as their heroes were celebrities from the silver screen and the world of American football.

Commenting on this, columnist Sidney J. Harris lamented the fact that every one of the 30 prominent personalities who was named was either an entertainer or an athlete. 

He noted that statesmen, authors, painters, musicians, architects, doctors, and philosophers failed to capture the imagination of those students. He further suggested that the heroes and heroines created by our society are people who have made it big, but not necessarily people who have done big things. 

At this present time, it seems that nothing much has changed. With the world cup in full swing young person after young person can be seen wearing the football shirts of their heroes. it was much the same when I was at school, we were not able to wear football tops with the names of heroes but when it came to playing a game of football everybody wanted to be some great player and frequent arguments and some bullying often resulted until all had agreed who they would be. 

Not being interested in football I just wanted to be Ralph Taylor, so frequently I was not permitted to play because I had not selected a hero.

I still today find it sad that the cult of celebrity and personality turn people with feet of clay into heroes of the day.

If we are to put our faith and trust in anything. if we are going to invest our energy and time we should first make sure we have not chosen a bad example in which to put our trust.

Have a great day.

A little doubt !

I have known and met many people in life who live in the world of black and white, and I do not mean in terms of colour.  

We often hear the words, "On that, I have no doubt." In the world of black and white, there is no room for grey or uncertainty, not even a little niggle of doubt can enter such a realm.

There was an eminent gentleman with a wicked sense of humour. One day he was making his usual commute on the train taking him home after a days work. In the same carriage as he were two very prim and proper ladies. He had smiled at both in a friendly way but had no encouragement or response. He had attempted some innocent friendly conversation but again no response.

He knew the journey well and his mind was ticking over. Shortly before his station, there was a fairly long and dark tunnel the train passed through. As it entered the tunnel he lifted the back of his hand to his lips and made the sound of two or three loud kisses.

When the train drew into the station, he rose, lifted his hat, and in a gentlemanly way said, 

"May I thank whichever one of you two ladies I am indebted to for the charming incident in the tunnel." 

He then beat a hasty retreat, leaving the two ladies glaring at each other.

With just a little action he had raised doubt in the minds of both of the ladies. Where this doubt might have ended there is not telling.

In a world of black and white doubt of any kind can be a terrible burden.

As a minister, I had many colleagues who saw doubt as a terrible curse and somebody like me who frequently raised questions or put doubt in the minds of others as nothing much short of being a sinner. My own beliefs and the faith I had, had grown out of doubt and uncertainty and in my opinion was much the stronger for that.

As a teacher, I frequently challenged students who lived in the world of certainty and believing they knew most things. There were those who were never wrong and it was good to plant some seeds of doubt into that. Even if they were, in fact, correct 100% it did no harm to make they contemplate where the certainty came from and on what it was based.

The closed mind is the mind that has stopped growing. There was a time when the majority of humans believed the world was flat and if you travelled too far in one direction you would fall over the edge into oblivion. Those who challenged this belief were seen as idiots not to be trusted. 

Some of the most hurtful comments and dangerous actions come from those who have no room for doubt and it is their way or no way. Those who believe that there is only one way to reach a certain endpoint are often the very people that stop others from reaching that goal.

It is nice to discover new things and ways but a little doubt has never done anybody very much harm.

Have a good day, tomorrow is a moving day for me so if I am not posting this is the reason why.

Nothing worth saying.

there are times in life when you realise you have nothing to say but you say it anyway. I know for a fact there are times in my life that I have said something that I later regretted and knew that the best course of action would have been just to hold my tongue and keep quiet.

Can you remember any of the completely silly things you have heard others saying and realised you had said something similar?

"A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on." This is one thing I have heard said many many times. I can also understand why it has been said. In fact, in Scotland, a verbal contract has exactly the same strength of law behind it as a written contract. If something has been verbally agreed and hands have shaken it is binding. But the sentence still makes little sense.

When a certain royal child was born and named I remember this being said more than once. "Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is named William." I make no further comment.

" Now, ladies and gentlemen, listen slowly." Now please explain to me how we do this.

"For your information, I would like to ask a question." How many times have I sat waiting in anticipation to hear a speaker and this is how they have opened their talk. For me the point of listening has gone.

"Don't talk to me while I'm interrupting." I have many friends whom I have heard saying just this and may even have said it myself.

" Include me out."  This one is so very common and never fails to bring a smile to my face.

And lastly this one I am sure we have all heard more than once. 

"I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong." When you are in the company of a person who says this you would be as well going home.

Today I have no real words of wisdom have come to me as I have walked cycled and swam so the very best thing for me or anybody else in such a situation is to bow out gracefully and say nothing. It takes a wise person to know when this is the case and an even stronger person to in fact say nothing. I say no more. 

Have a great day.

Good Morning !

Someone once said, "There's nothing quite so early as the morning."  I find the older I get the earlier I  arise in the morning. As the light begins to filter into my eyes I rejoice in another day spreading out before me and all that might happen before I catch the night train to daybreak.

"There ought to be a better way of starting the day than having to get up." Somebody else said this. These are words I find no agreement with at all. I cannot see any joy in staying in bed when the day beckons. It never worries me that it might be raining or the sun might be in full glory, as long as I have met another sunrise the possibilities before me fill me with an excitement. I feel with this thought I can face the endeavours of the day, any misfortunes will be overcome.  

The day begins and I prepare myself to face it with a quiet thought and time of contemplation. Some gentle music and some Tai Chi, and I am bolstered and ready to face whatever may come my way.

I often feel if we could acknowledge the mystery of the night and the glory of the morning we would need very little more.

At its simplest life begins with the dawn, that is blessing enough, and happiness enough. All else flows and follows from this.

I feel tempted to say give thanks for the day, but I am aware that we all "give thanks," in differing ways. One of the few certainties in life is that day follows night and each day it dawns is indeed something to rejoice in.

There are so many ways we could describe this moment of wonder, and having studied and taught many of the world's philosophies I have heard a few. "The miracle to witness." "The ultimate in beauty." This is true sacredness." "This is the great gift of heaven." "This is the omen of prophecy."

For me some of the thoughts I have had and shared, some of the things I have learned make me feel that the awakening to a new day is what makes life not futile. It is a personal kind of enlightenment of understanding, that moment gives meaning to life itself.

That I have another day is a great comfort, another opportunity to share compassion for my fellow beings. it is an inspiration for further creativity.

I do not know about others who read this but I need no clock or radio to awaken me to a new day but think of this if you do.

An alarm clock is a mechanism used to scare the daylights into you. Now there is something to consider.

Arise the day is dawing and the adventure continues. Have a marvellous day.

Getting Lost.

Yesterday I got lost, now this is nothing new it has happened to me many times in the past. It happened most often when I was a runner. I would arrive at a new site and head off out for a run. I would know how far I hoped to run, usually around about ten miles, but I was not always so keyed into the direction of travel. I remember one day ending up completely lost and to make matters worse my French was terrible and even if it had been better I could not remember the name of the site I was on. Two or more hours later I found my way back.

Another occasion that is well imprinted on my brain was the day I had noticed a cycle route. My wife and son were going to join me they cycling me running. All seemed to be going well until I noticed a crossing I had been over before. Lost without a paddle as they say. That day I ran forty miles and not only did I run the cycle route but the other four routes also.

Having had that experience I began to take greater attention of my surroundings while running and walking. I also kept in my head the turns I was taking, two lefts and a right, giving me an idea of where in respect of my site I might be. So it was with great surprise that yesterday I managed to lose my way and my bearings.

Fortunately knowing the time and seeing the sun I was able to find my way back to the beach and after two miles walking along it, I began to recognise my surroundings.

Being lost on a journey is not the only kind of lostness we may suffer. In life, we determine our goals and set out on the path we believe will get us to the goal. But knowing where we are heading and having set our goals the future is always uncertain. This is why it is important to continually evaluate where we are on our journey of life and even more so if we are on a spiritual journey.

When confronted with pivotal decisions it is good to stop and take stock. How much more do we wish to do, will staying the course bring us to the desired goal. Never be afraid to change path even though to do so will upset routines. If we never know where we are in life we can never expect to find the happiness we seek. it is never easy to change course but it is frequently a worthy exercise.

Have a marvellous day and beware of losing track or course on the journey to your goals. of course we have to have set the goals or the journey is pointless.

Just a little dream

When you are young your life is full of dreams of what the future might hold for you. Most of us dream of being the master of our fate and the captain of our soul. As age catches up with us we often settle for being the master of our weight and the captain of the dominoes team. Such is the way of life and the dreams of youth.

I have spent a great deal of my life dreaming of the hopes of what I might accomplish at the same time aware that the great sages of life tell me that this world and life is but a dream. I have spent some time today thinking about just this.

When we arise on a foggy morning, or in Scotland a morning covered with sea haar, the hills obscured the trees and buildings appear as diaphanous apparitions, we might be tempted to agree with the sages of old that all life is but a dream.

The memories of the past and the dreams of today blend and turn into some kind of fantasy.

While here in France I frequently awake to this wonderful dream that I cannot escape from.

But in the midst of the dream, the bee-eater bird is still calling out loud and clear. Never does the singing and calling stop. When everything else seems to be frozen in a moment, in the chapel of the dawn, this little bird continues to call. Maybe he/she is in the same dream but protests loudly that life is a reality.

In the midst of all of this is the inner reality of being alive and the clock of time has just awakened us to a new day. Life for each of us might often seem a dream but day by day we awake to a new reality of wondrous expectation. Why dream when we can experience the joys of life and friendship.

Oh to be a daydreamer again, but real life beckons. Have a marvellous day.

My painting was painted immediately after a very early morning walk. There is a world of wonder that is not a dream.

I have just noticed this is blog 800 of a continuous series of writing, I am wondering if this is a good point at which to stop boring people?

Have you ever felt you were always wrong?

There are those days when it seems that everything you do is just wrong. Everything you say. Every action all just seem to be wrong. 

I am just hoping that for the sake of the owner of this lovely little dog I have at least got this correct.

There are some people in life who do make big mistakes that almost brand them and haunt them for the rest of their lives.

The weatherman in the UK who said that there was no need to fear the predicted bad weather was not going to happen only to see the worst weather in years within the next few hours. To this day his name is associated with wrong weather predictions.

The recording company who turned down the Beatles said this, "We don't think the Beatles will do anything in their market. Guitar groups are on their way out." They got that well wrong and probably regretted it for many years.

Then. this one that has gone down in history. A bishop of a century ago pronounced from his pulpit and in the periodical he edited that, "Heavier-than-air flight was both impossible and contrary to the will of God." 

Oh, the irony that Bishop Wright had two sons, Orville and Wilbur! Wright was wrong. Sure of himself, but wrong. 

The chairman of the board of the company IBM said this, "I think there is a world market for about five computers." He most certainly got that wrong.

Lee de Forest the inventor of the cathode ray tube said this, "Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility, a development which we should waste little time dreaming about. 

So I ask again have you ever had a day where everything went wrong? According to those around me yesterday I most certainly did.

But rejoice, with those exceptions like some of those above, it is so often the case that it is only in the opinion of others that everything you say and do is wrong and it is only their opinion. I am still very reluctant to agree with them.

As an old friend said to his closest friend, "If I agree with you then we will both be wrong."

Have a marvellous day.

  

Those important moments.

So the world cup got underway yesterday. My wife, Irene, made a comment to me that it was the date of her mother and fathers wedding anniversary. She very quickly went on to recite a list of other important dates that had made an impression on her mind. It is true that certain dates seem to make a lasting impression.

Getting back to the world cup, there are a number of people on pitches around about me who seem to have a certain date firmly embodied in their minds. If I tell you the date is 1966 you will instantly know which nationality I am speaking of. it seems that a certain football team won the world cup in that year.

My friend has a birthday coming up, his 84th, he was asking me how we were going to get all those candles on a cake? Seems he has forgotten that after a certain age you get one candle. The hidden message is, "Go on see if you can blow that one out."

Dates are not my strongest point and my excuse is that if you live by the Taoist principle of going with the flow then dates do not really matter in the ongoing continuum.

So with these thoughts in my mind, I asked myself. How old am I?  Then I asked, "Have I made a life I can look back on with some sense of satisfaction?" The first question I may not always get a correct answer for but the second is a resounding yes.

Can I look back on my inner and spiritual growth and see an unbroken progress?  I am feeling that I am progressing and still on the road.

Has the world progressed along a path I feel happy with? No.

How much have a done since I last sat here in Agde in France? Happy to say I feel I have continued to move onward.

Each day is a milestone on a path. If you are still at the beginning of that wonderful journey then look forward to that day when you may look back and hope that like me today you look back with a sense of achievement.

Thoe who have found a path they are happy to travel tend not to count days or years, or mark the calendar of success, they are more like hikers who wander, not worrying or fretting about the path, not concerned by distance or time they are just content to still be on the journey.

I am aware that for those who in the past have made a dramatic decision in life to change the path they travel and find it good to mark the milestones as a way of encouraging themselves to make the most of the day, one day at a time.

For those who today is a meaningful day, I wish you well. For those looking for a repeat of a bygone momentous moment, I wish them good hope. Is that a lump on my face or is it my tongue in my cheek? I am smiling, please smile with me and make this a good day for us all.

Have a good one.

Call it what it is.

There are some people who have a habit of putting their tongues into action without first engaging their brains. I, probably like most of us, have heard a few such people. I even remember some of the things I have heard them saying, never meaning to insult, but doing it very successfully.

"There are two kinds of people in this world, I do not like either of them." Sadly those who thought like this were not very likeable people themselves.

"I am really very sorry if I offended you when I called you stupid, I honestly thought you already knew." The person the said that was not the brightest pea in the pod.

"If I agreed with you then we would both be wrong." Some people just think they know everything.

This made me begin to wonder, as I cycled one of my favourite routes in this part of the world. Along the seashore through some villages and a nudist village and then on to go through a wildlife reserve. it made me wonder what kind of person I was and what kind of person I hoped others saw.

I really would like to be the kind of person who:-

Who cannot be bought, either with money or flattery?

My word is my bond and can be relied upon. 

That I would always put character above wealth, or gain.

I was always larger than their title my occupation gave me.

That I never hesitate to take chances, not only for myself but for my friends.

That I would never lose my individuality in a crowd just to be at one with everybody else.

That I am as honest in small things as in great things.

That I never make a compromise with wrong.

That my ambitions are not confined to my own selfish desires.
 
That I am true to my friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity.

And a final two thoughts that came to me as I sat here writing.

That I do not believe that shrewdness, cunning, and hardheadedness are the best qualities for winning success.

That I am Never  ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular and can say "no" with emphasis, although all the rest of the world says "yes." 

What do you think? What if any of those would you consider important for yourself?

Have a thought filled day.

A Learning Experience.

Robert and his young grandson, Bob were out fishing one lovely summer day.  Bob turned to his grandfather and asked. "Grandad, how does this boat float?" Robert thought for a moment and replied, "I have no idea."

A little bit later, Bob again asked his grandad a question, "Grandad how do fish swim underwater?"

Again he was given the same answer, "I have no idea."

"Grandad why is the sky blue?" Again the same reply. "I have no idea son."

A little while later, "Grandad, do you mind me asking you all those questions?" Robert replied, "Of course not lad.  If you do not ask questions  you will never learn anything."

Learning is the fountain of youth and no matter how old we are we must never stop learning. As long as we continue to learn and engage in doing things and welcoming new ideas, and expanding our minds then we are engaged in the creativity of the self.

If you look closely at the seniors around us those who are ongoing and vital. Those who seem to enjoy participating in life, you will notice that the one thing they have in common is the desire to keep on learning. These are the ones who are brimming with vitality because day after day they are still engaged and finding new ways to do things.

As we enter each new phase of our lives, things change.

I watched some people running along the beach paths yesterday and remembered how I used to love the feeling of such movement and energy.  I can no longer do this to the same extent as I once did. I have however found new ways to give me this same inner buzz of life. I have revamped myself according to my present situation. This is the secret of staying young, of continuing to find life interesting and challenging. The way to overcome the boredom of another day that sadly so many of my contemporaries complain about.

Be positive and see each day as another wonderful challenge.

On the thought of older age, an old lady who had reached her hundredth birthday was asked by a group of reporters, "What is the secret of being a hundred?" She replied, "I guess it is down to being born so long ago."

Have a great day.