To hear a little.

I have spent many hours listening to the music of this man. One of the very first records I ever purchased was his third symphony. My friends were listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones I was listening to Beethoven and Holst.

Each to their own.  I went off to Iona and lived there for a year and during this time I heard very little if any music at all other than the music we made ourselves.

It was not until my return that I really gave much interest to the music of the charts. I had suffered from that terrible affliction, selective hearing. 

Selective hearing comes in many forms and right now I am beginning to despair when I see and hear politicians who have closed not only their ears but their minds to the voices of others. Hearing only that which you wish to hear can be comforting but mind restricting.

I am sure we all know people who suffer from selective hearing and those who do not listen at all. But the important question is not others but ourselves.

How good a listener are we? 

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 for 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?   

Seven simple little questions worthy of asking from time to time. it seems to me there are three important things when it comes to listening to others. If you are to proudly say you are a good listener think of these rules to decide if you are. 

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. 

Happy listening and have a good day.

I saw the light.

Yesterday I certainly saw the light. Now before anybody thinks that I had another Damascus Road experience, which such a saying often engenders in the mind, it was much more straightforward than that. 

One of my tasks as secretary of the Community Council is to organise the erection of the village Christmas Tree and putting on the lights. So yesterday I thought it would be wise to check that the lights are still working.  As is always the case they were in a tangled heap. I did not go to the bother of untangling them only to put them back in the bag where they would have a mind of their own and re-engage and end up back in a tangle. I did, however, switch them on and I did check they were all working. 

So hopefully the tree will arrive either today or tomorrow and it will be put up on Saturday morning and the lights will herald the coming of Christmas. 

As I did this task my mind was of course on the subject of light and seeing the light. It has so many connotations this little saying and how we talk about those living in darkness and those having seen the light.

I do not want to go into the theology of this at this point even though my mind did venture down that road. I also did think about the idea of lights and Christmas and the meaning behind all of this and wondered how many in the midst of all the spending and jollity might give just a little thought to what lay behind it all?

It is of course always wise to make any decisions having first considered the decision to be made and to make it in the full light of all the facts. 

Making decisions in the dark can lead to some regrettable consequences. 

Back in the days before electricity, a tightfisted old farmer was taking his hired man to task for carrying a lighted lantern when he went to call on his best girl. 

"Why," he exclaimed, "when I went a-courting  I never carried one of them things. I always went in the dark." 

"Yes," the hired man said wryly," and look what you got!" 

 To finish back where I began here is a little thought.

Some people change their ways when they see the light, others only when they feel the heat.

Have a great day.

A little time away.

There are times in life when I find myself retreating to the quiet of my study to listen to some lovely gentle music. The noise of the world becomes just too much and at this time things are certainly building up towards the forthcoming Christmas events. The sounds of Christmas music and advertisements bombard from every side.

I made some noise about it to my wife yesterday on my return from the school garden to be told, " accept it it is happening and people are looking forward to it. it might not be what you once tried to make it but life has moved on."

I said nothing and retreated. It was pointed out to me a bit later that I was, in fact, humming a piece of Christmas music. So there you have it, condemned by my own actions.

I then became aware of what I was in fact painting, my other great solace in life, poppies.

There are times when silence can perform miracles.

I was reading about a famous philosopher,  he told this tale on the wisdom of silence. 

Once on a railway journey, my father unintentionally perpetrated some slight infraction and was unmercifully bawled out by a minor train employee. I was young then and hotly told my father afterward that he should have given the man a piece of his mind. 

My father smiled, "Oh," he said, "if a man like that can stand himself all his life, surely I can stand him for five minutes."

I learned this very same message from another older wise elder from my church. 

It had been a rather stormy meeting and some very harsh words had been spoken. The elder I speak of, always highly respected and unusually wise in his judgments, had said nothing throughout the proceedings. 

As I left the meeting I said to him,  "You said not a word. I am sure I would have liked to hear your opinion about this matter." 

Ralph, he said, "I have discovered, that there are many times when silence is an opinion."

Have a wonderful day and in the midst of it all find a little time of silence. I am aware that i have friends who read this who would love to not have quite so much silence in their lives I hope today they find a little noise from a friend. 

The art of communicating.

I am sure everybody knows what this is? How many times have you ever stood in one of those not to make a phone call but to stay try from the rain as you waited for your date to arrive? 

I can also remember those arranged times when somebody was going to call the telephone kiosk not far from home and I waited patiently outside to answer it hoping that nobody would come along to use it at the allotted time.

They were life savers in so many ways. 

Mark Twain was once asked to record a Christmas message on an early gramophone. 

This is what he said, "It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, and admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage, every man and woman of us all throughout the whole earth, may eventually be gathered in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, except the inventor of the telephone." 

I wonder how he would have lived in this wonderful age of mobile phones.  The strange thing is that with all this communication the art of communicating is being lost.

Oh we have the growth in using big words when the smaller one was just as good, such as physicality and musicality. Put an "ality" on the end of it and you are communicating. 

Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific, Fain would I fathom thy nature specific. Loftily poised in the ether capacious, Strongly resembling a gem carbonaceous.  Now here is communication taken to the extreme. Have you translated it?

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are, Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.

So here we are in our village with this lovely telephone box. No longer used but the community do not want it to be taken away. So we now own it.

My idea is to turn it into a "Sharing Kiosk."  In the summer when there is an abundance of vegetables being grown we could make them available for those who no longer manage to grow their own. Or on a day when folks like me gather berries along the way and have plenty share them in the village. The odd leftover ball of wool could maybe knit a pair of socks or gloves. 

The box will still be there a point of interest if no a meeting point. All I have to do now is find the correct red paint for maintenance.

Have a lovely day and as it closes remember, scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific.

Smile please.

One of the biggest laughs in my family just now comes from my wife and me applying to have our passports renewed. This can be done online on one of the many government websites.

The process involves filling out information about the passport that has to be renewed and then submitting an up to date photograph. This can be done by having one taken in one of those booths where you sit on a little adjustable stool and stare at a mirror. A rather frightening experience. 

Or, as was the case with my wife and me, it can be done using a programme like, "Photo Booth." You have to fulfil certain requirements such as not showing teeth or wearing spectacles. The background has to be white and the shape of the head seen.

Now already those who know me can see a problem. I have a head of pure white hair and a white background makes this almost disappear. So we went through the process and after many tries, my wife was happy with hers. She was far from unhappy with mine no matter how often I adjusted the light. Neither was the website it kept telling me why my photograph was not correct. 

Eventually, after many attempts, I took the option to send it anyway explaining about my white hair and the background. 

"You will get emails telling you they have not accepted it," said my wife. Yes, I got emails but only to tell me it had been approved and on its way. My wife is still awaiting a response.

I have painted my selfie and shown it above. I hope like me you are now smiling.

A smile is a wonderful way to start any day. 

One tired waitress to another: "I always start the day with a smile,  and get it over with."

The Holiday Inn, when looking for 500 people to fill positions for a new facility, interviewed 5,000 candidates. The hotel managers interviewing these people excluded all candidates who smiled fewer than four times during the interview. 

This applied to people competing for jobs in all categories, the numbers were very quickly whittled down.

It seems that the smile is rapidly going out of fashion. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

Go on start today with a smile. Have a great one.

Win or lose?

I was golfing yesterday with my son. it was good to have this quality time with him and the older I get the more precious such moments seem. Having said that we nevertheless competed against each other in earnest with no give and take. The game was decided on the very last hole with almost the very last stroke of a ball. 

Live brings us so many moments of getting and losing. it is how we learn to cope with these moments that make us what we are.

When William Sangster, the famous preacher, was told he was dying of progressive muscular atrophy, he made four resolutions and faithfully kept them: 

I will never complain; 

         I will keep the home bright; 

      I will count my blessings; 

      I will try to turn it to gain.

When Beethoven discovered that his hearing could not be saved and he would soon hear not a sound he continued to compose some of his best ever music. With all distractions shut out, melodies flooded in on him as fast as his pen could write them down. His deafness became a great asset. 

It sounds insincere to make light comments about what often seem tragic moments. But there is much to be said for making the most that we can from even the greatest of what often seems like a disaster. 

A friend was looking really miserable and downcast as she spoke of her daughter. 

For years she had cared for a crippled daughter who brought great joy to her life. She made tea for her each morning, then left for work, knowing that in the evening the daughter would be there when she arrived home.

But the daughter had died, and the grieving mother was alone and miserable. The home was not "home" anymore. The answer came in a change of attitude.

When she got home and put the key in the door, she said softly in her inner voice. 

I know You are here you may be gone but you are here with me. As ignited the fire she would tell her what has happened during the day; if anybody had been kind, she told her, if anybody had been unkind she shared good thoughts for that person.

Before she went to bed she quietly said her daughter's name and felt her in her inner being.

After some time her face radiated joy instead of announcing misery. She had learned to let go and rejoice in what they had shared. 

She became a strength to many facing a similar loss and to my knowledge does so even now.

It is not the winning or the losing but the way we see it.

Have a great day.

Never a quitter be.

I have a friend who from time to time points out where there are little art competitions taking place and identifies a possible piece of art I might consider entering. My first reaction is always the same, no I do not think so. 

I then am left thinking about it and dwelling on it and considering. I go through all of this because I have never been a person who enters competitions. Yesterday I wondered why. 

Is it because it is the safe option in life? At a very early age in life, I realised that being small of stature meant there were many things I would not be physically good at so I kept well out of the way of school sports events. I was very shy so did my best to avoid anything that involved groups.  So I learned early how to build a shield around myself as a protection. If you stay low you are less likely to get hurt or harmed.

Like everything in else in life this only worked now and again. What I did learn was a resilience that meant I have never been a quitter. One of my great heroes of life taught me this.

It was Walter Scott who said" I often wish that I could lie down and sleep without waking. But I will fight it out if I can." 

The words of one of the bravest and most inspiring of men who ever lived. 

In his 56th year, failing in health, his wife dying of an incurable disease, Scott was in debt a half million dollars. A publishing firm he had invested in had collapsed. He might have taken bankruptcy, but shrank from the stain. 

From his creditors he asked only time. Thus began his race with death, a valiant effort to pay off the debt before he died. He wrote many wonderful novels and died debt free.

There are many kinds of winning and losing in life. But one of the greatest lessons I have learned is in all things persevere and never a quitter be. 

Have a great day.

Great Thoughts.

I have passed this wall so many times over the years and have never seen it the same way twice. Some time ago I did a painting of this in the middle of summer when it was covered with little flowers and moss and all sorts of growth. I painted a large bold painting thinking of how nature can take things that look bleak and dead and restore it to something new. Nothing is ever an end always a new beginning.

That first painting is still in the ownership of friends made through that painting. 

Some four years or so later I passed it again. The rain was heavy and the summer growth almost entirely died off exposing more of the brickwork. The ironwork underneath could be seen and the nuts and bolts and hammerheads picked out.  

Once again the wall called out to me and again it brought happiness and memories that stirred the inner being. So I have painted it again and this time called it, "A Brick in the Wall." I have tried to keep it very abstract but defined some of the bricks. On them, I could read, "Lochside"  the name of a not too distant brickworks sadly now gone.  My father-in-law worked there man and boy as a blacksmith so he had a hand in the making of those very bricks.

Memories. it is a time of the year when we think more and more of families as we prepare to purchase gifts. Our thoughts fill with those still with us but those now gone return. Some of the cranky things people did that seemed annoying in the past now fill us with little warm glows and smiles.

These are the real gifts. The gifts that go on giving. Those are the things that make even a bleak wall speak happy words. 

How often at this time we say, 'it is the thought that counts not the gift" just how true that is. 

The wall will next spring come flooding back into colour but nature in its wonderful way made it a thing of beauty again and filled my heart with joy.

What more can we ask for than those who surround us and make memories with us?

Have a wonderful day. Black Friday? What a nonsense it seems like a beautiful colourful day to me. 

It depends where you are.

It is amazing what a change of palette can do to an abstract painting. This one I did not change that actual formation of the painting very much at all but what I did do was went over it with a much lighter set of colours which removed the threatening atmosphere and replaced it with something more cheerful.

Is this good? Or is this bad? 

A friend had a rather amusing funny on her page the other day when she was addressing the whole thing about being good for Santa. What does it mean to be good? This kind of thing gets my head working overtime raising all sorts of questions.

If you take time to look up the word good in a dictionary there are a multitude of definitions most depending on what you are intending the word to be. It can be used as a noun and adjective and as a verb and each use brings a further number of various uses. So I will say to nobody this year that I have been a good boy. I will just have been the usual me no more and no less. I am what I am I can be no other. Good or Bad?

Here is a little tale that kind of puts all of this into some perspective.

A farmer went into his bank and announced to the manager that he had bad news and good news.

"First, the bad news. Well," said the farmer, "I cannot make my mortgage payments. That crop loan I have taken out for the past 10 years  I cannot pay that off, either. 

Not only that, I will not be able to pay you the hundred thousand I still have outstanding on my tractors and other equipment. 

So I'm going to have to give up the farm and turn it all over to you for whatever you can salvage from it."

Silence prevailed for a minute and then the manager said, "What is the good news?" 

"The good news is that I'm going to keep on banking with you," said the farmer.

It is almost like the surgeon telling his patient he has good and bad news. The bad news being he has cut off the wrong foot. The good news that another patient is going to purchase his slippers.

Have a great day and stay good.

A little thinking.

It was commented to me, and rightly, that my blog yesterday seemed somewhat serious. It was indeed because I was trying very hard to share some serious thinking first expressed many hundreds of years ago before even the thoughts and words of Jesus. But there is nothing wrong with now and again being serious?

It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about important things. That might need reading more than once. 

It might, in fact, be good for the human to do some serious thinking now and again. I read somewhere about thinking and brain power.  The human brain uses fourteen watts of power when it engages in deep and serious thought.  it takes ninety watts of power to operate the personal computer I am sitting at writing these words. That is a lot of power being used for what might not be worthy of reading. 

A  man had bought a brand new gadget, it came in a box with a set of instructions, just like my new broadband hub did the other day.  Fortunately, I was able to put together my hub and get it up and working without having to read the instructions. I read them later to discover I had done them differently but with better results. 

The man, after reading and rereading his instructions could not for the life of him figure out how to assemble it. Eventually, he called on an old friend for assistance. The old man picked up all the pieces and began assembling the gadget. 

In a short time, it was assembled and working. "That is amazing," said the man to his old friend, "and you did it without even looking at the instructions!"

" The fact is," said the old man, "I cannot read, and when you cannot read you have to think."

In all of this, I return to something I may have said before. Remember if you indulge in thinking your thoughts can turn to words so make sure you get the thinking correct first. 

Have a thoughtful day.

Why? Just Because.

I have been asked many times in the past week or so, and many times prior to what it is that I write at the end of every email I ever send?

In one way or another, I remind myself in my closing signature to be aware before I hit the send button that the words I am about to send can be words that might bring joy or they might bring pain and suffering so beware. Those little words that remind me that all life is suffering are just a little pause before sending.

It was the Buddha all those years ago who taught that "All life is suffering. All suffering is caused by desire. Eliminate desire and you will eliminate suffering. Do this by following the Four Noble Truths."

I am aware that this is never as simple as it sounds and I have spent many many hours discussing with students those very words.

Of course, during my life, I have suffered much because of my sensitive skin asthma and pain caused by arthritis. I am not alone in this and ending desire will not change this, but it does, in fact, help me to live with it.

I heard somebody on the radio in the early hours of the day asking the question, "Why does God allow Christians to suffer?"

There was a very long discussion about free will and such.

It all could have been summed up so much quicker by simply asking, "Why not?"

Someone asked C.S. Lewis, "Why do the righteous suffer?" "Why not?" he replied.  Why should anybody be immune from the ways of life?

Helen Keller  said, "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."

Suffering surrounds us day by day. Rejoice in the days we are free from it and make sure that each day we do our best not to add to it and if we can play a part in eliminating lets us do so.

Have a marvellous day.

All things new.

As I went off to bed last night I did so aware that when I arose in the morning my broadband hub might not be working and I would have that orange glow that comes from the hub to let me know.

There it was winking at me as I got up to go and get my first coffee of the day, strong and black giving me a little hit that nothing else does. It reaches all the right spots and places nothing else can even look at. I am fairly good with networks and computers and seldom if ever have any problems getting things up and running but changing a router is not something I do every day. So before anything, and still in my PJs, everything was disconnected and the new set up in place. 

The great switch-on. Everything seemed to be up and running but I was sure I could make one or two little tweaks that could make it run faster. Before long I was content everything was running well.

How I wish everything else in life was as simple to fix as a computer or IPad.

It is a bit like the man who had a property for sale.

Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. 

Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn rubbish around the interior. Empty food containers all over the place. Empty alcohol containers and just as dangerous strewn with empty tea bags and the plastic adhesive they contain.

As he showed a prospective buyer the property, he took great pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the rubbish. 

"Forget about the repairs," the buyer said. "When I buy this place, I'm going to build something completely different. I don't want the building; I want the site." 

Compared with the renovation of this building, or the replacement and resetting of a broadband sorting out the things that hold us back are not always as straightforward.   Sometimes we need to have a complete renewal and a change of direction. The old saying, "A change is as good as a holiday," might not be what I mean but often a little change of direction is as good as a new beginning

Have a great day and for those that are not into abstract art go on give it another look and see if you can see what I was thinking?

Letting go.

I was out walking as the sun was going down and rain was beginning to make its presence felt. Walking in a woodland with my eyes peering ahead when staring at me was a frightening beast. I made an attempt at catching both the atmosphere of the moment and the impression I saw in my mind, but having to do some more work on it was so hoping to share it here today.

As I walked homeward the image kept coming back to me more and more dreamlike. Was this some messenger of doom? I think it might have been the messenger of golf. Not having been able to play for a while because of the spinning in my head I think it was telling me to prepare to meet the messenger of golf course gloom. I think I managed about four good shots in all of the holes we played. 

Such is life there will be another day when I will hit every ball straight and true. I have cleansed my mind of any regret and bitterness. I was out on the course with my sun what more can a man ask for?

There is a tale very similar to one I used way back in the early days of this series of blogs. In this case, the beautiful woman has gone to be replaced by an older lady.

One day, two monks were walking through the countryside. They were on their way to another village to help bring in the crops. As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across on her own. 

The first monk kindly offered, "We will carry you across if you would like."  "Thank you," she said gratefully, accepting their help.  So the two men joined hands, lifted her between them and carried her across the river. When they got to the other side, they set her down, and she went on her way. 

After they had walked another mile or so, the second monk began to complain. "Look at my clothes," he said. "They are filthy from carrying that woman across the river. And my back still hurts from lifting her. I can feel it getting stiff." 

The first monk just smiled and nodded his head.

A few more miles up the road, the second monk griped again, "My back is hurting me so badly, and it is all because we had to carry that silly woman across the river! I cannot go any farther because of the pain." 

The first monk looked down at his partner, now lying on the ground, moaning. "Have you wondered why I am not complaining?" he asked. "Your back hurts because you are still carrying the woman. But I set her down five miles ago." 

That is what many of us are like in dealing with our situations and toils. 

We become that second monk who cannot let go. We hold the pain of the past over our loved ones' heads like a club, or we remind them every once in a while when we want to get the upper hand, of the burden we still carry because of something they did years ago.

In everything, there is always a time to let go often the sooner the better. 

Have a great day.

Would you like to join a committee?

Yesterday I reflected on meetings. The meetings we have in life. Let me today narrow this down just a little to a specific kind of meeting, a committee. As I have said before it was a committee that designed the camel how else could that happen?

I am sure it is little committee that have nothing to do who decide to put little white dots in the road and call them roundabouts.

I am once again back taking part in committees a new veenture at this stage of my life. This time I am once again secretary but this time not of a glof club so that is something different.

I often ask myself why I do it because for most of my life committees have played a large part and I have seldom if ever thought much could be achieved. I could have had a haircut and a dental appointment and had more pleasure than sit at a meeting listening to people work out who was to be the custodian of a set of keys.

There is an amazing and very true story that I share today and leave with you to consider.

The next time a committee is appointed and the committee names several task forces to do its job, think of this story if you might be tempted to join it.

To highlight its annual picnic one year, a company rented two racing shells and challenged a rival company to a boat race. The rival company accepted. On the day of the picnic, everyone entered into the spirit of the event. Women wore colorful summer dresses and big, floppy hats. Men wore straw skimmers and white pants. Bands played and banners waved. 

Finally the race began. To the consternation of the host company, the rival team immediately moved to the front and was never caught. It won by 11 lengths. 

The management of the host company was embarrassed by its showing and promptly appointed a committee to place responsibility for the failure and make recommendations to improve the host team's chances in a rematch the following year. The committee appointed several task forces to study various aspects of the race. They met for three months and issued a preliminary report. 

In essence, the report said that the rival crew had been unfair. "They had eight people rowing and one coxswain steering and shouting out the beat," the report said. "We had one person rowing and eight coxswains." 

The chairman of the board thanked the committee and sent it away to study the matter further and make recommendations for the rematch. Four months later the committee came back with a recommendation. 

"Our rower has to row faster," it said. 

Get your backs into it and have a great day I am off to play golf and clear my head of committee thought. 

Lead from the front.

Another from Falkland Estate.

I have had a number of people say to me over the last few days and weeks that I need to learn to delegate that there is never any need to do everything oneself. How heartily I agree.

One of the difficulties is that when looking for volunteers is that you end up asking another overburdened person to say yes to another task. Over the years I have had many occasions when I have had things I wanted to be done, and not always the easiest of things and I certainly could not do it on my own.

One such example springs clearly to mind. One Sunday morning I climbed the steps to my pulpit and looked around the very many well-known faces. The difference was that this Sunday there was a whole two rows of strangers sitting in the congregation obviously altogether. They were there to ask me to come and be their minister. 

When I agreed to go and see around the place and agreed to make the transfer my wife asked if I was really considering taking my children to this place? The reason was simple. The kitchen of the house we would live in was a disaster zone and the backyard was full of tumbledown dangerous old buildings, ruins.

I became the minister and to cut things short within a short time the ruins became a suite of halls the kitchen looked marvellous with a lovely seating area around which we had many a lovely chat and coffee with members and friends.

Was the church rich? No all of this work was done by volunteers every brick and piece of wood. Much of the materials used were reclaimed. When the work was assessed for insurance we were sitting on a very wealthy bit of real estate.

How did I get so many volunteers? Simple by asking them to help me. I was not asking them to do it but to help me? 

If you want something done lead by example.

On a blood-bank poster which read: "Be a volunteer Blood Donor," somebody had printed, "That's the best kind." 

Many times people had other things to do but on seeing it being done anyway they came along and lightened the load. 

Have a great day.

Meetings

Last night I took part in my first community council meeting as the secretary and rather than feeling I was back at meetings in the church as the minister it turned out to be a fairly productive and positive meeting.

I came home thinking about that word meeting and the number of ways that we use the word. A meeting can be two people walking along a road and meeting. it can be used as a meeting of minds though a great many meetings can be far from such.

People can attend meetings but that does not always mean that they participate in them. I am sure we can all look back and think of meetings of all sorts some that bring back very happy memories and some we wish had never happened.

It is always worth remembering that we are here reading this today because two people had a meeting that sparked of a train of events that eventually arrived at your very being.

It has been said that it must have been a committee that designed the camel. 

I once heard myself saying to a friend. I hate meetings, meetings are a gathering of people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done. I am sure we have all attended at least one such meeting.

 Somebody once said, "A meeting is a cul de sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. 

So my first meeting has past and who as yet knows which of the above it will later turn out to be but I left feeling a bit more positive. 

I, therefore, today look forward to all those who I will be meeting today as I visit the nurse to have my ankle dressed and then get on with the rest of the day walking and out and about in the village.

Who knows what might come from some of the meetings of my day because every day is a new day and every meeting is brimmed full of potential.

Have a great day full of joyful meetings.

A difference.

Somebody made a comment about this painting mentioning the trees there was no argument I agreed. So I did what I do frequently I tinkered with it to remove the trees. This turned out to be more difficult than I thought and in fact, was going to mean my starting from the beginning. Having far too many others things needing to be done I decided to leave it.

But that little argument in my head continued so back I went to look again.  Then an answer came my way do not change the painting at all change the style of presentation. So here is another example. I have taken another brush and gone over everything in the painting hardening some edges and softening others blending the colours and the little argument in my head left me.

It is a strange thing that we do when we argue with one another or with ourselves. We create opposing sides and so often ends up with everybody losing.

A little true fact shows this better than I am.

Years ago, a large statue of Jesus was erected high in the Andes on the border between Argentina and Chile. Called "Christ of the Andes," the statue symbolizes a pledge between the two countries that as long as the statue stands, there will be peace between Chile and Argentina. 

Shortly after the statue was erected, the Chileans began to protest that they had been slighted, the statue had its back turned to Chile. Just when tempers were at their highest in Chile, a Chilean newspaperman saved the day. 

In an editorial that not only satisfied the people but made them laugh, he simply said, "The people of Argentina need more watching over than the Chileans. 

A very little thought to end.

A horse can't pull while kicking. 

This fact I merely mention. 

it is also true he cannot kick while pulling, 

Which is my chief contention. 

Let's imitate that good old horse 

And lead a life that's fitting; 

Each day just pull an honest load, 

and then there'll be no time for kicking.

Have a great day.