What I have learned.

One of the good things about getting older is the fact that you have learned a great deal over the years. Well, you would think you have at least learned somethings. I have to say that I have met some people who seem to negate this statement of fact. 

There are always those whom you can meet who no matter their age they have never learned to be kind or courteous and treat people with respect. There are always those who seem never to have learned that just because they have believed something for years it does not meet that it is a fact. It is possible to go through life believing that what you think is always right. 

I was thinking about this just this morning when I met just such a person. 

Thankfully there are some things I have learned as I have gone through life. here are just a few of them. 

1. Never take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. There can be a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness. I often worry when I stand before a canvas if I am suffering from a delusion. 

3. You should never confuse your career with your life. You are not the job you do the job is the thing you do to let you get on with life.

4. No matter what happens in life, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

5. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.And nobody cares if you have a silly laugh as long as you are laughing.

6. Never lick a steak knife.

7. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.

8. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip

9. A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter is not a nice person.

 Have a good day and remember , "Every day is a school day."

The little wave.

Yesterday my father in law passed away. He died of nothing more than old age. His time had come the journey was over. Today I would not wish to make an moe comment than tell a simple story. It is a story I think of often at such times. Thought my ministry I returned to this story often 

I give it to you for your thought.

Once upon a time there was a Wave. She liked to frolic with the wind. She liked to caress the rocks on the shore.

Once she got into a strange bay. There was a Cliff. He stood in the middle of the bay. The Wave became friends with Cliff. They could talk for hours. They spent all time together.

Once the Wave realized that she loved the Cliff. He also liked funny and careless Wave. But he told her:

No, you can‘t love me. I am a stone. I am a Cliff. I don‘t know how to love. I will break you.

But the Wave did not want to back down. She tried to hug Cliff and was scattered by thousands of gold spray. But Wave tried to do this again. She forced herself just to communicate with Cliff. She carefully took off shells, sticking on him. But Cliff said:

I am strong. I am a stone. I don‘t need your care.

Once again the Wave rushed towards him. Once again the sprays glistened on the wind…

The years passed. The Wave still loved the Cliff. He pretended not noticing this. She tried to approach him – and still has been broken.

One morning the Wave disappeared. The Cliff woke up and did not see her nearby. But he forced himself not to think about it. Days went by, but she did not appear.

Several years have passed, and the Wave came back. She has changed a lot. She knew a lot more about life now. She was no longer so thoughtless and careless. But she still loved the Cliff. And he … he pretended that it does not matter that she came back, because he was a stone. How could he afford a weakness for the Wave?

Many years have passed. The Wave still talked with the Cliff, but there were no more intimate conversations and long night vigils. The Cliff was getting older. Water undermined it. And the Wave was travelling, learning new countries and cities, new people. Somehow, returning home, she realized that she no longer thought of the Cliff. The Cliff also understood that. And he also understood that could not live without her, without her stories about the cities and foreign shores, without her twitter about everything. One day the Cliff told her:

Yes, I am a stone. Yes, I am a Cliff. But I cannot live without you.

And he fell into the waves. And the Wave… she just kissed him saying goodbye.

May you have a peaceful day.

The Bank of Life.

It is amazing what we call a holiday. Having just spent almost two months in France , "on holiday," I was looking back at all the pictures I took and the places I saw. I looked at all the paintings I had done. Checked the milage on my cycle computer. Thought of all the walks I had done. It really did not fit with my idea of holiday. 

The dictionary says that holiday is,"A time when someone does not go to work or school but is free to do what they want, such as travel or relax."

I suppose I did some of those but relax was certainly not one of them.  Strange how we all look at the idea of holidays. If you google the word you will be faced by a barrage of tour companies trying to get you to purchase a package holiday. Tempting you with cheap prices. 

Holiday in fact comes from the two words, "Holy Day."  Those were the few days set aside when you did not work but took time to think of spiritual matters. Well gone are those days I suspect. 

Was it all worth it? Of course it was and I would do it all again tomorrow. Why? because in reality I probably do and achieve more because I realise that this is not going to last for ever I am working on a limited timescale. Then when it is over  as my father used to say, "It is back to old clothes and tattoos and mince." Back to normality. Sadly normality often means not using time to its fullest or best.

I was thinking about this .

Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with £86,400, carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. What would you do? 

Draw out every pound, of course!

Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is Time. 

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. 

Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. 

Each night it burns the records of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". Therefore, there is never not enough time or too much time. 

Time management is decided by us alone and nobody else. It is never the case of us not having enough time to do things, but the case of whether we want to do it.

Make every day a holiday, and use it to the full. Make it a Holy Day special and to be used wisely.

Have a great day. 

  

ON that Day

The Abbey Church Tournus

My apologies I have not posted for some time. I thought that after my is it to the beautiful place of Tournus I would still be in France for another week. I thought I had a leisurely journey home before me. Sadly my father in law is now reaching the end of his journey. So I am home after a very exhausting journey from Tournus to home.  

A journey that gave me loads of thinking time. I hope this out does not sound mournful in anyway because it is in no way meant to be. If you being reading please read to the end. 

On the die I die a lot will happen.

A lot will change.

The world will be busy.

On the day I die, all the important appointments I made will be left unattended.

The many plans I had yet to complete will remain forever undone.

The calendar that ruled so many of my days will now be irrelevant to me.

All the material things I so chased and guarded and treasured will be left in the hands of others to care for or to discard.

The words of my critics which so burdened me will cease to sting or capture anymore. They will be unable to touch me.

The arguments I believed I'd won here will not serve me or bring me any satisfaction or solace.

All my noisy incoming notifications and texts and calls will go unanswered. Their great urgency will be quieted.

My many nagging regrets will all be resigned to the past, where they should have always been anyway.

Every superficial worry about my body that I ever laboured over -- about my waistline or hairline or frown lines -- will fade away.

My carefully crafted image, the one I worked so hard to shape for others here, will be left to them to complete anyway.

The sterling reputation I once struggled so greatly to maintain will be of little concern for me anymore.

All the small and large anxieties that stole sleep from me each night will be rendered powerless.

These things will certainly all be true on the day that I die.

Yet for as much as will happen on that day, one more thing that will happen.

On the day I die, the few people who really know and truly love me will grieve deeply.

They will feel a void.

They will feel cheated.

They will not feel ready.

They will feel as though a part of them has died as well.

And on that day, more than anything in the world they will want more time with me.

I know this from those I love and grieve over.

And so knowing this, while I am still alive I'll try to remember that my time with them is finite and fleeting and so very precious -- and I'll do my best not to waste a second of it.

I'll try not to squander a priceless moment worrying about all the other things that will happen on the day I die, because many of those things are either not my concern or beyond my control.

Friends, those other things have an insidious way of keeping you from living even as you live; vying for your attention, competing for your affections.

They rob you of the joy of this unrepeatable, uncontainable, ever-evaporating Now with those who love you and want only to share it with you.

Don't miss the chance to dance with them while you can.

It's easy to waste so much daylight in the days before you die.

Don't let your life be stolen every day by all that you believe matters, because on the day you die, much of it simply won't.

Yes, you and I will die one day.

But before that day comes: let us live.

I hope today is a good day.

The Challenge.

I bought some wine from this friendly Cave' just the other day thought it might make a nice little painting.

Today i have been immersed in the place I am now staying. It is a really wonderful part of the world. Beautiful gorges and river swimming to be found all around me. Lovely little villages. Then on top of that France seems to be doing well in the football and everybody seems to be so happy.

Of course there are those you meet who are the font of all knowledge. They know where the best markets are the best this and the best of everything. There is nothing they have to learn they already know it all. I met one of those just yesterday and even though they contradicted themselves often they went ahead throwing out the challenges. I just sat quietly in the corner and continued to watch the football. Smiling to myself as I remembered the story of the man and his amazing octopus.

He took his octopus into a bar one night and challenged all the customers. My octopus is the worlds most talented musician. Give hime any musical instrument and he can play it.  The challenge is to give him an instrument he cannot play I will pay ten pounds to anybody who does. But will take ten pounds for every failure.

One person came forward with a trumpet. The octopus took it up and played it like he was Louis Armstrong. Every not crystal clear. Another person gave it a clarinet. The octopus immediately played it like Benny Goodman with the swing to match. Money was all flowing one way.

A Scotsman threw the octopus a set of bagpipes. The octopus wriggled and moved but not a note. The Scotsman said there you go you cannot play it. The octopus looked at hime, "Play it? I am going to make love to it as soon as I can get her out of her pyjamas.

Have a good day.

Exercise

 I still remember the days when I used to say if I ever feel like doing exercise I will lie down until the feeling wears off. Those days have long gone and I now exercise every day either cycling or walking and often both. Gone are the days of running and I do miss it so badly.

It would be so easy not to exercise in this blazing heat we are having in France where I am at present. I was thinking of this while out walking this morning. I began thinking abut all the reasons there are for avoiding exercise.

Here are a few.

It is well documented that for every minute that you exercise, you add one minute to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at an enormous cost  per month.

My friend started walking five miles a day when she was 60. Now she's 97 years old and we don't know where the hell she is.

The only good reason to take up exercising is so that you could hear heavy breathing again.

I joined a health club last year, spent about £400. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to show up.

I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.

If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

And last but not least: I don't exercise because it makes the ice jump right out of my glass.

1. Have a good day