Well that is him happy.

I do not meet very many people when out walking, sadly. Occasionally I meet people with dogs but even that is less and less. It seems that for some poor animals the length of the walk is dictated by the time it takes them to have their daily ablutions, then it is off back home. 

I wish I could teach those dogs that they do not perform until they have had a decent walk. Walking for so many seems to be a chore, something that has to be done, not something to be enjoyed.

I met one person yesterday as I left the village. I said, "Good morning." The reply I got was, "What is good about it, it is raining?"

So it was raining, hardly enough to get me wet but it was not a blistering warm day.

I was reminded of the story of the glum walker. 

Mula came upon a frowning man walking along the road to town.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

The man held up a tattered bag and moaned, “All that I own in this wide world barely fills this miserable, wretched sack.”

“Too bad,” said Mula, and with that, he snatched the bag from the man’s hands and ran down the road with it.

Having lost everything, the man burst into tears and, more miserable than before, continued walking.

Meanwhile, Mula quickly ran around the bend and placed the man’s sack in the middle of the road where he would have to come upon it.

When the man saw his bag sitting in the road before him, he laughed with joy, and shouted, “My sack! I thought I’d lost you!”

Watching through the bushes, Mula chuckled. “Well, that’s one way to make someone happy!”

As the story shows, Happiness is not a distant bird somewhere in some bush. 

It is often perching right upon our own shoulder. Often we fail to recognize it unless it flies away or as in the above case case, gets taken away.

I wish all of you who read this a pleasant discovery of this already existing happiness, at least for today. have a happy day.

Balloons.

I took a little time to look back over all the paintings I have done this summer in France. It amounts to a fair number. As yet I have done nothing more than paint them and probably will not. So I am beginning to ask myself if it is worthy of the time spent doing them?

The one above was a quick painting of a ballon that passed right overhead on one of the sites I was on early in the summer. It was so low I could speak to the people in the basket.

This picture came to mind because on my journey home through England I passed through a village where there must have been a number of celebrations in various homes. At least five of the houses had balloons on the outside gateposts. 

I then happened to notice only yesterday a balloon lying on the edge of a field when I was walking. It was one that had been filled with nitrogen and released, something I have never been in favour of because of the pollution caused and the danger to wildlife. 

All of this reminded me of the little ploy used by a motivational speaker at conferences he led. When you walked into the theatre or hall where the conference was being held the first thing you noticed was a net filled with balloons hanging from the ceiling. When I first saw this I thought, "What the heck have I come to?"

During the speakers address he pulled a string and let the balloons fall free. He told all the participants that under their seat they would find a felt pen. They were instructed to select one of the balloons and right their names on it. 

The balloons were put back into the net pulled up and released again. Everybody was then told to find their balloon. 

At first there was a melee of people lifting balloons and throwing them about. Nobody seemed able to find their balloon. 

The speaker stopped them. Told each person to pick up a balloon. Then they had to read the name then match the name with the name tag each person was wearing on themselves. Within no time each person was reunited with their balloon.

This is exactly like life. We are all frantically looking for happiness and failing to find it. Our happiness lies in the happiness of others. Give other people their happiness and they in turn will bring happiness to you. 

Have a great day. Go on blow up a balloon and have a laugh. 

The Crow and the Peacock.

I was out walking one of my old familiar routes yesterday.It is good to be home and back in familiar places and faces. To be surrounded with family and friends all glad to see you home is a very good feeling. 

My walk was very different from those I have been having this past five weeks. I got ready to go out in my usual shorts and t-shirt. I got to the back door and had to about turn and put on warmer clothes. Even in warmer clothes I was freezing all the way around my walk.

Still I did feel happy to be home, even though I really do love France and its people and places. I have now spent almost five months in France this year. 

As I was walking and thinking of all of this I remembered the story of the crow, probably aroused by a group of squawking crows in the field.

A crow lived in the forest and was absolutely satisfied in life. But one day he saw a swan. “This swan is so white,” he thought, “and I am so black. This swan must be the happiest bird in the world.”

He expressed his thoughts to the swan. “Actually,” the swan replied, “I was feeling that I was the happiest bird around until I saw a parrot, which has two colors. I now think the parrot is the happiest bird in creation.” The crow then approached the parrot. The parrot explained, “I lived a very happy life until I saw a peacock. I have only two colours, but the peacock has multiple colours.”

The crow then visited a peacock in the zoo and saw that hundreds of people had gathered to see him. After the people had left, the crow approached the peacock. “Dear peacock,” the crow said, “you are so beautiful. Every day thousands of people come to see you. When people see me, they immediately shoo me away. I think you are the happiest bird on the planet.”

The peacock replied, “I always thought that I was the most beautiful and happy bird on the planet. But because of my beauty, I am entrapped in this zoo. I have examined the zoo very carefully, and I have realized that the crow is the only bird not kept in a cage. So for past few days I have been thinking that if I were a crow, I could happily roam everywhere.”

That’s often our problem also. We make unnecessary comparison with others and become sad. We don’t value what it is that we already have.  This all leads to the vicious cycle of unhappiness. We have to learn to be happy in what you have instead of looking at what we don’t have.   There will always be someone who will have more or less than you have.  Person who is satisfied with what he/she has, is the happiest person in the world.

Have a happy and a good day.

It is All Bull.

After many years of caravanning and now travelling in my mortor-home one of the things I have learned is to be careful what you say when on caravan sites. Caravans and awnings have thin walls and conversations that might be meant to be between two people only can so easily become public knowledge. My van has what we call ambulance windows. When sitting in my van I can see everything that is going on around me but those outside cannot see that I am at home.

It is often quiet amusing to watch people have a wander around my van having a look at it totally unaware that I am sitting inside watching them.

But back to those conversations overheard. Until recently I had not noticed just how many barrack room lawyers there are in society. Now by this I mean the number of people who seem to know everything about everything. The experts on life its self. The fonts of knowledge.

Now I would not wish to labour this because it is so easy to become the judge of others and I would not wish to fall into that trap. I merely comment that there are more around than I had thought.

This reminded me of a story I heard many years ago. I have been warned not to use this story so I apologise and warn in advance stop now if you are of an oversensitive nature.

There was a beautiful tall tree, like the one I painted yesterday. I will tell you more about this tree another time. Under the tree there stood a bull and a turkey. The turkey was staring up at the tree.

"What are you thinking about?" the bull asked the turkey.

"I was thinking how nice it would be to be sitting at the top of that tree, but I just do not have the energy."

"Ah, " said the bull. "I have the answer for that. Eat some of my dung, it is said to be full of energy."

The turkey dis just that and soon was able to reach up to the first branch. After a few weeks on this special diet it was seen perched on the top branches.

The farmer was passing and saw the turkey and he shot it out of the tree.

It is wise to remember that Bull.......... can get you to the top of the tree but it will not keep you there. It takes more than talk to achieve. Or in other words it is not just words but actions that count.

Have a great day.

The Eagle

Yesterday I had a long drive passing through the centre of Paris as part of it. But now at another beautiful part of France. Early this morning I took this picture as I walked along the side of the canal near to the site. A misty morning but as I walked the sun came through. I found some wild grapes growing and enjoyed a  small bunch as I walked. 

The wildlife here is aplenty and already I have seen buzzards and red kite. As yet no eagles but I do not expect to. But I was thinking of eagles as I watched the buzzard soar overhead.

Once there was an eagles nest high in the hills. In the nest there were three eggs. One morning there was an earth tremor that shook all three eggs the nest. Two were broken on impact but one survived to roll down the hillside right into a chicken run.

On seeing the egg  one of the chickens took the egg to her clutch of eggs and sat brooding on it with her own.

The eggs hatched and the chicken looked after her young the eagle included. The eagle learned how to be a very good chicken following the example of its mother. It grew strong and healthy and strutted around among all the other chickens.

One day it looked up and saw a group of eagles dancing on the thermals and soaring with ease. The eagle said to the other chickens how he wished he could do just that. They all laughed at him and said that chickens do not do that kind of thing. SO he looked and longed but continued to be a chicken until he died.

We do not have to be what others tell us, or limited by the expectations of others. If we have the will we can be more than we think we can soar like eagles and achieve heights nobody ever expected of us.

Have a good day.

Be Sure.........

This is my last day in this beautiful spot sitting at the side of a lake. The sounds of nature around me and the wonderful walks in the woodland has made this a week to be remembered. All going well I will return to this beautiful part of France.

I have had my moments of laughter here also. All around the little lake there are spots where those who fish have maade little sitting areas by the bank. Some of them have as many as four rods all with lines cast into the water and there they sit patiently waiting. I was beginning to think there were no fish in the lake because I never saw any fish being caught. 

If I asked any of them they all told me the same tale. "I had one on my line but it got away." I jokingly told them that the amount of bait they were throwing into the water to attract the fish to where their lines were would have bought a few nice fish.

This reminded me of the story of the husband who was away fishing all day from very early in the morning. He had caught nothing. On his way home he popped into the fish shop.

He asked the fishmonger for four large freshwater trout. He then asked the fishmonger to throw them at him. 

The fishmonger was perplexed, "why do yu want me to throw them at you?"

"Well then I can honestly tell my wife I caught them."

"Well you had better catch this salmon I am going to throw at you," he said.

"Why?" asked the fisherman.

"well your wife was in hear earlier and said I was to tell you she really fancied that you catch a nice salmon rather than the usual trout."

Be sure your sins will find you out my father used to warn me. 

Have a good day.

The Journey

Well here I am with one more week left before I make the sailing and journey up through England to home. The prospect of a relaxing night onboard the ship is a pleasant one, the long drive is always the same, sitting on a motorway for hour on end.

It is all worth it because of the good journey around this part of France in the glorious sun. I have two more stops to make here on my way towards Zeebrugge so the journey is far from over. 

ir trek

All this gal of journeys reminds me of one of my most favourite of tales. Apologies to those who have heard it before.

Two monks were making a journey as a pilgrimage. They had sworn a promise to make the pilgrimage in silence. So day after day the pair walked in silence merely sharing the agreed few words before retiring for the night.

On the day I speak of things were going as normal. The two were progressing. About an hour into there journey the came across a beautiful young lady. She was dressed in a beautiful Kimono. She was standing looking at the road before her. The river had broken its banks and the road was flooded with muddy water.

One of the monks on seeing her plight went to her and spoke to her. he then lifted her into his arms and carried her through the mud and water. He gently set her on her feet and carried on his way.

All that day it became obvious that his fellow traveller was not happy with him. At the end of the day he asked him what was the matter. His friend said to him. We have vow of silence, not only did you speak to that beautiful girl but you lifted her and carried her. 

Ah said the older monk. But I carried her only a short way. You my friend have carried her all day as a heavy burden.

We often encumber ourselves with burdens that we can easily set aside. We weigh ourselves down with unneeded hindrances.

Have a good day.