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Christmas Day, 2019 As another Christmas Day dawns, after weeks of preparation and anticipation for many and a similar period of dread for many others, let's hope that the day has some peace, some joy and mainly some love for everyone. I am fortunate that I have a loving family who I will spend time with today and over the coming days and am thankful for this whilst obviously being aware of those who are alone, unwell or bereaved. Perhaps it is wishful thinking on my part, but I do feel that this year that the majority are feeling less inclined to use the festive season as an excuse to over eat, over drink or over spend and are trying to keep the spirit of Christmas within their hearts. It is difficult to write a Christmas message without sounding sanctimonious, so this one is short, before it has the chance to be so. With all good wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Hopeful and Peaceful New Year, Brenda 

Having reached three days before Christmas Day and not yet had the opportunity to sing Christmas Carols with gusto and joy amongst a crowd of equally joyous people, I attended the carol service at my local church last night. I have bashed out some old favourites on the piano myself and sang along, over the last couple of weeks, which only resulted in the dog becoming extremely stressed, clearly thinking there was something drastically wrong with me. My grandchildren are growing up quickly, as childen tend to do, and the three who are still at school avidly avoid such gatherings, at school or anywhere else, if possible.  "Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart" and "All I want For Christmas Is You"  are lyrics that are more likely to be heard than "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" as we go about our daily shopping, so I was looking forward to singing along with "real" carols at this service. Anticipating that this service which would lif...

I have inadvertently downloaded an app named  "Medium" which presents  articles based on the readers personal selection of topics and themes. I say "inadvertently' but clearly I have selected my interests, at some point - or perhaps this is another example of online click bait to which I have succumbed. Either way, the article I have read this morning by Tim Denning at www.timdenning.net is relevant and interesting, if nothing different or new to what most of us know, but often don't put into practice. The detrimenral effects of not practising these suggestions are obvious, but repetition leads to consolidation, which in this case surely is a positive.  What we do before bed determines how well we sleep and whether we will wake up  energised with our bodies and minds ready to begin the next day. Morning routines are important, yet useless if you wake up tired and lifeless. It’s not easy to get out of bed and start your day with confidence and energy if you h...

Fake news, truth or a bit of both ? "An ‘over-worked’ nine-day-old dolphin has died during a performance for tourists.  The audience was quickly ushered out of the water park arena when the newborn collapsed in front of them while performing tricks, according to a witness.  An investigation is taking place to establish the cause of the death but the finger is currently being pointed a    Varna Dolphinarium Bulgaria  for making it work too much. Witness Bisser Lyubenov said: ‘There was a disturbance, the dolphins stopped playing and performing tricks.’ The water park insists that it was not during a live performance despite what witnesses say, but people in the facility’s cafe could see what was happening. The dolphins are made to perform four times a day during the peak summer season and it has been claimed the baby was made to work alongside adults despite its age. The water park insists that the dolphin did not die during a performance but witness...

Since coming across this article in   The Guardian's "Long Read"  my mind has  been full of the issues it raises- so to speak.   Ronald Purser,   is a professor of management at  San Francisco State University, and the  author of   McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spiritualit y  available in paperback from Repeater Books from July 2019. While I wait for the full book, I have considered the article and moved on to  discuss the sentiments and assertions that Purser makes.

William Blake "To See a World..." (Fragments from "Auguries of Innocence" To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. A Robin Redbreast in a Cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage. A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeons Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions. A Horse misused upon the Road A Dog starved at his Master’s Gate Predicts the ruin of the State. A fiber from the Brain does tear. Calls to Heaven for Human blood. Each outcry of the hunted Hare The Beggar’s Dog and Widow’s Cat, He who shall train the Horse to War Shall never pass the Polar Bar. Poison gets from Slander’s tongue. Feed them and thou wilt grow fat. The Gnat that sings his Summer song Beats all the Lies you can invent. The poison of the Snake and Newt Is the sweat of Envy’s Foot. A truth that’s told with bad intent Thro’ the World we safely go. It...

While looking for and attempting to organise some photographs, I have come across many of my written pieces/thoughts/poetry from the recent and distant past. (Oh no ! Not the poetry again !  I hear you exclaim). I think this one is worth revisiting however, if only to show thankfulness and gratitude to whoever or whatever did "somehow help".  Obviously a culmination of many things, but I am pleased to say that I travelled through that dark and helpless place that I wrote of, and came out the other side and back to "normal" (relatively ! ) Hope others may identify. Perhaps you could somehow help, for a ll the things that I held dear have left me. Everything I thought I owned, all the treasures of a personal world, all that I call ed mine , gone . And not just the material things. But yes they are gone too. The things that mattered and made me what I was,   the books, ornaments, memory trinkets of the past. Pictures, photo...