FordeFables
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      • Rebecca's Revenge
      • Come Back Peter
    • Tales from Portlaw >
      • No Need to Look for Love
      • 'The Love Quartet' >
        • The Tannery Wager
        • 'Fini and Archie'
        • 'The Love Bridge'
        • 'Forgotten Love'
      • The Priest's Calling Card >
        • Chapter One - The Irish Custom
        • Chapter Two - Patrick Duffy's Family Background
        • Chapter Three - Patrick Duffy Junior's Vocation to Priesthood
        • Chapter Four - The first years of the priesthood
        • Chapter Five - Father Patrick Duffy in Seattle
        • Chapter Six - Father Patrick Duffy, Portlaw Priest
        • Chapter Seven - Patrick Duffy Priest Power
        • Chapter Eight - Patrick Duffy Groundless Gossip
        • Chapter Nine - Monsignor Duffy of Portlaw
        • Chapter Ten - The Portlaw Inheritance of Patrick Duffy
      • Bigger and Better >
        • Chapter One - The Portlaw Runt
        • Chapter Two - Tony Arrives in California
        • Chapter Three - Tony's Life in San Francisco
        • Chapter Four - Tony and Mary
        • Chapter Five - The Portlaw Secret
      • The Oldest Woman in the World >
        • Chapter One - The Early Life of Sean Thornton
        • Chapter Two - Reporter to Investigator
        • Chapter Three - Search for the Oldest Person Alive
        • Chapter Four - Sean Thornton marries Sheila
        • Chapter Five - Discoveries of Widow Friggs' Past
        • Chapter Six - Facts and Truth are Not Always the Same
      • Sean and Sarah >
        • Chapter 1 - 'Return of the Prodigal Son'
        • Chapter 2 - 'The early years of sweet innocence in Portlaw'
        • Chapter 3 - 'The Separation'
        • Chapter 4 - 'Separation and Betrayal'
        • Chapter 5 - 'Portlaw to Manchester'
        • Chapter 6 - 'Salford Choices'
        • Chapter 7 - 'Life inside Prison'
        • Chapter 8 - 'The Aylesbury Pilgrimage'
        • Chapter 9 - Sean's interest in stone masonary'
        • Chapter 10 - 'Sean's and Tony's Partnership'
        • Chapter 11 - 'Return of the Prodigal Son'
      • The Alternative Christmas Party >
        • Chapter One
        • Chapter Two
        • Chapter Three
        • Chapter Four
        • Chapter Five
        • Chapter Six
        • Chapter Seven
        • Chapter Eight
      • The Life of Liam Lafferty >
        • Chapter One: ' Liam Lafferty is born'
        • Chapter Two : 'The Baptism of Liam Lafferty'
        • Chapter Three: 'The early years of Liam Lafferty'
        • Chapter Four : Early Manhood
        • Chapter Five : Ned's Secret Past
        • Chapter Six : Courtship and Marriage
        • Chapter Seven : Liam and Trish marry
        • Chapter Eight : Farley meets Ned
        • Chapter Nine : 'Ned comes clean to Farley'
        • Chapter Ten : Tragedy hits the family
        • Chapter Eleven : The future is brighter
      • The life and times of Joe Walsh >
        • Chapter One : 'The marriage of Margaret Mawd and Thomas Walsh’
        • Chapter Two 'The birth of Joe Walsh'
        • Chapter Three 'Marriage breakup and betrayal'
        • Chapter Four: ' The Walsh family breakup'
        • Chapter Five : ' Liverpool Lodgings'
        • Chapter Six: ' Settled times are established and tested'
        • Chapter Seven : 'Haworth is heaven is a place on earth'
        • Chapter Eight: 'Coming out'
        • Chapter Nine: Portlaw revenge
        • Chapter Ten: ' The murder trial of Paddy Groggy'
        • Chapter Eleven: 'New beginnings'
      • The Woman Who Hated Christmas >
        • Chapter One: 'The Christmas Enigma'
        • Chapter Two: ' The Breakup of Beth's Family''
        • Chapter Three: From Teenager to Adulthood.'
        • Chapter Four: 'The Mills of West Yorkshire.'
        • Chapter Five: 'Harrison Garner Showdown.'
        • Chapter Six : 'The Christmas Dance'
        • Chapter Seven : 'The ballot for Shop Steward.'
        • Chapter Eight: ' Leaving the Mill'
        • Chapter Ten: ' Beth buries her Ghosts'
        • Chapter Eleven: Beth and Dermot start off married life in Galway.
        • Chapter Twelve: The Twin Tragedy of Christmas, 1992.'
        • Chapter Thirteen: 'The Christmas star returns'
        • Chapter Fourteen: ' Beth's future in Portlaw'
      • The Last Dance >
        • Chapter One - ‘Nancy Swales becomes the Widow Swales’
        • Chapter Two ‘The secret night life of Widow Swales’
        • Chapter Three ‘Meeting Richard again’
        • Chapter Four ‘Clancy’s Ballroom: March 1961’
        • Chapter Five ‘The All Ireland Dancing Rounds’
        • Chapter Six ‘James Mountford’
        • Chapter Seven ‘The All Ireland Ballroom Latin American Dance Final.’
        • Chapter Eight ‘The Final Arrives’
        • Chapter Nine: 'Beth in Manchester.'
      • 'Two Sisters' >
        • Chapter One
        • Chapter Two
        • Chapter Three
        • Chapter Four
        • Chapter Five
        • Chapter Six
        • Chapter Seven
        • Chapter Eight
        • Chapter Nine
        • Chapter Ten
        • Chapter Eleven
        • Chapter Twelve
        • Chapter Thirteen
        • Chapter Fourteen
        • Chapter Fifteen
        • Chapter Sixteen
        • Chapter Seventeen
      • Fourteen Days >
        • Chapter One
        • Chapter Two
        • Chapter Three
        • Chapter Four
        • Chapter Five
        • Chapter Six
        • Chapter Seven
        • Chapter Eight
        • Chapter Nine
        • Chapter Ten
        • Chapter Eleven
        • Chapter Twelve
        • Chapter Thirteen
        • Chapter Fourteen
      • ‘The Postman Always Knocks Twice’ >
        • Author's Foreword
        • Contents
        • Chapter One
        • Chapter Two
        • Chapter Three
        • Chapter Four
        • Chapter Five
        • Chapter Six
        • Chapter Seven
        • Chapter Eight
        • Chapter Nine
        • Chapter Ten
        • Chapter Eleven
        • Chapter Twelve
        • Chapter Thirteen
        • Chapter Fourteen
        • Chapter Fifteen
        • Chapter Sixteen
        • Chapter Seventeen
        • Chapter Eighteen
        • Chapter Nineteen
        • Chapter Twenty
        • Chapter Twenty-One
        • Chapter Twenty-Two
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Song for Today: 30th Novenber

30/11/2018

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Were someone to pin me down and inquire where my learning came from as I grew up, I would naturally say, home, school and play. However, there is one place where I learned about all the things that young girls and boys need to learn about as they mature into adolescents, that is not widely spoken of. I refer not to the school toilets or behind the school bicycle shed or even to ‘sleepovers’ at the homes of friends, but ‘up on the roof’.
 
I first became acquainted with this secret haven that provided me with basic learning along with the need for having a quiet haven where one could think when we moved to a newly-built council estate when I was aged 9 years. Our new council house was heaven itself. Not only did we have the space to sleep two parents and seven children in three bedrooms instead of one, but we no longer needed to bath in a tin tub and had our own bathroom. We also had our own loo that we didn’t need to share with neighbours, and just in case two of us needed to take our ablutions at the same time, we had an outside toilet as well as an inside one.

A very important part of my childhood development that I obtained from our council house on Windybank Estate was the outside shed that was like a brick annex building to the house. In this place was stored all my father’s tools and items such as family bicycles etc that would not be allowed to live inside the house. The shed was a very important place in my development; particularly ‘the roof of the shed’, where I would often go whenever I wanted to lose myself from the prying eyes of a strict father who would wallop me if he caught me puffing a Woodbine or a mother who loved me so much that she forever wanted to find me instantly whenever she required her oldest child to run  a family errand.

Often when I arrived home from school, weather permitting, I would furtively absent myself and climb up on the shed roof for a half hour of peace and quiet. ‘On the roof’ provided me with the very first quiet space I discovered. As the verse of the song says:
‘When this old world starts getting me down,
And people are just too much for me to face--
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space ...’

Sometimes, I would get my small gang together and we would climb up onto the shed roof and make our ‘war plans’ or exchange stories both clean and dirty, tall and small talk. We were even known to compare different parts of our anatomy, not only between one male friend and another but occasionally between ourselves and one of the honorary female followers of the gang that we occasionally allowed to tag along, so long as she complied with the rules. I recall that it was ‘up on the roof’ that our next-door neighbour, Silvia Hinchcliffe (who was three years older than me), taught me how to kiss properly. These lessons were some of my favourite learning stages of the day and they formed a vital part in my growing up curriculum. It was like learning a new language; the language of love, but instead of learning to ‘speak in tongues’, Silvia taught this then ten-year-old boy how to ‘kiss in tongues. No way could I ever imagine before moving into a new council house in West Yorkshire, would this Irish boy discover the adult secret of ‘French kissing’ on top of an English shed roof-top!

Years later, between the ages of 21-23 years, whilst living and working in Canada and America, I also learned how important the rooftops of city apartment holders were. They would often go up on the roof to relax, to court, to look out at the city below or to feed the pigeons, or even hide guns or other items inside roof chimney stacks! I guess that every country in the world has its equivalent to our British shed roofs?

My song today is, ‘Up on the Roof’. I first heard this song in 1962 being sung by Kenny Lynch and ‘The Drifters’. By 1963, the song had also become a big hit in the U.S.A. I dedicate this morning’s song to Silvia Hinchcliffe; the girl next door. 

Love and peace Bill. xxx
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Song for November 29th

29/11/2018

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Today is my wife, Sheila’s birthday. She is 62 years old and I can swear on the bible that she doesn’t look a day older than 50 years. It’s your birthday, Sheila, but I’m the one who should be celebrating the most as I have been blessed since you first came into my life eight years ago. I’m so glad that you came into the world, and I’m even more glad you came into my world. Happy Birthday, sweetheart. A hundred hearts couldn’t carry all the love I hold for you.

People being people, know deep down that whatever appearances may seem to suggest, no good person is ever devoid of having a wicked streak in them and no saint has ever existed who first wasn’t a sinner. None of us come to a new relationship without some emotional baggage in their travelling case. So, I am going to let you all into a secret that I have never previously disclosed to a living soul about my Sheila, but please don’t ever let on that I told you.

The reason we are so compatible a match is simply because neither of us could ever be described as ‘pushovers’ when it comes to parting with our independence. When we initially got together, because neither of us were fearful about the loss of individual identity, we didn't view our union in 'take over' terms but instead saw it as a marriage of substance which reinforced what we already believed in and stood for. When I look in a mirror, I see a perfect personality clone; a female and more beautiful version of myself.

In short; as my birthday song for Sheila today reveals, ‘I’ve got a woman as mean as she can be; I’ve got a woman who's almost as mean as me!’ A very happy birthday, Sheila from your loving husband.Bill xxxxxxxx" Love and peace Bill xxx

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Song for Today: 28th November 2018

28/11/2018

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This morning’s song is by The Poni-tails, ‘Born too late’. The song was written by Charles Strouse and Fred Tobias and reached number 5 in the UK charts in 1958.

I have always been a keen student of British history and a natural romantic who would have loved to have been born in an earlier age. I have always felt that I was ‘born too late’ in too modern a world to readily fit in. Had I been around at the time of the ‘Industrial Revolution’ I have not the slightest doubt that I would have been to the front of the Luddite movement or indeed been a part of the assembled crowd at ‘The Peterloo Massacre.’ My trade union interests during my earlier life (being the youngest British Shop Steward at the age of 18 years), would have certainly made me one of the six 19th-century ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs.’ I also like to think that I might have broken free from my chains of transportation and made my way back home to England from Australia before they missed my presence.

Having always loved horses, the working classes and democracy, the one person I would have loved to have been in an earlier life was William Cobbett (1763-1835). Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer, journalist and Member of Parliament who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that true reformation of Parliament and the State would only be achieved through the abolition of ‘Rotten Boroughs’, an end to the poverty of all farm labourers, the abolition of the ‘Corn Laws’, which imposed a tax on imported grain and thereby making bread too expensive for the masses. Cobbett then advocated radicalism, which helped to bring in the ‘Reform Act’ of 1832. Although not a Catholic, William Cobbett became a forceful advocate of Catholic Emancipation in Britain. He wrote many polemics covering subjects from political reform to religion but is best known for his 1830 book, ‘Rural Rides’ which I read in my 15th year of life and which is still in print today.

When I was a pupil at ‘St Patrick’s Roman Catholic School’ in Heckmondwike at the age of 8 years of age, it was my misfortune to fall in love with a 12-year-old girl who had the most beautiful face this side of Heaven. There was nothing I wouldn’t have done for ‘Moira’ had she but asked for my services, but instead, it was a 13-year-old boy called Bernard whom she allowed to walk her home to Milnsbridge at the end of her school day. She sadly took herself from the world of admiring males at the age of 17 years and entered the convent to become a nun. Indeed, when I look back on my developing years, I was always falling for older females who somehow managed to see being a ‘Bride of Christ’ as being a far more attractive a proposition than waiting for me to grow up old enough to marry them! I secretly believe my contact with the fairer sex as a young boy and adolescent, to have been the main driving force in populating the Catholic convents, as three older girlfriends of mine were to become nuns. I wonder if God will give me credit and a few ‘brownie points’ for putting three additional souls in his direction?

I was unable to walk between the ages of 12-15 years of age following a serious traffic accident. During these three vital years, I essentially needed to discover information that only adults and more informed contacts could tell me. I wanted to walk again and I needed to acquaint myself with concepts about 'mind over matter' topics and disciplines that would assist me in my objectives. As my own peer group couldn't provide me with the things I wanted, I turned my focus and attention to older people than my years.

When I did walk again, I found myself more at home in the company of older people than myself. At the age of 18 years, I was invariable attracted towards the older woman who might be in her mid-twenties, and not only as you may think for the obvious reasons, although I must honestly confess that was always a consideration. My attraction to older men and women as companions and mates was due to their maturity of years which gave them added experience and made them more interesting to be with and more emotionally compatible with myself than my own peer group. Naturally, I mixed with young men and women of my own age, but never predominantly, especially after my early twenties. I emigrated to Canada on my own for two years at the age of twenty-one and when I returned to England, I was a more seasoned adult and older than my years in most interests and experiential ranges. Thereafter, in both my professional career and private life, I became a more independent individual year on year as I embarked on one crusade after another in my aim to change the world for the better. I don't know how well I succeeded, but as old 'Blue Eyes' said in his song, 'I did it my way' and have been doing it my way ever since.

So, you see, as my song today states, I do genuinely believe that I was 'born too late'. 

Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 27th November 2018

27/11/2018

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Today's song was recorded by Manfred Mann. Manfred Mann was an English rock band, formed in London in 1962. The group were named after their keyboardist, Manfred Mann who later led the successful 1970’s group, 'Manfred Mann’s Earth Band'. The band had two different lead vocalists during their period of success; Paul Jones from 1962 to 1966, and Mike d’Abo from 1966 to 1969.

Manfred Mann was regularly in the UK charts during the 1960s. Three of the band's most successful singles, ‘Do Wah Diddy, Diddy’, ‘Pretty Flamingo and ‘Mighty Quinn’, topped the UK Singles Chart. They were the first southern-England-based group to top the US Billboard Hot 100 during the British invasion across the Atlantic Ocean. Today's song is, 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy'

.Love and peace. Bill x
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Song for Today: 26th November 2018

26/11/2018

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'Love' is never cold and it is capable of providing all the human warmth an individual will ever need between one day and the next. I could start a fire with what I feel for my Sheila; indeed I hope I have kindled a love that will never burn out. Together with her is the only place I wish to be.

Today's song is 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight'. It is a song from Disney's 1994 animated film 'The Lion King' composed by Elton John with words by Tim Rice. It was a chart hit in the UK, peaking at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart and achieved even more success in the US, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was a number-one hit in Canada and France, and it sold 11 million copies worldwide.

It is true that not only can one see the love between two people, to be in its very presence enables one to tangibly touch it! Cast your minds back to a time when you fell in love and how that first kiss or holding of hands felt from all other kisses and hand-holding you had experienced beforehand. I don't know about you, but I never needed to experience more than once the touch of Sheila's lips or the holding of her hand before I accepted that it was magic in the making.

​Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 25th November 2018

25/11/2018

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This morning’s song was recorded in the early 70s and became Simon & Garfunkel's biggest hit single. It is often considered their signature song. It was a number one hit on in America for six weeks, and it also topped the charts in the United Kingdom, France, Canada and New Zealand.

'Bridge over Troubled Water' was composed by Paul Simon very quickly, so much so that he asked himself, ‘Where did that come from? It doesn't seem like me.’ The title lyric was inspired by Claude Jeter’s line, ‘I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in me,’ which Jeter sang with his group, the ‘Swan Silvertones (a Gospel group) in their 1958 song entitled, ‘Mary don’t you weep.’ Sources seem to suggest that the title means ‘I’ll be your friend during troubled times; trust in me'.

When one thinks about it, that is essentially the role that a true friend plays; in times of trouble they do become our bridge taking us from one place to another; helping us get through one day to another and across all manner of difficulties. This essential role is also enacted by loving parents and guardians providing oversight over their charges, along with good teachers in our lives who help us navigate choppy waters by sailing behind us at a safe distance to ensure we reach our learning destination and don't finish up sunk and at the bottom of the bay.

​Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 24th November 2018

24/11/2018

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Today’s song is ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’ was recorded in 1978 by the group Boney M. Originally, the song was the ‘B’ side of their hit, ‘Rivers of Babylon’ but quickly became a hit in its own right also. I am unsure whether or not the song would be allowed to be recorded in today’s climate where ‘political correctness’ often views the reference to anyone’s skin colour as being potentially prejudiced. The song had previously been recorded by the group Malcolm's Locks, and in 1972 by Bahamian musician, Exuma. ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’ is primarily about Jamaican tradition and was sung by a Caribbean group.

My research into the song’s background reveals the title of the song originally featured in the game of the same name, thought to have originated in Jamaica.

Boys and girls play ring games in many parts of the world, especially during their pre-teen years. In ‘There's a Brown Girl in the Ring’, an anthology of Eastern Caribbean song games by Alan Lomax, J.D. Elder and Bess Lomax Hawes, it is suggested that ring games are a children's precursor to adult courtship. Players form a ring by holding hands, then one girl or boy goes into the middle of the ring and starts skipping or walking around to the beat of the song being sung before breaking out into dance. The girl or boy is then asked, ‘Show me your motion’. At this point the child or young person in the centre has their ‘John Travolta moment of dancing exhibitionism’ and displays their finest dance movements.

Sometimes, instead of being asked, ‘Show me your motion’ the person in the circle is asked, ‘Show me your partner’, upon which being asked in their game equivalent to the British game of ‘Truth or Dare’, he or she picks a friend to join him or her in the circle. It has been played for many centuries in all of Jamaica. ‘She looks like a sugar in a plum’ is also said to be the Jamaican understanding/phrase of ‘Looking beautiful and delicious.’ Just as the British have their tradition of finding the sixpenny piece in the plum pudding, so the Jamaican children and young persons might view ‘The Ring’ to be the place where they might find their 'treasure' in the form of the person they might one day love and marry.

Thus, ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’ is primarily about Jamaican tradition and was sung by a Caribbean group. The song reportedly forms part of a West Indian child’s rites of passage and fond memories, and no racial overtones are implied in any shape and form by me in singing it to you today and acquainting you with a wonderful custom of the past that our Jamaican brothers and sisters enjoyed.

​Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 23rd November 2018

23/11/2018

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My song today is 'Green, green grass of home' that was made popular by Tom Jones. The Welsh singer, Tom Jones, who was appearing on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ in 1965, visited Colony Records while staying in New York City. On asking if they had any new works by Jerry Lee Lewis, he was given the new country album. He was particularly impressed with one, ‘Green, green, grass of home’ so he recorded and released the song in the UK in 1966 and it reached No. 1 on 1 December, staying there for a total of seven weeks. The song has sold over 1.25 million copies in the UK as of September 2017.

The verses of the song are both sung and spoken A man returns to his childhood home; it seems that this is his first visit home since leaving in his youth. When he steps down from the train, his parents are there to greet him, and his beloved, Mary, comes running to join them. All is welcome and peace; all come to meet him with ‘arms reaching, smiling sweetly.’ With Mary, the man strolls at ease among the monuments of his childhood, including ‘the old oak tree that I used to play on.’ It is ‘good to touch the green, green grass of home.’ Yet the music and the words are full of foreshadowing, strongly suggestive of mourning.

Abruptly, the man switches from song to speech as he awakens in a prison cell: ‘Then I awake and look around me, at four grey walls that surround me. And I realise that I was only dreaming.’ He is, indeed, on death row. As the singing resumes, we learn that the man is waking on the day of his scheduled execution.  Nearby stands a guard, and a sad old padre, who arm in arm will escort the condemned man on his last walk at daybreak. The prisoner  goes to his death and imagines he will return home only to be buried: ‘Yes, they'll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree, as they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home’. 

Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 22nd November 2018

22/11/2018

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I sing today's song in fond memory of my years as a young man being brought up on Windybank Estate. The song is entitled, 'Please Release Me' and it was written in 1949 and made popular in 1967 by Englebert Humperdink.

Whoever we are, there are times when we all want releasing from one thing or another. Our cross can come in the shape of an affliction, illness, person, place, disposition or some particular circumstance. We each are asked to walk stony roads at times in our lives and at such times, the crosses we carry become heavier.

There are some who experience pain so much that all they pray for is a quick end to their earth life. Others experience penury and poverty to such an extent that hope of a better tomorrow never appears to be in their grasp or on their horizon. Many are laden with heavy debt they will never pay: others like recent amputees from war zones now live without limbs to walk: thousands of homeless rest their heads on the cold concrete pavement of shop doorways on bitter-cold nights or who are forced to cram their families into one rented room in which they eat, sleep, defecate and live: and many hundreds of thousands in low-paid employment are forced to depend on food banks and charity shops to feed and clothe their families. And this is in England; one of the world's six richest countries!

I once heard of a soldier who planned to marry his sweetheart when he next had home leave. One week before the appointed wedding, he was blown up by a roadside bomb and was badly facially scarred and left a double amputee. The wedding was postponed until the following year. It was anticipated that the soldier would need constant support for the rest of his life. His sweetheart became so fearful about the life ahead she faced as the wife to a double amputee who would be wholly dependent on her. In truth, she probably wanted to be released from her engagement to marry. She couldn't help feeling that by breaking off their engagement and cancelling the wedding she was acting dishonourably. Her guilt of intended action was eventually solved when her soldier sweetheart couldn't face life in his drastically reduced state and sadly committed suicide.

As Christmas approaches this year, was I able to wave a magic wand, my wish would be to lighten the heavy burdens that many are asked to carry so that they might approach 2019 with more hope of a better year than the year they are leaving behind. I cannot free them from their hardships, but at the very least, I can pray for their release from hardship.

​Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song For Today: 21st November 2018

21/11/2018

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​Today's song I want to sing for you was recorded by Elton John in 1974; 'Don't let the sun go down on me'. This is my humble version of such a beautiful song.

I recently had a malignant and invasive skin cancer diagnosed. It was as if the terminal blood cancer I was diagnosed with over five years ago needed another cancer alongside to keep each other company in the autumn of my life.

Two previous attempts were made to get rid of my skin cancer, but unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. I am presently on a hospital emergency waiting list as a higher ethics/medical board decides if a third attempt to remove the deep-seated cancer is medically viable/justifiable.

When initially discussing my condition with me, the skin-cancer consultant indicated that the condition is highly common in people who never used sun cream protection during their early years. Like many a working-class family being brought up in the 40s and 50s, we considered ourselves lucky if we had enough household income to put bread on the table and clothing essentials on our back, whether new or second hand! As for luxuries such as sun-cream, I don't think we ever considered that one needed protection from the sun. So, my irony is that the sun that gave me so much unprotected pleasure and zestful life in my youth could possibly be the death of me in my old age if the bad blood gushing around my system doesn't beat it to the finishing line.

We all like the idea of being someone who matters in the life of others; someone upon whom the sun shines down, lighting up our bright outlook on life and distributing those favourable features of personality to all around that one's company find so inviting, stimulating, exciting and pleasurable to be with. None of us would like to be seen by others as being a dull person; someone with the tendency to dampen positive spirits and lessening warm hearts or darkening already pessimistic attitudes by punching holes in the bucket of hope that others sometimes struggle to carry.

So, let us cast a shadow on those past burdens we leave behind as we journey the road ahead, allowing the love we express to let the sun into everyone's life we touch on our travels. Let all rainy skies become beacons of future change for the better, precursors of the sun and rainbows that follow, and which lead us to happier, more peaceful and settled places.

Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 20th November 2018

20/11/2018

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Today's song formed the musical backing track to the film, 'Watership Down'; a story of survival and adventure that Author, Richard Adams initially produced in a best-selling novel. The story is set in the south of England and features a group of rabbits whose warren is destroyed and they engage upon a perilous journey to find a new home. In many ways, their plight mirrors the plight of many migrants today, who have to flee their homes and seek life abroad for themselves and families. The story is allegorical and the rabbits on the run could be said to represent all groups of families fleeing danger and seeking the safety of a new place to live in foreign fields.

I first met my step-son, Matthew when he was four years old. His parents had been separated a number of years and he was living with his mother. As fate decreed, his mother and I met, fell in love, eventually married and set up home as a family unit in a new area of which Matthew was unfamiliar. Matthew grew up with me and maintained regular contact with his father throughout his development. His father is a good man and there was never been any difficulty created between the developing relationship between Matthew and his father, or indeed both of Matthew's natural parents or his father figures. Matthew grew up with my children, William, Rebecca, Adam and James and it pleases me immensely to say that he has always been a good brother to them and a fine son to me. Whenever, birthdays, Christmases or Father's Day comes around yearly, Matthew has never once forgotten to send me a card and I can guarantee that his card is always the first to be received by me.


Matthew is the most considerate child any parent could hope to have. A tall 44-year-old single man of limited means and modest income, he is the gentle giant of the family and we all love him dearly. As a young child, his favourite film was 'Watership Down' along with its wonderful soundtrack of the song 'Bright Eyes' by Art Garfunkel. When I look back, it is easy to see how a young boy who was separated from one of his parents and who had moved home a couple of times before settling in the warren that his mother and I established as a new family home, might identify strongly with such a film and song. Matthew, I love you son and I just want you to know that your eyes will always shine brightly for me.


I dedicate this morning's song, 'Bright Eyes' to our Matthew, our family's lucky rabbit's foot. 



Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 19th November 2018

19/11/2018

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Today's song is iconic; 'Simply the Best.'

This is my humble rendition of the Tina Turner song without the vocal gymnastics. Whenever I look at my wife, Sheila, and I think about the many qualities that make her 'simply the best', just one of the important ones that please me enormously is that though we could never be described as being poor, is just how simple a life we can get by with and how efficiently we can put the more important matters first. We share and are clear about our purpose and priorities and we are at the stage of our marriage now when we can painlessly discard whatever does not support our preferred way of life.

As a person who previously used to possess too much around him of what he liked, I have learned, like Sheila, not to clutter my cabinets or calendar commitments. The longer we live together as man and wife, the less we grow to need the company of others as much as we once did. Having sufficient air to breathe freely, food enough to sustain the body, prayer in abundance to nurture the soul, and a home to rest our heads peacefully at the end of a fulfilling day is to us, 'simply the best' of all lives. And being with the one you love from the opening of each day to its close is 'simply the best' of all company.

​Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 18th November 2018

18/11/2018

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Today's song was one that I grew up with and often heard my mum sing as she went about her work as the mother of seven children. It lasts no longer than one minute and fifty seconds and was written and first released 154 years ago by the American song composer, Stephen Foster. Imagine, having something you did, built, constructed, wrote, said or sang 150 years after its birth? Most of us are lucky to be remembered in any form twenty years after our death, let alone, one and a half centuries later!

My mum was an inveterate dreamer who would tell me, 'Billy Forde, it is never too late to change a wish or have a new dream'.Eleanor Roosevelt also remarked that 'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams'.


In an often harsh world, it becomes of greater importance for a person to hold fast to their dreams, as often a cherished dream can be the only bucket of hope that one is able to dip into to keep one's thoughts, feelings and actions positive. My late mum often said as I struggled for three years to regain my mobility after a bad traffic accident as a child, 'Billy Forde, it is no good getting your legs back unless you can walk proud and keep your head up, even if you limp badly. Always stand up straight, walk proud, keep your head up, your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground' (I paraphrase).


My own favourite dream quotation, however, wasn't one of mum's pieces of Irish-spun wisdom but belonged to the film producer who brought magic and endless possibility into the lives of millions of children who immersed themselves in his many films when he said, 'If you can dream it, you can do it'; Walt Disney. 



Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 17th November 2018

17/11/2018

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Today's song is one originally sung by the late John Lennon, 'Let it be'. Ever since I first heard the song many years ago, it has always held meaning for me as my body has been required to cope with constant pain through one physical disability or another since a traffic accident at the age of 11 years. Since I was diagnosed with a terminal blood cancer six years ago, the song has held even greater meaning for me in the autumn of my life as my body is too frequently asked to battle with the successive appearance of one cancer after another.

There are a few lines in the song that I find myself identifying more strongly with day by day: "When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, 'Let it be'. And in my hours of darkness, she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, 'Let it be.'"

Over the past two years, Sheila and I have become increasingly more involved in our allotment, and in particular, making our little plot of heaven work for us and fulfil our needs. We go up there whenever the fine weather allows and we are fast becoming astute nature watchers of the changing seasons. Apart from providing Sheila with enough fruit to provide jam for the entire Forde family all year round, last year I tasted on my daily dinner plate between August and late September, the best crop of new potatoes ever grown outside the land of Ireland by an Englander; my fair wife, Sheila.

While Sheila manages all our fruit and vegetables, the choosing of bushes and flowers that surround our allotment border and fence is my area of responsibility. When it comes to food and aesthetics, my wife has always been the cook and the chocolate person and me, the lover of flowers. Three-quarters of all floral choice our allotment are roses; half of which are varieties and shades of different reds. The red rose was always a favourite bloom of myself and late mother (known as Mary or Maureen).

Since the development of my cancers, our small piece of ground has, in effect. entered the process of becoming 'holy ground' for me and Sheila. It has become a nature refuge where perfect peace and seasonal pleasure, along with future promise is found. Regarding my own continued health (with having no effective immune system to fight off all manner of infections and bugs), I am infinitely safer around the bugs to be found in the colony of insects that inhabit any allotment area than those I invariably have passed on to me whenever I closely mix with humans. In short, our allotment has become my 'Health Refuge' and our 'Heaven in Haworth'. It is a place where peace and prayer, nature and nurture harmoniously blend.

Over the past years, as I have again come close to death, I have also come closer to God. Having practised and taught relaxation training for over sixty years, I know that no semblance of peace of mind can ever be found in a fearful body; neither can it be located in the silence of cemeteries. Hence, it naturally follows that peace cannot be found in the body that fears death, just as happiness will always be a stranger to the body that fears life and the living of it.

Peace is that generous, tranquil contribution of all that is good in the garden, and I have discovered my perfect peace is prayer at its most restful pose. I have long known that peace of mind can never be achieved by force of thought and that its only certain access to the body is through relaxation, prayer and understanding. In my 76th year of life, therefore, more than any previous year that I I have lived, I resolve, 'Let there be peace in my life and let it begin with me,' I remember a quotation from the Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro, 'What comes, when it comes, will be what it is.'

Sheila and I share many things in life, but mostly our love of each other, our families and our God. We have also come to share a love of our allotment that is now a mere extension of our home that we love. Not only is it a garden to walk in and an immensity to dream; we also plan it to be a garden of prayer and remembrance for all those we have loved and lost. We have recently reserved a place for a grotto after having obtained a statue of 'The Blessed Mother Mary' (the Madonna) from our church, and for our Christmas present of 2018 to each other, we are having built a stone surround which will house 'Mother Mary' and whatever prayer petitions we also intend to house, attached to the image of the person being prayed for.

I cannot think of a better place for me to spend my last summer/summers; to have the fragrance of flower in close nostril reach, to feel the freshness of air surge through one's lungs, to be surrounded by budding nature at its liveliest, to hear the sweet song of the birds and to view above, the boundless sky. Also, be found in our allotment is 'Tree'; a Christmas Spruce that will live on when I am long gone to remind my Sheila how much I loved the season of Christ's birth. About two months ago, when I learned that I also had a malignant and invasive skin cancer, a robin started visiting our allotment where it would remain for most of the time we spent there. It is a fearless bird who comes right up to us chirping and shows no fear. It is as though it has claimed territorial rights to our ground. I would love to think it will return every year henceforth so that Sheila might always remember how we also claimed territorial rights on each other's love and endearing affection. Finally, our religious grotto will be a focal point of our allotment where perfect peace and prayer can always live and be found side-by-side.

This is why our 'Heaven in Haworth' is our 'Heaven on Earth', for this is where we can 'Let it be.'

​Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 16th November 2018

16/11/2018

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Occasionally, one finds within a song a simplicity and poignancy that tells the listener this song holds special meaning to the singer. The extra relevance it holds to the singer's experience is present in the rawness of the emotions expressed and can be felt in the singer's voice and the words of the song.

Today's song is 'Tears in Heaven'. It was recorded by Eric Clapton in 1991 and the lyrics were inspired by the tragic death of his 4-year-old son, Conner who fatally fell from a New York flat apartment building.

When a loved one dies, especially in tragic circumstances that could never be anticipated, their sudden departure and instant loss in our lives can seem no less an experience than a major amputation having occurred. A major love limb has been severed from our body trunk, leaving our tree of life badly bruised and emotionally battered. The shadow of our happiness that was forever close to us when our loved one lived suddenly disappears. We pine for the deceased person to come back to us, yet see them only in ghostly shadow or darken dreams. We miss them as we stand beside their grave, but they were always dead to us there. We miss them, even more, when we revisit the places where they were alive! 

It becomes so easy for the bereaved person to give up on life when a significant loved one dies, leaving a gaping void of loss that seems unfillable. It becomes easier to cut off oneself from all others at oane's highest point of hurting and make the rest of the world strangers. Often, when the one we loved dies, we don't only throw dirt into the grave to conceal the coffin from all life thereafter, we also run the risk of casting off all things soft and gentle, beautiful and bright, positive and hopeful in our future life and burying these qualities of ourselves with our deceased loved one as well.

In the immediate aftermath of bereavement, the death of a loved one can often leave us weighed down with the heavy burden of anger, loss and guilt;  enough it seems to sink one into the deepest of depressions. And yet, the heaviest of crosses that life sometimes gives us to bear and the sheer weight of the loss we a are asked to face can save us as well as sink us, if we use our bereaved experience as an anchor to keep us in calm and reflective waters until the surrounding climate settles and we are strong enough to commence our next voyage. 

Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 15th November 2018

15/11/2018

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Today's song was recorded by my close friend, Chris de Burgh (Davison) in 1988. When two people meet and instantly fall in love, there is an intensity of emotions that make minutes apart from each other hurt as much as days to you or me. At the height of the 'love you' pinnacle, nothing or nobody else matters as much as your sweetheart you are missing deeply, because all meaning for you stopped on an axis of love as soon as you last parted and your world will remain suspended and not start again until they return and you can see them again, look into their eyes once more, hold them in your loving arms, kiss them and tell them again 'how much you love them'

In today's world of advanced technology. the absence of one's loved one can be softened immensely by all manner of gadgetry like laptops, computers, mobiles, house phones. However far apart a couple in mad passionate love is today, all manner of communication is available within seconds. Whether the distance between two lovers is a country mile or across the world in another continent, they can message each other, speak to each other, and even see each other in live time.

Now, try to imagine a time in the past when there was no access to current communication technology; not even a house phone for the ordinary person. These were days when any contact that couldn't be carried out face-to-face between sweethearts was carried out by a letter or a public red phone box on the street corner. Such telephone calls were very much a hit and miss affair, as often one's sweetheart would be trying to get through to you while you were impatiently queuing behind six other people waiting to get their tuppence worth in the public phone box.

Imagine what it must have been like for lovers during the 'Second World War' years, with the soldier man on the battlefield and his sweetheart not having had a letter from him for months, fearing him dead in some muddy Flanders' trench or alone, abandoned and left for dead in a wounded condition in a foreign field? Imagine immediately postwar in the 50s and 60s, one sweetheart may be miles away and contact through the red public phone box at a prearranged time of day or night was the only means of instant communication; and only then after the caller had committed to memory the specific number of the phone box in question along with the hope that at the precise moment another chatterbox-person wasn't using that phone box while your sweetheart rapped the glass to ask her to hurry it up!

The point is simply this; whether we are talking today or a hundred years ago. While means of communication were vastly different between the centuries, the intensity of feelings between two people in love, deeply missing each other, was no different or less intense than they are today!

I recall once reading an account of a woman in love during the 'Second World War'. Her sweetheart was a soldier who was fighting on some foreign ground. The woman hadn't had a letter from her soldier sweetheart for four months, despite him writing to her daily from the trenches. One day, twenty of his letters arrived all at once. Overjoyed, she rearranged them in date order to read repeatedly at leisure. In one letter, her soldier sweetheart wrote, "Even though we are separated by the English Channel, I feel your presence alongside me, When I am cold, I feel you snuggle up closer to me. When I fear that I might not make it through the war and survive to marry you, I hear you whisper in the night-time breeze, ' We are married in every thought we have, in everything we do and in all we wish we desire'. Even when we are ordered to advance on the enemy, leave the cold and damp trench and go over the top, though good friends fall and die as I advance with gun in one hand, my other hand holds yours as we run on together. I love you so much. Every time I close my eyes I see you when I open them I miss you." 

The French language doesn't precisely have words for saying, 'I miss you', but the French do say, 'Tu me Manques' which literally means 'You are missing from me'."

Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 14th November 2018

14/11/2018

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Today's song was recorded by Elton John in 1976 and addresses an issue that has over the years broken long-established friendships, divided families, strained and soured so many good relationships. I refer to one's inability to apologise in appropriate circumstances. The song is 'Sorry seems to be the hardest word'.

I remember my late mother advising me as a child never to be afraid or too proud to say sorry when I had caused hurt or done some wrong. During my lifetime, I have known so many situations where family relationships that had broken down and stayed broken for many years, Sometimes serious offence had been taken by one family member against another in respect of something done, whether intentional or unintentional, grave or minor, when all that was required to bring back peace and re-establish cordial relationship was three little words, 'I am sorry'.

Indeed, I'd go as far as to say that the failure to say 'I am sorry' has been as responsible for the creation of as much grief in this world as the failure for one person to say to a certain other, 'I love you'.

As a Probation Officer serving in Huddersfield between 1972 and 1995, I recall a woman who hadn't spoken to her father once in over 16 years. A breach in trust had been committed by the father to his daughter, and being of stubborn disposition and filled with false pride, he was not the type of person who could bring himself to apologise, even though he knew that he was clearly in the wrong. He just didn't do 'sorry'. The incident occurred when the woman was 17 years old and lived in the parental abode. She left home and took up lodgings, established an independent lifestyle and frequently met up secretly with her mother in town. Naturally, having divided loyalties, her mother never told her father about these clandestine meetings with their daughter.

Over sixteen years, the young woman got pregnant, married the child's father, had another two children and divorced in her early thirties. Her mother told her husband that she had heard such news on the grapevine, yet the foolish man's misguided pride simply led him to close his ears. Mum attended the Registry Office wedding as a Saturday morning shopper 'who just happened to be passing the Registry Office at the precise moment her daughter and husband left it as a newly married couple'. Mum also visited her estranged daughter in the maternity ward when she was having her third child.

Over the next ten years, mum kept in contact with her daughter, along with two of her sisters after they had left home. All such contact was kept from her father and her own husband, to avoid the outbreak of continuous arguments and rows in both family homes. The woman's marriage eventually broke up, and so did her parent's marriage after her mother decided that she would no longer live life in constant fear of her husband's wrath and disapproval.

Such was a case where a minor slight that caused offence led to an argument between daughter and father, and because her father was a strict man who wouldn't be bettered in dispute or back down, he made matters infinitely worse by getting too angry and calling his daughter names that no man should ever call a female; let alone his own daughter! Although his daughter's feelings were hurt, she would have allowed peace to be restored between them had he apologised for his crude and vulgar remarks. However, her dad was one of those men with old-fashioned values who saw the making of apologies as a weakness of character and from every word in the English language he would have found 'sorry to be the hardest word'.

What a waste of so many occasions of potential family happiness by allowing relationship wounds to fester and rot until the family sore becomes putrefied with the puss of downright stubbornness, obstinacy, and false pride.

I will end with a piece of advice I once heard a Catholic priest gave his Sunday morning congregation during his weekly sermon. He said, 'If there is anyone here in church this morning who has a fractured or broken relationship between themselves and another family member or thinks badly of a brother, stand up now and go home and make your peace before coming back next week, because you may deceive your neighbour by your church attendance but you do not deceive God.'

One final thing, be sincere, direct and brief when you say 'sorry' and don't ruin your apology with excuses.

​Love and wishes. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 13th November 2018

13/11/2018

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This morning's song was released in 1997 by Elton John. I have always found the old saying so true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What is beautiful to each of us varies enormously, especially when what we see as beautiful inhabits the face of a sweetheart and soul mate. It requires the love of one person towards another to see beneath the skin and to be able to feel and experience the essence of all that lies there unseen.

Another peculiarity of mankind is how a special occasion can make a loved one look more beautiful to their partner than they may appear on other occasions; perhaps seeing the untold happiness on a mother's face who has just given birth to a much wanted child ideally represents this assertion. There are insufficient stars in the heavens to match that glow of beautiful light radiating from the mother's inner happiness.

I know there have been occasions in my life when the loved one I have been with appears to have radiated more beauty than I have seen them emit previously. It may have been as the result of a new dress they were wearing or the different way they have arranged their hair etc.

Indeed, I would go so far as to say, behind every look is a beauty to be found; an untold story worthy of understanding and appreciation that lights up the intrinsic softness of the skin, the increased warmth of the heart and which is capable of glimpsing unfathomable depths of the soul. This is what I call a 'Cinderella moment' that reserves itself for special occasions and special nights and days of the year that enables one's eyes to see anew without a shadow of imperfection.

I recall seeing such beauty on the first night I knew for certain how much I loved my wife, Sheila, and again on the morning of our wedding when even the briskness of a November climate could not steal the beauty of unmistakable love and happiness that filled Sheila's face. I knew then that whenever I wanted to see, feel, taste and know beauty, that Sheila was my favourite place to go.

Love and peace. Bill xxx

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Song For Today: 12th November 2018

12/11/2018

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Today's song has been a firm favourite of mine and millions of other romantics across the world for the past thirty-two years since first released in 1986. I think that 'Lady in Red' has been played at more weddings more often than 'Here comes the Bride' (Bridal Chorus).

I have been a close friend of Chris de Burgh and his wife Diane (Davison) for the past thirty years and whenever I go back home to Ireland for a holiday, and Chris isn't touring, I always visit the family. My friendship was initially with Diane after she had incurred a bad fall from her horse and was in danger of never walking again. Having been unable to walk for three years after a childhood accident, we shared an experience that provided a natural affinity between us. Her millionaire pop-star husband just happened to be married to her, so it was natural that over time we became friends also.

Whenever Chris tours in the North of England, Diane always sends me free tickets as a special guest to attend his concert and we always meet up for food and drink afterwards. Four years ago, my wife Sheila and I were special guests at one of Chris's concerts up in Newcastle. That night was a special occasion in my life as we were the guests of honour at the concert; I sat between Diane and Sheila all night, I danced with Diane, the 'Lady in Red' in the aisle as Chris sang on the stage, and at one point of his performance, Chris came down into the audience and after seeking me and Diane out, he laid across his wife's knees and placed his head in my lap, while adoringly looking up into my eyes as he sang 'Lady in Red' to me. I'm sure that it has been a long time up in Geordie land since they witnessed one man sing a love song to another man in public in such an inviting way and escape back down South without having been given a good old 'Geordie Kiss' by the watching masses (an act of disapproval known to Newcastle locals as a firm headbutt).
​
I hope that I do your beautiful song justice, Chris. Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 12th November 2018

12/11/2018

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'Maggie May'was co-written by Rod Stewart and the late Martin Quittenton. It was released in 1971 and was an immediate number 1 hit with listeners.

'Maggie May' expresses the ambivalence and contradictory emotions of a schoolboy involved in a relationship with an older woman. Rod described the story told in the song as being a true episode in his own earlier life. Although he changed the name of the woman to 'Maggie May' ( a name he stole from an old Liverpuddiler song about a prostitute ), the woman in the song represented the first woman he had sex with when at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival in 1961.

It is not so unnatural for adolescents and young men to become sexually attracted to the older and more experienced woman. It was a natural part of my own late-teen development whereby the fantasy happening first occurs in the mind of an infatuated schoolboy with a sensually attractive teacher. For the vast majority of romantic dreamers, 'in the mind' is where the image stays, but for some young men, the infatuation materialises into a real event; if not with the teacher, then with another much older woman. I have known a couple of such relationships with a wide disparity of age crash and burn immediately after emotional take off, and yet there is one relationship I knew of where the relationship was fruitful and lasted through marriage for over twenty years before having run its course and ending in divorce/separation. The woman of the relationship once told me when speaking about her toyboy, 'He's half my ex-husband's age, but twice as energetic when we have sex.....and twice as grateful afterwards!” (He seemingly always bought her a new dress after a satisfactory sexual session).

I liked older women in my late teens because they seemed to have more knowledge of the world; their minds seemed better stored with wiser observations, and their conversation proved generally more improving. I am also of the view that because too much store is placed on a woman's looks, when they cease to be physically attractive, they study to be good for men in other ways. In order to maintain their influence over the man in their life, they exchange their diminution of outward physical beauty by the augmentation of utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable; a reason why there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old woman who is not a good woman. Women are a hundred times more capable of getting one over on their physically besotted partners through their wily ways than any man's brain would ever be capable of working out, and that is why I have always held a healthy respect for women of all ages. When it comes to the young male competing with the cougar knowledge of the much older woman, he will always lose out.

Relationships between a younger man with older women are often seen by the male as being safer, there being less hazard of children being unintentionally being produced. Older women conducting such relationships also tend to be more discreet in conducting an intrigue to avoid suspicion and unwanted talk. If I was 100 % honest, I'd have to admit that this was probably always a most welcome feature of any such 'intriguing relationships' I ever held.

The predominant attractions for each party become clearer to me the older I get. The younger man and the older woman relationship and the older man and the younger woman relationship is mostly driven by a sexual desire that requires satisfying. It is also more usual for the younger person of the relationship to appreciate being in the presence of a wiser and more intelligent person who stimulates their sensibilities and enables them to feel more adult and important. And not overlooking the point that the older person is usually more financially independent.

​So, aware of the fact that age is but a number I would advise the avoidance of relationships between all younger males and older women until the man is sufficiently emotionally developed to cope with the aftermath and consequences of a future dissolution of that relationship. To press, I have personally known of two occasions where the younger man of a relationship with an older woman that was developed during their school years, committed suicide. Such a sad loss for someone who feels unable to easily mix within their own age and peer group. Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today - 11th November 2018

11/11/2018

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Today commemorates 100 years since the 'First World War' ended. The 'First World War' was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as the 'war to end all wars ' it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. An estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a direct result of the war,
Despite it having been described at the time as 'being a war to end all wars', before the end of 1939, Great Britain was at war again in Europe against the forces of Adolf Hitler in Germany. Since then, there has been numerous and continuous conflict around the world. Indeed; I often wonder if the world and its leaders really took on board the lessons of the 'First World War'.
As a nation, after the 'First World War', we vowed never to forget the bravery of all soldiers and wartime personnel who died in the conflict each 11th November on the 11th hour by a one minute silence across the nation, along with laying wreaths at cenotaphs and the wearing of the Royal British Legion remembrance poppy.
The remembrance poppy is an artificial flower that has been used since 1921 to commemorate military personnel who have died in all wars. It represents a common or field poppy, Papaver rhoeas. Inspired by the World War I poem 'In Flanders Fields', and promoted by Moina Michael, they were first adopted by the American Legion to commemorate American soldiers killed in that war. They were then adopted by military veterans' groups in parts of the British Empire. Today, they are mostly used in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, to commemorate their servicemen and women killed in all conflicts.
I was 'a war baby of the 'Second World War' and was reared with a tremendous pride and undying respect for all of those soldiers and civilians killed in the World wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45. Like millions of others, my mother's favourite singer was the 'Forces Sweetheart', Vera Lynn. Mum would have been immensely proud to have known that years after her death that her oldest child (me), would become good friends with Vera.
When I was growing up after the 'Second World War years', my mother would often listen to Vera Lynn on the radio. Whenever 'The White Cliffs of Dover' came on, I would always ask her about a couple of lines in the song that mentioned a boy called, Jimmy'. "Mum, who's this 'Jimmy' she's singing about?" Mum would reply, "He's you, Billy Forde. He's every boy who lived through the war years!" I've never forgotten that question and answer, and I've never forgotten how mum often changed the name from 'Jimmy' to 'Billy' whenever she sang along with the 'Force's Sweetheart' and I was nearby.
Throughout the world, every country has a particular landmark for its famous city or boundary that informs the traveller they are entering a particular place and tells the native they are 'coming home'. It may be emblematic of either entering a city or a country. For example, in New York, it is the 'Statue of Liberty', in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it is 'Christ the Redeemer', an Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ, in Paris, it is the Eifel Tower. In Egypt, it is the Pyramids, and in England, it is the 'White Cliffs of Dover'.
Whenever our soldiers fought across the English Channel during the first two World Wars and thought of coming back home, it was the chalky 'White Cliffs of Dover' they first saw in their mind's eye. 'We shall not forget either them or what they fought for.' Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 10th November 2018

10/11/2018

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'Today is a double anniversary in the Forde household. I am celebrating my 76th birthday and Sheila Forde and I are celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary; having married on my 70th birthday. Despite a number of medical setbacks since our marriage, after a six-month honeymoon period, I was diagnosed with a terminal blood cancer. Since that diagnosis, I developed another two cancers and I am presently on the hospital emergency waiting list for another skin cancer operation on a malignant growth in both sides of my forehead. And yet, I can honestly say that since I met Sheila in 2010, and particularly since we married, the past eight years have been the happiest I have ever experienced.

I wish you a very happy sixth wedding anniversary, sweetheart, and just for today, I will sing you six songs; one for each of the years we have been happily married. Each song is special to me because it reflects the growing strength of our loving relationship. If others choose to listen to them also they are most welcome, but if not, it matters not, as I sing them just for you, Sheila.

​I love you, Sheila and I know that we are blessed as a couple that we came into each other's lives when we were both in danger of giving up on finding lasting love with another partner. We had unconsciously placed ourselves at an emotional distance to others; essentially protecting the vulnerable parts of ourselves, and thereby making ourselves 'emotionally unavailable'. All this changed, however, after we first met. I knew as soon as I left you that first day I met you in Haworth that things would never be the same in my life again. We met and fell in love, and after a two-year courtship period, we married. Ever since that first day, my love for you has grown daily and I experience a depth of love that few men have been lucky enough to ever know in the autumn of their life. From the opening to the closing of my eyes daily, Sheila, you lovingly and unselfishly anticipate and fulfil my every need.

I am often asked, 'Bill, how can you remain so positive about life when you have a terminal blood cancer that will shorten it?' I reply, 'You don't know what it's like to be loved by someone the way that I am and to love somebody the way I do. I feel loved by Sheila, more than any man has ever felt loved. That's what makes it all possible; that's what it's like':

The way that you have looked after me, Sheila, during difficult times has reflected the loving, caring and sensitive woman you are. While it may sound a tad selfish of me to say so, because we have become dependent on each other's presence and unqualified love of the other, we perhaps occasionally run the risk of living in a world of our own. When we married, Sheila, you welcomed me into your house and made it our home, and you welcomed me with open arms into your life. Today, sweetheart, 'Welcome to my world'; the world that you have made possible by converting my innermost dream into daily reality:

During our years together, Sheila, you have been a wife, lover, friend and soulmate to me; never once failing to displease or disappoint in any of these roles. These are the main reasons I love you, Sheila, though they barely scratch the surface of why I truly love you.​ I love you because you understand me better than any other human on this planet. You are ever present in my life, meaning more to me than the sun, moon and stars in the heavens as you gently turn me on your axis of love in this life of mine on earth. You soothe me with every touch, comfort me with every warm embrace, reassure me with the hold of your hand, kiss of your lips, smile on your face and the sound of your spoken word. My day could never start or end with purpose without you in it. You know how to lovingly get me to alter some of my inappropriate ways without offending my sensibilities; you are the seasons of all my change for the better. Whatever others might think or say about me, you never doubt me. In short; your laughter makes my heart lighter, your intrinsic goodness makes my days brighter and you hold the only key to unlock my door to happiness by simply being you. These are the reasons I love you, Sheila, because.......: 
I remember with much fondness how you went 'Rock and Rolling' with me at a club in Batley for the first three/four years of our relationship. Even though you didn't know how to bop when we first met (having come from a family of classical singers, accomplished violinists and concert pianist), you nevertheless instantly recognised how important this kind of dancing was to me and made it a part of your weekly routine also. Sadly, after I contracted my terminal blood cancer I needed chemotherapy sessions for the better part of two separate years. That chemotherapy and my absence of any effective immune system led me to avoid all future crowds. However well we did or didn't dance together, sweetheart, I always felt the proudest person on that dance floor. I knew that I was partnered with the most attractive woman as my dancing companion for life; spun dizzy by our mutual love. Though my dancing days are now over, I am so glad, Sheila that you 'saved the last dance for me': 
You always know the very best way to reassure and support me, sweetheart. A recent example was when the skin-cancer consultant who had operated on me a few months earlier to remove cancerous tissue from my forehead told me that the two biopsies he had sent off for analysis after my operation, unfortunately, revealed the cancer to be more malignant and invasive than initially feared. He had been unable to remove all the skin cancer in the last operation and would place me on the emergency hospital waiting list for another operation and attempt to excavate any remaining cancerous tissue from each side of my forehead, if possible before Christmas 2018. He also planned to raise my case for clinical discussion at a forum of skin-cancer consultants that he would be attending before the end of the week. After we arrived home and had got our heads around the shock news we had an hour earlier received, Sheila, you told me about a song you had heard on the car radio that day. You thought that it would suit my style of singing as well as me as an individual as it epitomised the kind of person I was and my lifestyle. I looked up your gift of this song called, 'The Rose' and immediately fell in love with its beautiful melody and poignant lyrics. My dear mother and all my sisters have always loved a red rose, along with Sheila and I. Indeed, we recently planted three dozen roses in our allotment in a variety of form and colour. Sheila, I will always treasure the song gift you gave me when I most needed it and shall, henceforth regard 'The Rose' as 'our song':

During my life, Sheila, I have deeply loved three women more than all others. You were the last of these loves, yet the best of these loves. While the other two loves of my life provided me with most of my needs, only you gave me all I ever wanted. I met, fell in love with and married a woman who fulfilled my sensual, sensitive and spiritual dimensional needs as a soul mate. Sheila Forde, you are 'Once, twice, three times a lady and I love you: I love you'. I wish you a very happy 6th wedding anniversary, sweetheart. Love Bill: November 10th, 2018":

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Song for Today: 9th November 2018

9/11/2018

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The Commitments' is a 1994 musical comedy-drama based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Roddy Doyle. The hit song to come out of the movie was 'Try a little Tenderness'.

In today's hard life, 'tenderness' has become a much under-rated quality, but it nevertheless remains the manifestation of personal strength, endeavour and resolution. 'Tenderness' is a fast road for one human winning over the heart of another. When one expresses 'tenderness', one conquers by loving, understanding, caring and forgiveness.

The very first tenderness I can recall receiving was in the loving arms and reassuring embrace of my mother. There is no soother balm than the tender touch of another, be they your mother, brother, lover or friend.

Expressing 'tenderness involves an automatic acceptance of the person and their situation and sometimes demand forgiveness. Once we are able to both accept the person as well as forgive any failings, a remarkable transformation occurs. Tenderness and love arise naturally and spontaneously.

To 'try a little tenderness' is to acknowledge that nothing is too small to care about in the feelings department of the human wardrobe and no obstacle is too large to surmount. People who mean the most to us are not those who give advice, provide solutions or administer cures for our ailments, but are instead those who choose to share our pain, marry our worried minds with mutual understanding and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.

When we are lucky to find our soul mate and the person we are fated to spend the rest of our life with, we will also find that all our 'saved up wishes' will have found their natural home.
​
Your future happiness is out there somewhere waiting for you, but you shall only find it if you look in the right places. Look not for tenderness on 'Tinder' or seek that catch you have long sought to hook on dating sites such as 'Plenty of Fish'. Your soul mate is out there waiting for you, and you are more likely to recognise them if you know where to look for them. Look in all places where human pockets of truth, honesty, faithfulness, sensitivity, goodness and forgiveness naturally reside; for it is there that you are most likely to find these inextricable stands of good character wrapped up in a huge ball of human tenderness. Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 8th November 2018

8/11/2018

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​If anyone was to ask me who I thought the best singing group was in the world, I would have no hesitation in answering. It wouldn't be a world-famous British group like 'The Beatles' or the 'Rolling Stones', but 'The Eagles' from America. Not only have their records sold over 150 million worldwide but they have received so many accolades and awards that it would take the better part of the morning to reel them off. Apart from their singing, what I love about the group is the universality and ubiquitous nature of their song's construction or message which are capable of being appropriately applied to more than one situation while still retaining truth and meaning.

This morning's song, 'Hotel California' is a good example. Its central message, which is revealed at the end of the last sentence sung, and the construction of the song in its very long musical introduction and its even lengthier musical ending has too many like characteristics which could be said to mirror the political dilemma that Great Britain has found itself in since the early 1960s.

I refer to the greatest political decisions Great Britain has taken during the past sixty years; its decade of failed attempts to get into 'The European Common Market' before 'The Treaty of Accession' was signed in January 1972 by the then prime minister Edward Heath, its constant unease as a member state ever since, and its interminable efforts to extricate itself from its mass of joint treaties and to leave the E.E.U. following the referendum of 2016.

The UK's applications to join in 1963 and 1967 were vetoed by the President of France, Charles de Gaulle, who said that "a number of aspects of Britain's economy, from working practices to agriculture had made Britain incompatible with Europe and that Britain harboured a 'deep-seated hostility' to any pan-European project." How accurate in his assessment Charles de Gaulle proved to be!

When listening to the words of 'Hotel California' simply substitute (Hotel California for the European Union) and (the long musical introduction for the decade it took Great Britain to get accepted into the club) and (the even lengthier musical ending for Great Britain to get out after it held its referendum of 2016 and obtained a majority vote to Brexit). Also (substitute the Night Man character in the song for the Chief Negotiator for the 27 EU countries, Michael Barnier) and finally, substitute (the central message of the song spoken by the Night Man as being spoken by Michael Barnier to Great Britain at the eleventh hour of its Brexit talks to secure an exit deal).

That central message to both California Hotel residents and Great Britains wanting to leave the E.E.U. as spoken by the Night Man in the song and Michael Barnier at the Brexit negotiating table in Brussels is one and the same: " Relax, we are programmed to receive. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave!".
​
Canny, isn't it? Love and peace. Bill xxx
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Song for Today: 7th November 2018

7/11/2018

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This morning's song is essentially the musical embodiment of 'love'. It is a song I heard every hour of every day during my visits to Jamaica in the New Millennium; a song that is never far from the philosophy and lips of every Jamaican in that beautiful country where the rivers of respect run deepest in its poorest quarters. The song is 'One Love, One Heart' and it also became the title of one of my books I wrote to raise money for the thirty-two schools in Trelawny (the old Jamaican slave capital), and which Nelson Mandela phoned me personally during 2000 to describe as 'a beautiful story', along with my other stories that form my 'African Trilogy'.
​
The Jamaicans taught me that loving one another in an unqualified way represents the purest form of goodness to one's neighbour. Bob Marley was a much-misunderstood man in his time, due largely to his love of the weed and his liberal love of women. Apart from being one of Jamaica's finest singers though, he was an inveterate peace lover and peacemaker who knew that the only formula capable of enjoining the faiths, cultures, and customs between all people and nations was the marriage between the mind, emotions and actions of one person and their neighbour; the fusion between the heart and its loving outpouring. This was his all-embracing concept of 'One love, One Heart' that had universal appeal to the listeners of his songs. Love and peace. Bill xxx
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