Love and peace Bill xxx
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I received a phone call from Leeds Hospital this afternoon. The Cancer consultant team at Leeds discussed my case on Monday, December 14th following my recent head and full-body scans. The main cancer consultant surgeon, Mr, Liddington (who performed a 6-hour neck-dissection operation on me in March 2020), will interview me on December 23rd, 2020 to discuss where we go from here in light of the recent cancer-group of consultants' discussion. It looks like I will find out the worse before Christmas. If it is as urgent, as I suspect it might be (given my previous discussion with and feedback from cancer consultant surgeon, Jenny Goodenough who performed my last operation to take cancer from my facial cheek/temple area) it may represent the consultants getting me prepared to have my next major cancer operation before any third wave of Covid-19 possibly takes hold after the Christmas holiday, and non-Covid operation and other hospital procedures are postponed again. No definite information or hint provided to me this afternoon by my telephone call to offer me the pre-Christmas consultation. It looks like being a few anxious days ahead before I discover what the New Year 2021 holds for me and Sheila. While I do know ultimately what lies ahead farther down the road for me, I still don't know the distance left to travel or how many more obstacles I will have to negotiate. Love and peace Bill xxx
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I dedicate my song today to my cousin John Ford who lives in Wales with his wife, Lynne Ford. John’s father, Billy, was my father’s closest brother. They both grew up in Kilkenny, Ireland, along with other siblings in the poorest of material circumstances. Indeed, when I was born, ‘William’ was the most appropriate name for me to be Christened as it was my maternal grandfather’s name. It also enabled my father to call me ‘Billy’ from the moment of my birth until the day he died, out of love for his brother Billy (John’s father). Ever since my baptism, all Forde family members have never called me any other name than ‘Billy’. When my wife is with other Forde family members, she automatically refers to me as ‘Billy’ but when we are alone, I become ‘Bill’. I also dedicate today’s seasonal song to another birthday celebrant, Elaine England, who lives in Rancho Cucamonga, California, U.S.A. Have a most enjoyable birthday, Elaine. Finally, I dedicate today’s song to all those women who experienced the miscarriage of a much-wanted pregnancy or had a stillborn birth in previous years. The degree of pain a mother-to-be feels in these circumstances is never erased, and the mother's heart never stops aching by what might have been. My seasonal song today is ‘When A Child is Born’. This is a popular Christmas song. Fred Jay's lyrics have been sung by many artists, most successfully by Johnny Mathis in 1976, whose version was the Christmas Number 1 in the UK. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX There is no greater experience of happiness in the making than witnessing the birth of a child, especially the first child of any mother. Of all the things their hands and hearts will hold and cling to, the best by far will be their new-born child. The birth of a woman’s first child brings an entirely new meaning to the saying that ‘It’s the little things in life that matter most, and giving birth to a firstborn is the closest any mother will come to magic. My mother (who gave birth to seven children) often repeated that well worn phrase “If men gave birth, they’d be no more babies born!” I must confess, I have never been able to get my head around the fact of how a woman’s body allows the delivery of a child to be physically possible. I once recall asking my mother how a baby gets out of a woman, and in her Irish-spun wisdom she replied, “It comes out the same way it got in, Billy!” Then, seeing my look of puzzlement (I was aged around 8 years at the time), she added words to the effect, “ You need not bother your head about that for a few years yet, lad. All you need to know was that your first day was my best day. I love you, Billy Forde.” I never wanted to get married until I had experienced the opportunity of travelling abroad, and I was 26 years old before I was first married. Having been born Irish and Roman Catholic (and the firstborn of my parent’s seven children), I had happily grown up in a large family and I wanted a large family of my own; not particularly because of any religious reason relating to procreation, but because I believed that the happiest experiences any child could have was brothers and sisters from the cradle to the grave. Like all responsible individuals entering the lifelong commitment of marriage, we naturally spoke in advance about the number of children we ideally wanted as parents and how quickly. We agreed upon five children being a number that we both desired and that we would start a family as soon as possible. The upshot was that no sooner than we had married and returned from our honeymoon in Stratford-upon-Avon, my wife had changed her mind. She informed me that she did not want any children until we had both experienced five or six years of enjoying ourselves. We both had a good financial start to our marriage, and each had enough earnings from our employment not to want in the least. Naturally, I was bitterly disappointed with this sudden change of heart but could do nothing about it. It would be six years later before our first child was born, our son James. At the time, I was not able to witness the birth, but his presence in my life gave me so much joy. That pleasure was soon tarnished somewhat after his mother developed ‘post-natal depression’ and basically found herself unable to perform any of the motherly functions with our new-born child, feeding, bathing, dressing, nursing, and caring for. 18 months later, we had a second child, and the very same thing happened again! For the first four years of my children’s lives, I carried out the mother and father roles with the two children to the marriage. Don’t get me wrong, although I did not understand why my wife was behaving thus (post-natal depression was not known to exist then and the response by the children’s mother would have been called having the ‘baby blues’), I was happy being both mum and dad, as well as holding down my work as a Probation Officer in Huddersfield. I eventually had to concede after my wife wanted us to separate and pressed for a divorce, that she did not desire to be married to any man, and that while I was content to be married to her and would have done anything to try to make our marriage work, I needed to be a father more than a husband. While such experiences soured my marriage, they strengthened my determination to remain a good father to my children. Like all fathers, I will have made many mistakes, but I have always tried my best to provide all my children with love, honest communication, reassurance and helpful advice. I know that of all the roles in life I have performed and all of my most satisfying experiences, being a father and being in the presence of children always made me the happiest. It is no coincidence that I became a children’s author in my late 40s and that I held over two thousand (2000) storytelling school assemblies between 1989-2003 in Yorkshire schools. I have always understood parenthood to be a fundamentally spiritual, as well as a physical purpose and achievement in life I have always viewed the birth of a child as being the ultimate perfection of human love. Birth means much more than making babies. Birth is about making men and women, husbands and wives into fathers and mothers. I remain forever amazed at how so small a pair of human feet can make so huge an imprint on our hearts and lives. One day there is nought but the thought, the next day the action and nine months later, the miracle that changes nothing into everything! One of my strangest revelations and discoveries in life is to be married today to the love of my life, my wife Sheila, who never gave birth to a child nor ever felt the desire to be a mother. Sheila will openly admit that she has a love for animals that exceeds that she has for people. It may be fate, but in marrying me, (the oldest of seven children), Sheila has inherited more family members than even all her marvellous cooking can provide for. All my siblings have parented three children each, and their children have also parented three children in turn. When Sheila agreed to take me on, she unknowingly agreed to take on more brothers, sisters, grandchildren, and future great-grandchildren than she could ever imagine; every one of them who loves her to bits and will pester her to death when I am no longer around. She is gradually coming to terms with the total number of Fordes in our family as she prepares her Christmas jams. This year Sheila made and presented over two hundred jars of different jam variety to every Forde sibling, Forde grandchild, Forde nephew and Forde niece. All the jam is our own allotment-grown produce which Sheila started cooking around June and was still wrapping up for delivery until one week ago. Sheila may never have made any babies, but bejesus, she knows how to make sumptuous jam! Sheila and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx I reserve my song dedication today for my beautiful and wonderful wife, Sheila. Ten years ago, today WE FIRST MET in Haworth and within a short space of time after that first meeting, both of us knew that someone special had entered each of our lives and that our lives would never be the same again. Let me say from the outset that claiming to be ‘special ‘myself is not an immodest assertion on my part. Anyone who has the good fortune to meet an angel up Main Street in Haworth on a freezing December afternoon during the autumn of his life, when everything else about him had fallen from grace, is indeed blessed beyond high heaven. We met up in ‘Gascoignes’ (now renamed ‘Haworth Steam Brewery’) and over the following hour, we chatted and swapped stories. I would have to say that the conversation between us was far from any exchange of ‘small talk’. It was stimulating, interesting, and quickly told me that the woman I was with was no man’s fool. I could sense her strength of character, along with her depth of thought, and I was left with much more than a hint of having met somebody who was my equal in every sense of the word. I mention Sheila’s strength of character, as such a trait has always been essential in any woman I have ever loved. I have always known that only a strong woman could possibly live with me and that my own strength of character would crush a more gentle female. I am the oldest of seven children, born to the most independent father the world has ever known. In addition, my early life experiences at the age of eleven years (when I incurred several life-threatening injuries after a wagon ran over me, leaving me at death’s door for a month) and then being unable to walk for three years after my hospital discharge, had also placed me on a path of losing the remainder of my childhood for the following seven years whilst I learned numerous survival skills. My seven-year programme of physical self-improvement after my hospital discharge at the age of 12 years forced me to grow up before my time and to become as independent and as strong a personality as my father was before me. I can truthfully say that by the age of 18 years, I ruled the world that I walked in, I bowed to no one, and while I offered appropriate deference whenever necessary, I placed or respected nobody above or below myself. For the remainder of my life after my 18th year, I determined to go where I wanted, do what I wanted when I wanted to do it, and with whom. Although such a declaration of independence was selfish in large measure, I nevertheless managed this. By the age of 26 years, I was a mill manager on nights, earning over double the national average wage, and had the brightest of prospects to look forward to after my imminent marriage. Unconsciously, ever since my 18th year of life, and in my selection of lovers, I have always been attracted to powerful women of strong character and had no time for any other type of female relationship however physically attractive she was, or however wealthy or influential. The reason for this pre-requisite was that no relationship I ever established with any woman would have worked if they were unable to withstand my own strength of character within it! Less than five minutes in Sheila’s presence told me that she fitted into ‘my strong woman category’, and that assessment alone naturally increased my interest in her. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sheila had been widowed three years earlier and had obviously had to readjust to the difficulty of sorting out business interests and putting her future affairs on an even keel after she had been left to face life alone. She had become a Yoga instructor during the years of early widowhood and was the fittest of women in every regard. My own history in Relaxation Training, allied to our mutual interest in all manner of ‘alternative medicine’, and ‘alternative health methods’ conveniently dovetailed and enabled us to keep our conscious thoughts initially on more practical matters being discussed. From our very first meeting in Haworth, I knew that this woman (who is fourteen years younger than me and could easily pass for being another ten years younger than she actually was) would be a force in my life that I could not ignore. The impact she had made on me was significant and mutual, and over the next ten days, we spoke on the phone and internet as much of the day that was possible. Having held the prize during my romantic years between the ages of 18-26 for the number of times a person was able to ‘fall in love’, I could not fail to be aware that I was ‘falling in love’ again. I did find the situation strange, I must confess. Here I was at the age of 68 years, and there was Sheila at the age of 54 years (and looking no older than a 40-year-old woman). Neither of us had been consciously looking for love, but found it unsuspectedly in the unfolding company of each other on a cold December afternoon, 2010. Around one week after our first meeting, Sheila revealed the accuracy of my assessment in her confidence and strength of character when she messaged me, saying that she had ‘fallen in love with me’. In truth, her message came as no surprise to me, as it mirrored the same conclusion which I had arrived at, having wrestled with the same thought for the entire week after our first meeting in Haworth. However, the fact that Sheila spoke the words first, confirmed her as being a strong and confident woman of good taste and discernment in the male department of picking a husband, besides merely endearing me to her more. As Sheila had been the first between us to reveal her boldness of purpose and inner strengths, I felt it only right that she ought to pay for the wedding licence, which she duly did. I have not the slightest doubt today that our first meeting in Haworth on December 15th, 2010 was ‘destiny’, and that our following meeting pre-Christmas 2010 that we spent together was an ‘opportunity’ neither of us wanted to go unwasted. As for our marriage in Haworth on November 10th, 2012 (my 70 birthday), that beautiful ceremony was nothing less than the triumph of love in the making between two strong individuals of like mind and similar interests who were unafraid to publicly express their love for each other in the respective summer and autumn of their lives, by looking into each other’s eyes as they declared, “I do!” The rest is history, as they say. On this tenth anniversary of THE FIRST DAY WE MET, I say to my wonderful wife Sheila, that since the first day we ever met, you have changed the course of my universe. The remainder of my earthly life exists to serve you, and should we be fated to be together in another world at another time, I will know that our lives (like our world) rotate on an axis of love that is eternal in its orbit of human affection. Sheila, you gave me your hand in marriage (please note that you bought the wedding licence which I did not pay for), you have provided me with the happiest decade of my life, you have been my first and last thought at the start and end of every day we have been together, you are my beautiful wife, and I know you will be my ‘best love’ and my last woman with whom I shall ever ’fall in love’ and 'be in love' with. No words better describe what I truly feel for you today than saying, “I love you, Sheila Forde’. Love and peace Bill xxx I dedicate my song today to five people who celebrate their birthdays today. We wish a happy birthday to Robert Eggett from Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire who is married to my niece Susan: Janet Hanson who lives in Warrington, Cheshire: Aisling Kennedy who lives in Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary: Patrick Holloway who lives in Tipperary, Ireland: Paul Croke who lives in Waterford, Ireland. Enjoy your special day, Robert, Janet, Aisling, Patrick, and Paul. My song today is a seasonal song that has been in the Christmas charts for more years than I can remember, and which has rapidly climbed up the charts again to eventually reach the Number 1 spot, 26 years after it was first released, ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’. This Christmas song is by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey who co-wrote and co-produced it with Walter Afanasieff. The song has become a Christmas standard and continues to surge in popularity each holiday season. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx We all want different things for Christmas, but at the top of most people’s list will be a loving partner and soul mate with whom to spend the rest of our lives. Sadly, this is a dream which cannot be for many of us, due to a variety of circumstances. When it is possible to have one’s soul mate by your earthly side, however, one’s experience of life enters a new stratosphere. It is as though we are transported closer to Heaven to live out the remainder of our earthly life with our sweetheart. It is no mere coincidence that the name of endearment we attach to our most loving partner and lifelong sweetheart is one of ‘soul mate’. Such a happy union between two loving partners always represents a coming together of much more than mere flesh. It is a meeting of minds that provides a telepathic understanding and chain of communication, however difficult the topic under discussion might be. The heart of each soul mate beats in perfect synchronization, as though it is one combined heart muscle inhabiting both bodies and providing the sole reason for being alive. The loving couple shares a heart so large that even the degree of love they feel for each other is too great an amount to be housed there, and should their heart ever falter or fail either, the lives of both individuals will die in some measure. Completing their wholeness of self, togetherness, and joint purpose is their enshrinement within a spiritual snowball of increasing love that binds each other stronger with every roll throughout their lives together until death do they part. That is the way I feel about my relationship with my wife Sheila. I wish everyone I know could feel that way. Then, it truly would be Christmas for us all. Love and peace Bill xxx Marie Curran requests that we celebrate the 30th birthday of her grandson, Craig Curran. Craig's who is a keen supporter of the Waterford Hurlers was bitterly disappointed when Limerick beat his team in the 'All Ireland Hurley Match' today. A victory would have been a crowning end to Craig's birthday. Having been born in Waterford myself, it would also have represented a good way to end my day. When asked to tell his grandmother how Waterford lost, Craigh just said, " I don't want to talk about it". Enjoy the rest of your special day, Craig. Love from Grandma Marie Curran and all your family. Love and peace Bill xxx I dedicate my song today to anyone out there who does not dream and believes that dreaming is not for them. My song today is “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”. This is a Christmas song that was written in 1951 by Meredith Willson. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Different aspects of this seasonal time of year essentially make up our image of Christmas. If I asked what makes a perfect Christmas image for you, I suspect that there would be as many different pictures as there are statistical differences in the shape of ten carts of carrots straight from the growing field before the selection process required for supermarket sale has taken place. Common images that make up an ideal Christmas card to suit one’s values vary between images of baby Jesus, animals, children, Christmas trees, excited children eagerly opening presents on Christmas morning, Santa Claus scenes, snow scenes, warm open log-fire and the family comforts of a happy home, etc. For some, Christmas means an opportunity to party, and to overindulge our palates and appetites. For some though, it is a time of year which is enjoyed more the moment the festivities have ceased. There are those individuals who live alone: those who live in worrying debt: those who will spend their Christmas in cramped emergency housing: those with no employment to return to after Christmas: those homeless sleepers in shop doorways, under arches, and on park benches with sheets of cardboard, pushing prams and reclaimed shopping trolleys which are used to convey their sole belongings from one doss hole to the next. There are also unhappy married couples who decide this December will be their last Christmas as man and wife: those wives and children who are beaten and abused by ‘the man of the house’: those depressed individuals who commit suicide: and those usual happy individuals who have lost their partner and soul mate through bereavement and now face life alone. Then there will be those poverty-stricken migrants and their children who cross perilous waters on Christmas Day in unsafe, overcrowded sea vessels and substandard crafts in search of a better and more prosperous New Year in a new land. Whoever we are, whatever our dreams this Christmas, so long as they are for the benefit of you and are not to the detriment of any other, I hope that they come true in the New Year. My mother was a dreamer, and I am sure she passed this characteristic onto me. Yet, although a believer in many superstitions and tales of Irish folklore, even she soon realised early on in her life that dreams do not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work. She nevertheless believed that one’s dreams can come true if we believe in them enough and have the courage to pursue them. Her motto was to hold fast to your dreams because when all else deserts you, merely having one dream left to keep you positively focused on the future is enough to keep you going against all the odds in the belief that tomorrow will be a better day. And do not think that you are a person who just cannot dream. Anyone who possesses a heartbeat and the ability to see beyond the moment they are experiencing is capable of dreaming. A person stays young at heart if they never allow regrets to take the place of dreams or lose the child in them to adult dullness and lifetime sobriety. So, let your hair down more in the New Year. Allow that child in you to come out more often. Be more prepared to take a leap of faith and jump in puddles just for the experience of making a splash. Life is too damn short to be forever serious. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx I dedicate today’s song to three lots of people today. We have two birthdays to celebrate and one community group of people who deserve a special mention. I wish a happy birthday to my great-niece Elora who lives with her mother in Huddersfield with her mother (my niece Evie) and her siblings. Elora is 2 years old today. We also wish a happy birthday to Jenny Harris from Carrick-on-Suir in Tipperary, Ireland. I also wish to mention all of the medical and administration staff at the Haworth Health Centre, especially Diane Marchewka, for their good work carried on within the Haworth community during the whole of 2020. Your work is valued and highly appreciated, and it pleases me to jointly dedicate this morning’s song to your good self and colleagues, Diane. My Christmas song today is ‘Please Come Home for Christmas’. This Christmas song was written in 1960 and released the same year by American blues singer and pianist Charles Brown. The song started way down the hit list in 1961 and although it appeared on the Christmas Chart every subsequent year, it was 1972 before it became a Number 1 hit. The song was written by Charles Brown and Gene Redd and was covered by many artists, including the Eagles in a popular 1978 recording. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx There will be many of us this year waiting to be reunited with loved ones at Christmas time. In fact, this will be the strangest Christmas of all for most of the world as Covid-19 still pervades our lives, restricting our freedom of movement in ways that few of us will ever have witnessed before. While we have all missed those basic things we always took for granted, like the pleasure of a hug, a kiss, an embrace, a handshake: having a sexual encounter with our lover: be able to freely mingle in a group of more than six outside: visit the pub, eat in a restaurant, attend a church service, or a family birthday bash: be at the birth of one’s first child: visit one’s elderly parents or one’s grandparents in an old folk’s home, visit one’s dying relative in hospital, and attend their funeral and burial service to say a final ‘goodbye’. One of the things we have all taken for granted for so long has been the wonderful NHS we have in this country, and the quality of service we have all now come to expect. Being unable to access the hospitals and all other National Health Services like GP surgeries as normal, and having all elective hospital operations and procedures cancelled, has created much pain, discomfort and heartache, especially when families have not been able to attend the bedsides of dying relatives, or even dying themselves because of serious hospital tests and other vital screening procedures being postponed and delayed, even for people awaiting life-saving diagnosis and cancer operations. In fact, it is ironic, that because the whole country has grown to expect nothing but the highest of medical care from our hospitals and doctor’s surgery for so long now, that when the system becomes overburdened (as it has during this Covid-19 pandemic year just experienced) we complain when we cannot receive the same exacting high standards from any branch of the NHS and associated community care staff. For many, this Christmas cannot come around fast enough, and for some, alas, it is a season this year to be feared like never previously. Some would argue that the country has been instilled with so much fear and fed so many falsehoods by all manner of sources (including government and public and social media) that whatever we are left believing, there will be sufficient uncertainty remaining in all our minds to spoil our Christmas in some large measure. Like many parents, I have not seen any of my children more than once since Christmas 2019. Indeed, I have not seen my son, William, for three years now when he last visited us from Australia where he went to live many years ago. A few months ago, William travelled to England and is currently living at his mother’s house in Somerset and will see me over Christmas briefly. He is naturally wanting and needing to see me, given my terminal blood cancer and the uncertainty of my future life-span. He is provisionally planning to return to Australia after the spring of 2021. There is simply no way that I will not hug my son, whatever the risk to myself, upon his arrival and departure this Christmas. It could be the last hug between a father and son. I have rented him a house nearby for his short stay, which he will share with his sister Rebecca with whom he has formed a bubble. To play safe, we will eat our Christmas dinners separately but will be in each other’s company for a few hours on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Weather permitting, I will share a walk with him (or rather I will let him push me in a wheelchair if indeed it is a longer stroll we settle for). This is far from an ideal situation or a perfect Christmas setting, but we shall be together for a while, and that must be better than all other situations of people across the world who are less fortunate than us and will not be able to see their loved ones. There will be some people this Christmas who will be on their own. There will be some who are homeless, some who will be cold and hungry, and some who will be friendless. There will be some who will be in the depths of despair and suffering severe depression without any access to mental health providers who will sadly commit suicide (like Sheila’s only sibling, brother Winston did when he tragically took his own life at the end of July 2020). Not forgetting that some people will be bereaved of loved ones and lifelong partners who lost their lives to Covid-19, or who died from other illnesses during the past year for which they could not get the required treatment. Last, but by no means least, there will be people in poorer parts of the world who want out and will go to any lengths risking life and limb to gain access to safer shores and better provision of life’s essentials. While we may not be able to significantly do anything significantly as an individual to help the refugee and their family, I beg of you, please do not walk past a beggar (masked or unmasked) without giving them a pound coin, a warm smile, seasonal greetings, and a silent prayer. Sheila and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Love and peace xxx I dedicate today’s song to Josephine Deegan who lives in the County of my birth, Waterford, Ireland. Today’s Christmas song is ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ This song was written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in reaction to television reports of the 1983-1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded in a single day on 25 November 1984 by ‘Band-Aid’; a group of famous artists put together by Geldof and Ure and consisting mainly of the biggest British and Irish musical acts at the time. The single was released in the United Kingdom on the 3rd December 1984 and aided by considerable publicity it entered the ‘UK Singles Chart’ at Number 1, becoming the ‘Christmas Number 1 of 1984’. The record became the fastest-selling single in the UK at the time, until it was subsequently overtaken by Elton John’s song for Princess Diana’s funeral. The song was also a major success around the world, reaching Number 1 in thirteen other countries outside the UK. ‘Do They Know It's Christmas?’ was re-recorded three times: in 1989, 2004, and 2014. All the re-recordings were also charity records; the 1989 and 2004 versions also provided money for famine relief, while the 2014 version was used to raise funds for the Ebola crisis in West Africa. All three of these versions also reached Number 1 in the UK, with the 1989 and 2004 versions also becoming the Christmas Number 1s for their respective years. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Know this, all people in the western hemisphere: Each time one person in the west eats two slices of bread where one will suffice, someone in the eastern hemisphere will die of starvation. We often think we are born with an inalienable right to be who we are, as we are, and to do what comes naturally, and to possess what we can take. However, there can be no action of any kind here that does not produce a reaction there or somewhere else! All actions carry consequences. There is no right to any degree of freedom without the corresponding duty to exercise that freedom responsibly and humanely. There is no moral justification of ever exercising one’s power to exploit another’s weakness, and there is no personal gain that war can achieve which is beyond the scope of peaceful discussion! Peace on earth will come to stay when we live Christmas every day. Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind; it’s the cause of Creation and the purpose of being. Some Christmas tree ornaments do more than glitter and glow, they represent a gift of love given a long time ago, reminding proud parents when they were first made and received from the little hands of their children at first school. For me, Christmas never starts until I have put up the tree and decked it with baubles bought over the years and Christmas tree adornments made by my children at first school thirty and forty years ago. Nothing ever seems too bad, too hard, or too sad when you've got a real Christmas tree in the living room. The tree reminds me that Christmas is the seasonal umbilical cord that holds all time since Creation together, and through which the blood of baby Jesus flows to mother earth and all mankind. What tells me that Christmas has worked its magic on me again is when I still get more pleasure watching people unwrap my gifts to them than me unwrapping theirs. It is this love of giving more than receiving that tells me I have managed to remain close to the right path all through the year leading up to the blessed season of Christmas. It was Benjamin Franklin who said that “A good conscience is a continual Christmas”. Christmas without children would be less complete for me. Christmas heralds a New Year for each of us, new challenges to face, and new life to follow. To see one’s children grow through the stages of infancy, boyhood, girlhood, teenager, man, and woman brings both pleasure and occasional pain, but of all the times that form those most precious memories I have of them all, none can ever match those magical moments than the mounting excitement on their small faces of wonder as they listen attentively for the sound of Santa and his reindeers in the skies as they lie in bed in hopeful anticipation of gifts to unwrap in the morning beneath the tree. It is this sight of sheer pleasure on children’s innocent little faces that reminds me that if Christmas does not live in one’s heart all year round, it can never be found beneath the tree on Christmas morning. I still recall my own mother telling me when I was a child to listen for the sound of the bells, because every time we hear a bell ring at Christmas time, an angel gets its wings! Pray God that we may never be too grown up to search the skies on Christmas Eve for Santa as a child and for the message of the new-born star as an adult. Christmas means many things to each of us, as we carry within us a kaleidoscope of experiences unique from those of any other person. Christmas is a time of rejoicing for most of us, and a time of reunion with family and loved ones. It can also represent the season of goodwill towards our neighbour as hardened hearts between adversaries are softened by the promise of a new-born star, leading toward a time of repentance as we adopt a warmer welcome to those people who we gave a cold shoulder to during the previous eleven months. For most of us, Christmas can be a time of reflection as the New Year approaches, followed by a time when we resolve to reform certain practices and behaviour to improve our minds and bodies. One way or another, whatever our circumstances, like Christmas or loathe it, Christmas brings a change in all our lives. If the feast of Christmas did not exist, it would still need to be invented because there has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves, even if it is to engage the world in a great big conspiracy of love. So please, by putting Christmas back in your heart you are putting it in the air where it will spread to all who breathe and intoxicate their lungs with the freshness of its eternal message. We are all children of God, and the one thought we should always remember at Christmas, more than any other time of the year is that all roads lead home. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx I dedicate today’s Christmas carol to four lady birthday celebrants today. We wish a happy birthday to Elizabeth Noble who lives in Mirfield, West Yorkshire: Carole Hanley who lives in Halifax, West Yorkshire: Joanne O’ Dwyer who lives in Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, Ireland: Betsy Holly who lives in Syracuse, New York. Enjoy your special day, Elizabeth, Carole, Joanne and Betsy, and thank you for being my Facebook friend. My song today is the Christmas carol, ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’. This carol was originally written in Latin as ’Adeste Fideles’ and has been attributed to various authors, including John Francis Wade (1711–1786), John Reading (1645–1692), King John 1V of Portugal (1604–1656), and anonymous monks. The earliest printed version is in a book published by Wade, but the earliest manuscript bears the name of King John IV and is to be found in the library of the ’Ducal Palace of Vila Vicosa’. A manuscript by Wade, dating to 1751, is held by ‘Stonyhurst College‘ in Lancashire. The original four verses of the hymn were extended to a total of eight, and these have been translated into many languages. The English translation of "O Come, All Ye Faithful" by the English Catholic priest Frederick Oakeley (written in 1841) is widespread in most English-speaking countries. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Faith is such a wonderful thing, and it is most certainly health-enhancing as well as providing all humans with a wholesome and worthwhile purpose in their lives. I was always led to believe by my late mother that when we feed our faith with good works, we not only strengthen our resolve to succeed, but we also starve our fears in the height of our adversities and any struggles we face in life. I once recall reading that ‘faith is that mystical human force which enables one to believe in that which cannot be seen, and in so doing, see that in which one believes!’ This is something all Christians can subscribe to. The wisest among us allow our faith to be greater than our fear, for they believe that the force for good is greater than the force for bad. Should the time ever come when we lose faith, we essentially lose all. Never stop believing in humanity and the basic goodness which lies in all of God’s creatures, for faith is a knowledge that lies deep within the heart and is beyond the realm of proof to know its existence. As Thomas Aquinas said, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible”. Sheila and I wish you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Love and peace Bill xxx As I have no known Facebook friend birthdays today, I dedicate my song to every child in the land who is waiting for the imminent arrival of Santa, along with every man and woman in the land who is also waiting for a jolly man or woman to enter their lonely lives, to love them and to brighten up the rest of their year, along with every homeless person seeking accommodation, along with every unemployed person seeking a gainful occupation, along with every person in debt and unable to see their way out of it, along with every bereaved person in the land who lost a loved one during the past year and are still readjusting to their raw emotions, along with all those people who face delayed cancer operations in 2020 because of elective hospital cancelations. And not forgetting those millions of people who are one mortgage payment away from repossession of their family home in the New Year, along with those unfortunate businesses who struggled against the odds to remain a viable financial concern, only to be forced through Coronavirus lockdown to shut up shop for good! Please grant them one wish that will come true. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx My Christmas song today is ‘Santa Claus is Back in Town’. This Christmas song was written in 1957 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was first recorded that year by Elvis Presley as the opening track on ‘Elvis’ Christmas Album’. This was to become the best-selling Christmas/ holiday album of all time in the U.S.A. The song has become a rock-and-roll Christmas standard. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Santa Claus is not just a symbolic white-bearded man with a sack of jollies thrown over his back who dispenses Christmas presents to every child in the land on Christmas Day, but he represents the loving charity which exists in all open hearts, everywhere on Christmas Day. Beneath his December red clothes lies the true spirit of Christmas, the true humanity that exists across the world, the sheer pleasure that is to be found in giving as well as receiving; in helping others as opposed to helping oneself! The most unfortunate thing about Santa Claus when he comes to town each Christmas is that he leaves very soon after he has arrived, and is not seen again until the following December. It is not coincidental that after the departure of Santa in our lives each Christmas, we forget about what he truly stands for and represents in the life and development of mankind. And so it appears after most Christmases also. There is a seasonal spirit of goodwill during the week running up to Christmas, but no sooner than the turkey has been eaten, the family has started squabbling again about what to watch on the box, and dissension starts to gradually be resown in households across the land. The seller of the 'Big Issue' magazine or the homeless beggar also feels the brunt of the Christmas spirit dropping back out of our lives by the turning of the old year to the new. We may drop one lucky beggar our seasonal £1 coin in his hat in the run-up to Christmas while feeling sanctimonious that we’ve done our bit, and walk past the same man for the following 51 weeks of the year while consciously averting our eyes from theirs. Perhaps a few of the less charitable among us might even be thinking, “The £1 coin I dropped in his hat last Christmas didn’t do him much good as he’s still sat in the same spot a year later looking for another handout! He probably pi…ed it up against the nearest pub wall at the first opportunity?” Just as the saying goes, “A dog is never just for Christmas”, it equally follows that Christmas is just not for the month of December either!” Once a person allows the true message of Christmas to enter their lives, that message remains in their hearts forevermore, and just like the deposit of an ink stain upon the white cloth, it will never come out! Sheila and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx I dedicate my song today to three birthday celebrants. First, we wish a happy birthday to Ger Boland who is from Clonmel, Tipperary, Ireland. Next, we wish a happy birthday to Christine Waterworth who lives in Holmfield in Halifax, West Yorkshire. Finally, send birthday greetings to Stephen Bleunven, who lives in Queensbury, West Yorkshire. We hope that Ger, Christine, and Stephen enjoy their special day. My song today is the Christmas carol, ‘The First Noel’. This old Christmas carol is of Cornish origin. Its current form was first published in ‘Carols Ancient and Modern’ (1823) and ‘Gilbert and Sandy’s Carrols’ (1833), both of which were edited by William Sandys and arranged, edited and with extra lyrics written by Davies Gilbert for ‘ Hymns and Carols of God’. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Whenever I think about the title of this hymn, ‘The First Noel’ meaning ‘The First Christmas’, I instantly start to imagine what it must have been like to have been there ‘at the start’, so to speak. For any Christian to be faced with the omnipotence and face-to-face presence of God after having lived a good and wholesome life would naturally leave them in complete awe. But to see an infant born in the poorest of circumstances, and whose parents had travelled from another place might not receive the same response. And yet, although ‘The Nativity’ first took place in a stable in the town of Bethlehem over 2000 years ago, never one day passes when the scene isn’t re-enacted somewhere else in the world as migrants travel from land to land with a child in their arms and hope in their hearts, only to find that there is no place at the inn for them. However little material wealth we may consider ourselves to have, we usually have more than we need to get by. This Christmas time, please spare a prayer and a few pennies for all those poorer people of society, especially those who are visitors to a strange land who have had too many bad yesterdays in the land they have fled in search of a better tomorrow in Great Britain. This is a great country, and it is the most natural thing in the world for every parent inj the4 world to want the best future for their young. We may not speak the same mother tongue, but we all have the same eternal Father, and there is only one language God understands, the language of love. Love transcends all difficulties it faces because it is the language of peace, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, and understanding. Sheila and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx I dedicate my song today to two people who celebrate their birthday today. We wish a Happy Heavenly Birthday to Mary Anderson from Halifax in West Yorkshire who died a few years ago. We also wish the parish priest, Mike Walsh in Huddersfield, birthday greetings today. Father Mike served as our parish priest in Haworth for several years, before the Bishop got the seven-year-old itch and moved him on to another parish. One of the things that the Howarth congregation and all parishes Father Mike has served which endear him to us all, is his ‘normality’. One can envisage him having engaged himself in the occasional sin from time to time, and being one of the most astute priests I have had the pleasure to meet, I know he has the good sense and capability of forgiving himself as well as others. When in his company, one tends to forget he is a man of the cloth; someone who appreciates a good joke along with the rest of humanity. Enjoy your special day Fr. Mike and Mary. Bill and Sheila Forde xxx My song today is ‘White Christmas’ which was immortalised and was first released in 1942 (the year of my birth). This song by Irving Berlin reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting was most famously sung by Bing Crosby. This version is the world’s ever best-selling single with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. When the figures for other versions of the song are added to Crosby's, sales of the song exceed 100 million. The first public performance of the song was by Bing Crosby on his NBC radio show ‘The Kraft Music Hall’ on Christmas Day, 1941; a copy of the recording from the radio program is owned by Crosby's estate. The song established that there could be commercially successful secular Christmas songs, and by revealing the huge potential market for Christmas songs, ‘White Christmas’ ensured that themes of home and nostalgia would run through Christmas music evermore. In the film ‘Holiday Inn’ the composition won the ‘Academy Award for Best Original Song’ in 1942. The song would feature in another Crosby film, the 1954 musical ‘White Christmas’, which became the highest-grossing film of 1954. According to Crosby's nephew, Howard Crosby, "I once asked Uncle Bing about the most difficult thing he ever had to do during his entertainment career. He said in December 1944, he was in a USO show with Bob Hope and the Andrew Sisters. They did an outdoor show in northern France, and he had to stand there and sing 'White Christmas' with 100,000 G.I.s in tears without breaking down himself. Of course, a lot of those boys were killed in the ‘Battle of the Bulge’ a few days later.” Although Crosby dismissed his role in the song's success, saying later that "A jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully.” Crosby was associated with it for the rest of his career. Happy Christmas everyone. Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx We have three birthday dedications today. I dedicate my song today to my niece Evie who is the daughter of my sister Susan and the sister of her brother Lee, and the mother to her three young children, Reuben, Jacob, and Elora. Today, Evie (who lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire) celebrates her birthday. Happy birthday, Evie. Enjoy your special day. Uncle Billy and Sheila xx. We also wish a happy birthday to Helena Wong who lives in Hong Kong with her husband. Helena is my wife, Sheila’s cousin. Enjoy your special day, Helena. Bill and Sheila Forde xx We also wish a happy birthday today to Mary Walker who lives in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Mary celebrates her 78th birthday today. Enjoy your 78th year Mary (I celebrated my 78th birthday a few weeks ago). I always remember a deceased friend of mine (Stan Barstow, the author of ‘A Kind of Loving’) telling me when we were out enjoying a pub meal one evening, “I don’t object to being older, Bill, as I feel that I have more freedom to be me. Life is too damn short to be polite all the time!”. Today I sing the Christmas song ‘Mary’s Boy Child’. This is a Christmas song, written by Jester Hairston, and which is widely performed as a Christmas carol. Harry Belafonte heard the song being performed by the choir and sought permission to record it. It was recorded and released in 1956. The song was also recorded by Bony M, and Andy Williams, and dozens of other artists. It is regularly played every Christmas since it was first released 64 years ago. Merry Christmas and love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx I dedicate my song today to my great-nephew Sam Morris who celebrates his birthday today. Sam lives in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire with his parents, Dougie and Carol Morris. Enjoy your special day Sam. Love Uncle Billy and Sheila xx We also wish a happy birthday to Marie Power who lives in the county of my birth, Waterford, Ireland. Enjoy your special day, Marie, and thank you for being my Facebook friend. My song today is ‘Rocking Around the Christmas Tree’. This Christmas song was written by Johnny Marks and was recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958. It has since been recorded by numerous other music artists. By the song's 50th anniversary in 2008, Lee's original version had sold over 25 million copies with the 4th most digital downloads sold by any Christmas single. I associate the following things with Christmas: Attending Midnight Mass: Being with my loving wife: Seeing my children: Decorating the Christmas Tree: Opening Christmas cards and catching up with the news about old friends: Placing presents beneath the tree and deriving pleasure seeing them unwrapped: Seeing Santa on a Sleigh handing out presents to children: Singing carols in the village square: Eating mince pies and Christmas pudding: Drinking a seasonal glass of port and lemon, and a glass of hot mull wine outside: Listening to the Queen’s Speech: Watching ‘The Quiet Man’ film with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara on television: Putting ten minutes aside in a silent prayer for my deceased parents and all they did to rear me and my six siblings. These are the things that make up my Christmas. Add a bit of snow, and there you have the icing on the cake for another perfect day. Merry Christmas and love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx I dedicate today’s Christmas carol to three birthday celebrants. We wish happy birthday to Breda Dowley who comes from Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary but presently lives in Waterford, Ireland. The next birthday celebrant is Aaron Foley who also lives in Waterford, Ireland. Finally, we wish a happy birthday to Georgia Dadar Bergmann who lives in Manama, Bahrain. Breda, Aaron, and Georgia enjoy your special day and thank you for being my Facebook friend. My song today is sung by my wife, Sheila and I have assisted with the chorus. Today’s seasonal rendition is the Christmas carol, ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’. This carol is also known as ‘Tidings of Comfort and Joy’, and by others as ‘Come All You Worthy Gentlemen’, or ‘God Rest Ye Merry Christians’ or ‘God Rest You Merry People All’. It is one of the oldest extant carols, dated to the 16th century or earlier. The earliest known printed edition of the carol is in a broadsheet dated to c. 1760. The earliest printed edition of the melody appears to be in a parody in the humorous, witty, and bawdy sayings of William Hone in1829. The carol is referred to in the 1843 novel ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens’. Merry Christmas and love and peace, Bill and Sheila xxx I dedicate today’s song to Thomas Walsh who lives in Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, Ireland, and Hugh Faulkner who also comes from Carrick-on-Suir. Our third birthday dedication is Sean Callanan. Thomas, Hugh, and Sean each celebrate their birthday today. Enjoy your special day and thank you for being my Facebook friend. My song today is ‘Blue Christmas’. This Christmas song was written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson and was most famously performed by Elvis Presley. It was first recorded by Doye O'Dell in 1948. It is a tale of unrequited love during the holidays and is a longstanding staple of Christmas music, especially in the country genre. This Christmas will be a strange experience for all of us as we leave the basic restrictions of national lockdown for a few days to celebrate Christmas with some of our family. Our celebrations this year will amount to seeing our family again in a homely setting (after many months of absence) in which the government has provided guidelines that limit our capacity for killing each other, yet sanction permission of us to do so if we get too close. Because of the serious threat that some aged and medically vulnerable among us may not be alive next spring because of celebrating Christmas with our family this year in a five-day relaxation period, we are all becoming more aware of the consequences of allowing oneself to do what comes naturally to each of us; to kiss, hug and embrace those we love. While each of us will make our own decisions in the freedom we will exercise with close family members, there will be many bereaved individuals who are still grieving the recent loss of a partner or a relative to this pernicious pandemic virus, or because of it (unable to have elective surgery which was cancelled). Then there will be those other deaths by various illnesses and tragic circumstances. There will also be very lonely people this Christmas who live isolated existences or have just ended a loving relationship with another. There will also be those romantic couples who are separated from a loved one by circumstances beyond their control (serving soldiers abroad or North Sea Oil rig workers), and last but not least, there are the widows and widowers whose soulmate died of natural causes after having spent a long life happily together. People experiencing a recent bereavement may find that their grief is still too raw to be soothed by the words or deeds of thoughtful others. For all these people, in whichever category they fall, their Christmas will no doubt be ‘a Blue Christmas’. Christmas greetings and love and peace. Bill and Sheila xxx I dedicate my song today to Chris Lanigan who lives in Kilkenny, Ireland. Today, Chris celebrates his birthday. Chris was born in Bristol but now lives in Paulstown, Kilkenny. He spent a couple of happy childhood years near Faugheen, outside Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary. Chris is a talented artist and prior to the Covid-19 lockdown, he engaged in a joint Music/Art project with the musicians who gather regularly at ‘Keevers’ in Faugheen to enjoin the medium of art and song in perfect union. The link to see this combined art/song project (which is well worth the look) is: https://youtu.be/3nxmyY18OHM Enjoy your special day, Chris, and thank you for being my Facebook friend. Today, I sing an old version of the Christmas carol, ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter’. This is a Christmas carol based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti. The poem was published, under the title’ A Christmas Carol’ in the January 1872 issue of “Scribner’s Monthly”. The poem first appeared set to music in ‘The English Hymnal’ in 1906 with a setting by Gustav Holst. Harold Darke’s anthem setting of 1911 is more complex and was named the best Christmas carol in a poll of some of the world's leading choirmasters and choral experts in 2008. With the Covid-19 pandemic this past year, many of us will have had a bleak winter. However, with the latest news an hour ago that a Covid vaccine has been approved by the British Medical Board, spring and summer 21 should be a much better time to look forward to. Merry Christmas everyone. Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx During the month of December, I will be singing songs associated with Christmas time. These renditions will be both pop songs and traditional carols. My wife, Sheila will assist me to sing several Christmas carols. With December being a seasonal month of the year, I will keep my blurb to a minimum. Bill xxx Today, there are four birthday celebrants which include my great-nephew, John Morris, who lives with his parents (Carol and Dougie Morris) in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. We also wish a happy birthday to Andrew Murray who also lives in Cleckheaton and Linda McShane (Was Midgley) who also lives in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. Our fourth birthday celebrant is Craig Solberg who lives across the pond in Denver, North Carolina, U.S.A. Enjoy your special day, John, Andrew, Linda, and Craig. Bill xxx Today’s song is ‘Christmas Day: 1915’. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Messages began to be shouted between the trenches by the German and British soldiers. The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man's land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts while their guns were silenced. The truce was not observed everywhere along the Western Front. Elsewhere the fighting continued, and casualties did occur on Christmas Day. Some officers were unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine the fighting spirit. After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale from happening again. Despite this, there were some isolated incidents of soldiers holding brief truces later in the war. Today’s Christmas song refers to one such truce on the front line. After the ‘First World War’, a diary from a ‘World War One’ soldier (Private Robert Keating) came to light, providing details of another Christmas truce which took place on the front-line during Christmas Day of 1915. Private Robert Keating's account explains how a ceasefire was held by some men despite orders from officers who did not want a repeat of a 1914 truce. Although this brief truce on Christmas Day 1915 between enemy forces lasted only a few hours, during it the British and German soldiers left their respective trenches and mingled together in ‘No Man’s Land’, where they reportedly exchanged pleasantries, drank wine together, took photographs and sang songs. Afterward, both sides returned to their trenches and resumed firing upon each other, and killing each other once more! Today’s Christmas song tells that story. Merry Christmas 2020 to one and all from Bill and Sheila. Love and peace xxx |
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