FordeFables
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      • No Need to Look for Love
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        • The Tannery Wager
        • 'Fini and Archie'
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        • '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
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        • Chapter One - The Portlaw Runt
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        • 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
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        • 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.'
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        • Chapter Seventeen
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        • Chapter Twelve
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        • Chapter Fourteen
      • ‘The Postman Always Knocks Twice’ >
        • Author's Foreword
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        • Chapter One
        • Chapter Two
        • Chapter Three
        • Chapter Four
        • Chapter Five
        • Chapter Six
        • Chapter Seven
        • Chapter Eight
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        • Chapter Ten
        • Chapter Eleven
        • Chapter Twelve
        • Chapter Thirteen
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        • Chapter Twenty-One
        • Chapter Twenty-Two
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July 6th, 2016.

6/7/2016

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Thought for today:
"The movement of ballet is the essence of a dream yet to unfold. Ballet is the graceful order of polite society. Like expensive wine, it needs to be approached with a cultural understanding, gently sipped and imbibed slowly until intoxication of one's senses is no longer an option and boisterous applause is automatically rendered from a standing position of ovation.

Ever since I experienced three years being unable to walk between the ages of 11-14 years, I have known the preciousness of balance and poise within one's life and overall sense of well being. Unlike the boy, Billy Elliot, who went on to become a ballet dancer, my prime interest initially was in helping me re-establish an overall balance.

At the mere age of 11 years when western medicine offered me no hope of ever walking again, in an attempt to grasp any straw, I looked towards the disciplines of the east as my saviour. My faith in eastern discipline was amply rewarded over the following years and apart from becoming one of the country's most prominent Relaxation Trainers by my late twenties, I had managed to get my legs walking again, thereby confounding the medics and reversing the previous damage to my spine that a road traffic accident had caused.

Though I walked with a pronounced limp after one of my legs had been left three inches shorter than the other and over fifty operations on it, I nevertheless walked. Over the years that followed, I engaged in all manner of sport and other activities that improved my body balance such as boxing, horse riding, table tennis, public speech delivery and even Indian dance. Though I could never recapture the grace of movement that others had, the concept of balance in my life was gradually extended to my philosophy of life, along with other areas of my behaviour pattern that governed my actions and overall sense of well being.

​I learned that when mankind develops a sense of balance in all things important, he doesn't go far wrong and remains on far safer ground than any extremist of action or view. A sense of balance enables one to see both sides of an argument; an essential ingredient in the stakes of increased understanding and acceptance. A balance in what we eat, drink and imbibe can not only keep one healthy, but also enable one to live longer. A balanced personality will enable you to look down on no other or position others on a higher pedestal of importance  whenever self worth is being appraised. Every marriage needs a balance of consideration to the other person if the couple wishes to sail a smoother course and not deliberately rock the boat. As parents, we need to balance our desire to keep our children happy while still setting boundaries for them, not ignoring their faults or overcompensating for any medical or personality deficiency they may have.

Establishing a good balance in our lives essentially involves first determining one's priorities and then seeking to obtain them while remaining principled, healthy, happy and just. Our lives are a mixture of different desires and different roles. Most of us are doing our best to find the right balance and this balance will differ for each of us. For me, that balance is work, family, friends, strangers, spiritual and service. And though work be ever so important in one's life, to ever confuse 'having a job' with 'having a life' is one of the greatest mistakes we can make. I always believed that working hard for something one doesn't care about is called 'stress' and working in a job or vocation that one loves is called, 'satisfaction.'

Imagine that you can best achieve your balance in life once you have learned to juggle your priority balls. Be aware though that each ball juggled carries a different priority for your sense of contentment and satisfaction. Whereas work may be like a rubber ball and if you drop it, it will bounce back, other balls may be far more fragile in constitution and like glass, shatter, or like a butterfly's wings, brake away, if pulled in the opposite direction it wishes to travel. Drop one of these more precious balls and they may irrevocably damage.

Finally, the most important thing of all about living a balanced life is knowing that we shall occasionally be knocked off balance by one experience or another and it is only through picking ourselves up that we best learn to be the last one standing." William Forde: July 6th, 2016. 
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