Thought for today:
"There have always been people who never seem to allow the antics and depression of others get them down. Whatever life decides to hit them with, they'll pick themselves up and learn to walk out again with head held high, in the positive belief that there is much yet to see in this beautiful world of ours. Their inner strength and fortitude will enable them to look beyond the obvious and to see the wider picture. I was very fortunate to be able to spend the day with a number of them yesterday.
Then there are the others. These are the folk who refuse to see the answer to their problems when it's staring them in the face. In a world of recession and mounting debt, anyone with a bird brain should know that borrowing to repay will make matters worse not better or that living now and paying later only attracts the interest of fools. If they stop burying their head in the sand, they might see things clearer for what they are instead of for what they'd like them to be! They might also discover that the best things in life cost little or no money.
I spent the full day yesterday in hospital on a drug cancer drip. I must admit that the experience, which it is natural to fear in advance, went very well and half of the time was spent laughing and talking with other patients. Instead of being in a bed, we were all sat in the lounge as though we were enjoying the benefits of a hospital spa. I won't pretend that everyone present of the dozen or more folk I sat among was jolly, as a few were clearly not. However, given that most of us had a terminal condition, it was remarkable how normal and cheerful things could be when folk face up to their condition and start to conquer their worse fears about it. There was no burying of heads in the sand in that hospital lounge yesterday yet there was a considerable degree of respect for self and others evident.
I have always felt that we deceive ourselves the most when we sometimes proclaim, "I can forgive........but I'll never forget!" Whenever I have heard anyone proclaim such in the past, although the person expressing it genuinely believed it, I always held some doubt as to the totality of their forgiveness. I have never believed that one is able to forgive 'partially' and have always held the view that like pregnancy, 'you either are or you aren't pregnant and are never a bit pregnant.' Consequently, I very much suspect that forgiveness, if it is to truly exist at all, needs to be total and unconditional!
As I sat with my hospital drip yesterday and scoured my newspaper, I was very interested to read in the Daily Express that the University of St. Andrews recently undertook a study which was subsequently published in 'Psychological Science.' The study involved subjects trying to remember hypothetical situations with wrongs including infidelity, slander and theft. The findings were fascinating. The reseachers discovered that the act of forgiving a wrong actually makes it easier to forget the details of the initial transgression. However, volunteers never forgot a scenario they had not forgiven; even when they'd been told to banish it from their memories.
So it looks like the canny Scots have done it again in revealing what truly lies beneath the kilt (sorry...I mean beneath the sands of time). It just goes to show that there is some truth in old wives saying, 'Forgive and forget.' Have a good day."William Forde: May 16th, 2014.
"There have always been people who never seem to allow the antics and depression of others get them down. Whatever life decides to hit them with, they'll pick themselves up and learn to walk out again with head held high, in the positive belief that there is much yet to see in this beautiful world of ours. Their inner strength and fortitude will enable them to look beyond the obvious and to see the wider picture. I was very fortunate to be able to spend the day with a number of them yesterday.
Then there are the others. These are the folk who refuse to see the answer to their problems when it's staring them in the face. In a world of recession and mounting debt, anyone with a bird brain should know that borrowing to repay will make matters worse not better or that living now and paying later only attracts the interest of fools. If they stop burying their head in the sand, they might see things clearer for what they are instead of for what they'd like them to be! They might also discover that the best things in life cost little or no money.
I spent the full day yesterday in hospital on a drug cancer drip. I must admit that the experience, which it is natural to fear in advance, went very well and half of the time was spent laughing and talking with other patients. Instead of being in a bed, we were all sat in the lounge as though we were enjoying the benefits of a hospital spa. I won't pretend that everyone present of the dozen or more folk I sat among was jolly, as a few were clearly not. However, given that most of us had a terminal condition, it was remarkable how normal and cheerful things could be when folk face up to their condition and start to conquer their worse fears about it. There was no burying of heads in the sand in that hospital lounge yesterday yet there was a considerable degree of respect for self and others evident.
I have always felt that we deceive ourselves the most when we sometimes proclaim, "I can forgive........but I'll never forget!" Whenever I have heard anyone proclaim such in the past, although the person expressing it genuinely believed it, I always held some doubt as to the totality of their forgiveness. I have never believed that one is able to forgive 'partially' and have always held the view that like pregnancy, 'you either are or you aren't pregnant and are never a bit pregnant.' Consequently, I very much suspect that forgiveness, if it is to truly exist at all, needs to be total and unconditional!
As I sat with my hospital drip yesterday and scoured my newspaper, I was very interested to read in the Daily Express that the University of St. Andrews recently undertook a study which was subsequently published in 'Psychological Science.' The study involved subjects trying to remember hypothetical situations with wrongs including infidelity, slander and theft. The findings were fascinating. The reseachers discovered that the act of forgiving a wrong actually makes it easier to forget the details of the initial transgression. However, volunteers never forgot a scenario they had not forgiven; even when they'd been told to banish it from their memories.
So it looks like the canny Scots have done it again in revealing what truly lies beneath the kilt (sorry...I mean beneath the sands of time). It just goes to show that there is some truth in old wives saying, 'Forgive and forget.' Have a good day."William Forde: May 16th, 2014.
