Thought for today:
"It has often been said that those who live in this world offer much more to the rest of humanity than those who die in it and that the ink of a scholar and writer is far holier to the searching soul than the blood of a thousand martyrs who died in vain.
Today, I will spend another seven hours in hospital receiving my third blood transfusion in the past five weeks. It is hard to convey how much of a tonic it is these days to have my blood supplimented by the good blood of others. It is as though I am regularly receiving a new interpretation of that great Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy, 'War and Peace'. In my new interpretation, 'peace' becomes more holier than 'war' in any crusade and the giving and receiving of blood more valuable than the taking of it.
My terminal illness has obliged me to re-evaluate my place and position in the world today. No one's place in this world is guaranteed to either start or end without its own particular difficulties. Not everyone is going to get an easy start in life or a happy ending. But life isn't about how it starts or ends. It's about how it's lived and all those precious times between cradle and grave. It's about the small things, for its the least of moments that make the best of lasting memories. The way our loved ones laugh and the small things that endure the passage of time and endear us ever closer to the wonders of Nature. The sight of a butterfly in the sunlight or a ladybird and caterpillar striding a cabbage leaf in strange courtship.The love and support of an old friend, along with the growing interest of a friendship new. Recollections of dear family and friends who now rest their heads on the other side of the green sod; the times they made our life happier by their presence and enriched it with their laughter. They might not be with us in body any longer, but they are with us in spirit. The feeling of something we'd thought long lost to us forever returned in a single, life-changing moment.
We ought never to take life, family, friends and loved ones for granted, for they are all we have and all we'll ever need. Those people that make up our daily life sustain us like daily bread. Those incidents that we daily experience by being part of life are much more part of us than we ever appreciate and it is only when they no longer occur that they are greatly missed.
There is nothing strange about a person's life that is more mysterious than their birth. Every day on this planet, people are born, people die and stranger things happen inbetween. But I know my place now and my purpose past and present and I urge you most earnestly that no matter what trial you have to endure to find yours, as the journey and experience is well worth while and any wait you may have in its discovery." William Forde: October 22nd, 2014.
"It has often been said that those who live in this world offer much more to the rest of humanity than those who die in it and that the ink of a scholar and writer is far holier to the searching soul than the blood of a thousand martyrs who died in vain.
Today, I will spend another seven hours in hospital receiving my third blood transfusion in the past five weeks. It is hard to convey how much of a tonic it is these days to have my blood supplimented by the good blood of others. It is as though I am regularly receiving a new interpretation of that great Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy, 'War and Peace'. In my new interpretation, 'peace' becomes more holier than 'war' in any crusade and the giving and receiving of blood more valuable than the taking of it.
My terminal illness has obliged me to re-evaluate my place and position in the world today. No one's place in this world is guaranteed to either start or end without its own particular difficulties. Not everyone is going to get an easy start in life or a happy ending. But life isn't about how it starts or ends. It's about how it's lived and all those precious times between cradle and grave. It's about the small things, for its the least of moments that make the best of lasting memories. The way our loved ones laugh and the small things that endure the passage of time and endear us ever closer to the wonders of Nature. The sight of a butterfly in the sunlight or a ladybird and caterpillar striding a cabbage leaf in strange courtship.The love and support of an old friend, along with the growing interest of a friendship new. Recollections of dear family and friends who now rest their heads on the other side of the green sod; the times they made our life happier by their presence and enriched it with their laughter. They might not be with us in body any longer, but they are with us in spirit. The feeling of something we'd thought long lost to us forever returned in a single, life-changing moment.
We ought never to take life, family, friends and loved ones for granted, for they are all we have and all we'll ever need. Those people that make up our daily life sustain us like daily bread. Those incidents that we daily experience by being part of life are much more part of us than we ever appreciate and it is only when they no longer occur that they are greatly missed.
There is nothing strange about a person's life that is more mysterious than their birth. Every day on this planet, people are born, people die and stranger things happen inbetween. But I know my place now and my purpose past and present and I urge you most earnestly that no matter what trial you have to endure to find yours, as the journey and experience is well worth while and any wait you may have in its discovery." William Forde: October 22nd, 2014.