I dedicate my song today to my great-nephew, Josh Jones Forde, unborn son of my niece, Sharon Jones and her husband, Steve Jones. Josh died in his mother’s womb during her 27th week of pregnancy, 21 years ago today. For his parents, Sharon and Steve, the distance of the years in between have not lessened their sense of loss. Josh is forever missed by his parents and all the Forde and Jones’ family.
My second dedication is a much happier one and is for Molly Mulcahy who celebrates her birthday today. Molly is a dear Facebook friend who lives in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire (an area of my romantic dancing youth). Happy birthday, Molly. Enjoy your special day. I do not know how old you are today, (and would never dream of asking), but wouldn’t it be a strange thing if I ever danced with you, or your older sister, or even your mother, during one of my weekly attendances at ‘Cleckheaton Town Hall’ for the Saturday night dance?
My song today is ‘Pocketful of Rainbows. This song is from the Elvis Presley album ‘G. I. Blues’. which was written by Fred Wise and Ben Weisman(1960). The song appeared in the film, ‘G.I. Blues’. In the film. Juliet Prowse (who lip-synched Loulie Jean Norman’s voice) can be seen singing along with Elvis in a cable car in the small German tourist town of Rudesheim am Rhein.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Everyone alive knows that there is something different, something magical, something which is a beautiful vision of nature’s force for good whenever we look at a rainbow!
“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth'”
Genesis 9:12-13
If ever a biblical quotation could depict what any special part of nature stands for, it is the one above from Genesis 9: 12-13. The rainbow signifies the covenant between God and man, man and man, man and woman, adult and child, Jew, and Gentile, black and white, man and creature, mankind and the whole of nature. It is the ultimate covenant between ‘Love and Life’.
The rainbow not only signifies the peace after the storm, it is a way of telling us that however bad today is for you if you weather the storm you can most certainly look forward to a brighter tomorrow. It essentially tells us that if we want to experience the rainbow, we must put up with the rain in our lives. It is a hard fact of life to sometimes grasp, but without the existence of any ‘opposite’ in our life, we would have no such thing as any qualitative ‘experience’ because no aspect of life could ever be truly felt by us without the existence of its opposing counterpart to give it meaning! There is no such thing as Heaven without the concept of a Hell, no such quality as good without bad, rich without poor, big without small, powerful without weak, pleasure without pain, etc. etc.
The rainbow represents the true melting pot of mankind in their making. We were all once created in the image of ‘black’ according to the scientists. We all came out of Africa, and we would remain more humanly focussed if we remembered that fact today as we attempt to rid ourselves of all unconscious bias and prejudice towards our fellow beings. Our world today, merely represents the spectrum of human life over millions of years of development and change. The divine creator loves diversity and that is why He made us all uniquely different, and why He loves us. He loves our differences, our individual and unique traits, and our capacity to do good.
The rainbow was never an apologist for an angry sky but represents a beacon of hope for what good is yet to come.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
During the whole of my working life as a Probation Officer, a Behaviourist, an Anger Management worker, and a Relaxation Training Instructor, I was fortunate to be able to help many people change their inappropriate, problematic or illegal behaviour, and to alter their lives for the better.
However, despite the good achievement levels I received in all these fields of expertise, I have not the slightest doubt why the many changes for the better I helped to bring about in any of the problematic response patterns of many hundreds of people came about.
The greatest of all change factors came from ‘a belief in myself’, which was effectively transmitted to my clients, accepted by them, and then transformed by the client as ‘a belief in themselves’ (All researchers into treatment success refer to this as the ‘placebo’ factor, which I believe can be the greatest of all change impetus). Before most of my clients could see themselves as being a ‘good person’, it was essential that they were able to see the transparent good in me, and also in others! Similar, through the open display of ‘love of myself ‘, I was able to influence the client to ‘love themselves’, and to eventually ‘express love toward others.
In short, I was a carrier and a ‘dispenser of hope’ and the embodied ‘expression of love’. This was the most constant experience in their lives which they required to change. I cannot undervalue the importance of a depressive individual being given ‘hope’ in an often fearful and uncaring world in which they display a form of 'learned helplessness'. There are so many good qualities that mankind has at hand in which to help others, but there is none more positive or more powerful than the giving of ‘hope’ and the dispensing of ‘love’ to a despairing or failing soul who has a self-image of deprecation allied to an expectation of failure.
We can all have ‘heart’, we can all possess ‘positive thought’ and follow through with ‘positive action’’. We can all have a burning desire and ambition to succeed, and we can all have a ‘belief in oneself’. We can all have every one of these positive characteristics, BUT SUCCESS IS ONLY POSSIBLE IF WE HAVE ‘HOPE AND LOVE’ TO BACK IT UP!
That is what today’s song means to me; ‘a pocketful of hope and love’.
Love and peace Bill xxx
My second dedication is a much happier one and is for Molly Mulcahy who celebrates her birthday today. Molly is a dear Facebook friend who lives in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire (an area of my romantic dancing youth). Happy birthday, Molly. Enjoy your special day. I do not know how old you are today, (and would never dream of asking), but wouldn’t it be a strange thing if I ever danced with you, or your older sister, or even your mother, during one of my weekly attendances at ‘Cleckheaton Town Hall’ for the Saturday night dance?
My song today is ‘Pocketful of Rainbows. This song is from the Elvis Presley album ‘G. I. Blues’. which was written by Fred Wise and Ben Weisman(1960). The song appeared in the film, ‘G.I. Blues’. In the film. Juliet Prowse (who lip-synched Loulie Jean Norman’s voice) can be seen singing along with Elvis in a cable car in the small German tourist town of Rudesheim am Rhein.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Everyone alive knows that there is something different, something magical, something which is a beautiful vision of nature’s force for good whenever we look at a rainbow!
“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth'”
Genesis 9:12-13
If ever a biblical quotation could depict what any special part of nature stands for, it is the one above from Genesis 9: 12-13. The rainbow signifies the covenant between God and man, man and man, man and woman, adult and child, Jew, and Gentile, black and white, man and creature, mankind and the whole of nature. It is the ultimate covenant between ‘Love and Life’.
The rainbow not only signifies the peace after the storm, it is a way of telling us that however bad today is for you if you weather the storm you can most certainly look forward to a brighter tomorrow. It essentially tells us that if we want to experience the rainbow, we must put up with the rain in our lives. It is a hard fact of life to sometimes grasp, but without the existence of any ‘opposite’ in our life, we would have no such thing as any qualitative ‘experience’ because no aspect of life could ever be truly felt by us without the existence of its opposing counterpart to give it meaning! There is no such thing as Heaven without the concept of a Hell, no such quality as good without bad, rich without poor, big without small, powerful without weak, pleasure without pain, etc. etc.
The rainbow represents the true melting pot of mankind in their making. We were all once created in the image of ‘black’ according to the scientists. We all came out of Africa, and we would remain more humanly focussed if we remembered that fact today as we attempt to rid ourselves of all unconscious bias and prejudice towards our fellow beings. Our world today, merely represents the spectrum of human life over millions of years of development and change. The divine creator loves diversity and that is why He made us all uniquely different, and why He loves us. He loves our differences, our individual and unique traits, and our capacity to do good.
The rainbow was never an apologist for an angry sky but represents a beacon of hope for what good is yet to come.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
During the whole of my working life as a Probation Officer, a Behaviourist, an Anger Management worker, and a Relaxation Training Instructor, I was fortunate to be able to help many people change their inappropriate, problematic or illegal behaviour, and to alter their lives for the better.
However, despite the good achievement levels I received in all these fields of expertise, I have not the slightest doubt why the many changes for the better I helped to bring about in any of the problematic response patterns of many hundreds of people came about.
The greatest of all change factors came from ‘a belief in myself’, which was effectively transmitted to my clients, accepted by them, and then transformed by the client as ‘a belief in themselves’ (All researchers into treatment success refer to this as the ‘placebo’ factor, which I believe can be the greatest of all change impetus). Before most of my clients could see themselves as being a ‘good person’, it was essential that they were able to see the transparent good in me, and also in others! Similar, through the open display of ‘love of myself ‘, I was able to influence the client to ‘love themselves’, and to eventually ‘express love toward others.
In short, I was a carrier and a ‘dispenser of hope’ and the embodied ‘expression of love’. This was the most constant experience in their lives which they required to change. I cannot undervalue the importance of a depressive individual being given ‘hope’ in an often fearful and uncaring world in which they display a form of 'learned helplessness'. There are so many good qualities that mankind has at hand in which to help others, but there is none more positive or more powerful than the giving of ‘hope’ and the dispensing of ‘love’ to a despairing or failing soul who has a self-image of deprecation allied to an expectation of failure.
We can all have ‘heart’, we can all possess ‘positive thought’ and follow through with ‘positive action’’. We can all have a burning desire and ambition to succeed, and we can all have a ‘belief in oneself’. We can all have every one of these positive characteristics, BUT SUCCESS IS ONLY POSSIBLE IF WE HAVE ‘HOPE AND LOVE’ TO BACK IT UP!
That is what today’s song means to me; ‘a pocketful of hope and love’.
Love and peace Bill xxx
