Not everyone is confident and not everyone who seems confident actually is. In the world of sport, each athlete began with a measure of confidence but needed to overcome many failed attempts. The most talented violinist began making the sounds of a yowling cat before reaching the confidence of a virtuoso concert performer! Generally, confidence has a direct relationship with experience.
If you were to wander past many war graves, you would find this phrase on each tombstone, but why? Influential and eccentric author of The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling, lost his son John in the First World War and offered his services to what became known as The War Graves Commission. Despite having an eclectic […]
The fear of what might happen plagues everyone at different times of life in all sorts of ways. Personal threat may come through social media even to children or to adults through ransomware extortioners. It could be the threat to cut off your services, to expose you for some wrong-doing or even to go after […]
Balancing priorities in life is a skill that many of us get wrong at some point.
Even as children, there will be some who are driven by parental expectations or personal obsession to study and not play.
The sad truth is that landslides result in many deaths the world over every year, sometimes wiping out whole communities – 2000 people were killed by one in Peru in 1962. The most common cause is erosion which leads to loss of stable ground and then to a collapse just as with this cliff face.
If belief in God is likened to a cliff, what are the corrosive forces that might lead to a collapse?
Wind and weather come together – one brings the other. What they both have in common is that they are very changeable and unpredictable even to the best red-faced forecasters.
If a weather vane cannot be relied upon as an accurate weather forecaster, then something that is a fixed point is needed for safe navigation – how about magnetic north?
Cement is not meant to be walked in! However, these steps and pawprints reflect the love and faithfulness of this dog for its master which is saved for posterity! In the old carol about Good King Wenceslas, we see the monarch and his page stepping out in harsh cold weather to show kindness to a household in poverty. They set out together to take food, wine and logs for a poor man. The King makes it easier for his servant in making a safe way through the thick snow:
Do you ever feel that life is a little bit like the game of cat and mouse? What can you get away with? Who’s looking? You’ve done ‘it’ before and no one seemed to notice? Although this model cat is blindfolded, who’s to say that it isn’t peeping?! To the mouse, this is vital as it could be the difference between life and death. Confidence must not be misplaced or be based on a false premise for in such cases, life will fall apart. If the given statistic that 85% of people lack confidence is true, then what are the reasons for that and how can it be addressed? Are you genuinely confident behind the shop window shown to others?
There are many who will tell you how to live your life but who’s right? The ‘global wellness market’ is said to be valued at over $4.75 trillion and growing at more than 6% a year. It is a big business with therapists and ‘experts’ galore waiting to take people’s money and time to deal with their insecurities, hopes and dreams. Entertainment channels massage our desires and advertisers prey on our egos as we fall victim to the exploitation of others. Often the young want to be older whilst the old want to be younger; the employed want to retire, the retired wish they still had purpose in work; those in the shade want sun, those in the sun want shade. What about you now? Do you long to be beside the sea for a long relaxing holiday that drifts into retirement or are you already living the life you dream of?
‘If I knew yesterday what I know today, where would I be tomorrow?
I won't let my soul slide away, I'd do whatever it takes
'Cause this time's only borrowed
I got one life, one life, one life and I'm gonna live it
I got one life, one life, one life and I'm gonna live it right’ – James Morrison
Human diversity has never been more celebrated than it is today. Yet regardless of culture, race, language, chromosomes and physical characteristics, every human has other aspects that lead to uniqueness within our kind. Experiences, upbringing, hobbies, attitudes, personalities, abilities and tastes to name but a few. However, what we all have in common is that we are part of the human race – each the same yet different. Seeds from this dandelion will result in clones – often regarded as a weed, this little flower has medicinal properties, can be eaten or drunk like sweet coffee and goes through stages of resembling the sun, the moon and stars! Whilst the scientific name is Taraxacum meaning bitter herb, the popular name comes from the French ‘dent de lion’ as the root resembles the tooth of a lion. Each dandelion and every human is one of its kind – only Jesus is ‘THE one of a kind’, truly Divine.
