Tag: Consequences

Be careful what you wish for

Barbed Wire Sunset

Anger that cannot be expressed in words of single syllables

Spoken with such venom as to frighten e’en the brave

Words, frustration-born and vicious, defamation in their wake

To punish those whose motives are only true and just

Speech that tolerates no mercy with honour cast aside

Respect a mere illusion the upright to deride

Assassinate the character of those who came to help

Creating phantom sickness to cover true intent

Wild accusations flying ‘gainst those who came to rescue

Whose only “crime” is caring, who saved you from yourself

A soap box, neatly positioned to spout specious arguments

Before so-called friends, while victims stay publicly silent,

Protecting the integrity of those dishonouring them

And of those who would suffer most

And why?

Perhaps a need to justify a conscience seared with sin

Perhaps because of jealousy barely hidden deep within

Perhaps because of knowing the ignored advice was wise

Perhaps because the innocent are unable to defend themselves

Brazen conduct masquerades as indignation

Against the protectors of future generations

A challenge thrown down to those who turn the other cheek

Be careful what you wish for, oh would-be assassin

You might just get it

And who will you hide behind, then?

Losing Everything

Way Marker, St. Illtyd’s Way, Aberdare

I watched as a pigeon landed nearby with a piece of bread, far too big to eat. He started to wrestle with it, his beak shaking it about trying to break it into smaller, bite-sized pieces.

All this activity did not go unnoticed. Another pigeon saw the commotion and flew in to investigate. Seeing such a grand feast, he challenged for possession.

The defendant dropped the bread and stood his ground. But the challenger was intent on getting the prize. He moved in, aggressively. A fight ensued, with both pigeons slugging it out, beak to beak. No quarter was asked, and no quarter was given.

The two antagonists kept up the fracas for a short while, making lots of movement and a great deal of loud noise.

But the fight was being observed from on high. At the opportune moment, a seagull swooped in, his great beak aiming at the target. He landed, gulped the bread down, and left, just as quickly as he had appeared; all in one smooth movement.

The antagonists looked on, stunned, and went on their way, hungry.

Watching this drama unfold, I realised that whenever we focus on our disagreements, we lose sight of the bigger picture.

And we risk losing everything.

The job you want

If the salary was the same, what job would you be doing right now and why?

I’ve always said that I’d rather have a lower paying job that I enjoy than a higher paying job for which I struggle to get out of bed.

The salary isn’t important. If you don’t like the job, or the people you’re working with, you’ll struggle to get up every morning and eventually the salary will not seem as important and you’ll lose it, anyway.

The reality is that most jobs pay a living wage by law. The real problem isn’t the salary; it’s what we do with the salary. When we overspend, we go looking for a high paying job that we don’t like. Far better to live within the means provided by a lower paying job that we enjoy.

One of the things I’ve learned since I’ve retired is that we waste stress on work. Once we leave, someone else takes over. And they could have taken over long ago if we had left sooner. We are not as irreplaceable as we’d like to think.

So, the salary isn’t the important thing. It’s more about enjoying the life you can afford than striving for the one you can’t.

Today is All I Need

If you could relive one day from your past, which day would it be and why?

Why relive a day in the past?

To enjoy the exquisite pleasure again? It wouldn’t be the same.

To correct a stupid mistake? How might that change the present? For better? Or for worse?

So many past experiences, good, bad, and indifferent, have made us what we are today. How would we be changed by reliving one day, especially if we changed something?  Would we be happier? Would we be sadder?

Were the good old days really that good? Were the bad old days really that bad? How might our present knowledge, shaped by our past, affect our experience of that day?

Did a bad experience change us for the better? Or a good experience change us for the worse? What might happen if we changed that experience?

Even if we simply visited the day and watched what happened as an observer, our experience of that day would be different from what it was at the time.

The past made us what we are today, for better or worse. If we changed something, it would affect us in unknown ways. If we left things alone, it would still change us in unknown ways.

Such is the time travel paradox. We can’t relive the past without changing our experience of it, and our memory of it.

No. Today is enough for me.

You made a difference

If your future self could send you one sentence, what do you hope it would say?

I would hope that I could look back on my life and say, “You made a difference.”

Many people spend their lives trying to obtain some sort of wealth and so-called success. But what is wealth? What is success?

E told me that her sister, S, was visiting. S, who had no grandchildren, looked around at E’s photos of her grandchildren and said, “I may have money. But your wealth is in these photos.”

Real wealth and real success are in the difference we make in the lives of others.