Tag: Courage

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?

That journey into the self

What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done when no one was watching?

Trecco Bay Sunset

I took that journey into myself, that “road less traveled”. And I came out the other side a better person.

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.

It wasn’t a hobby to begin with

Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it?

I’ve written about this in another post but here’s an update.

Almost three years ago my children were using a language learning app, but the free version of the app only allowed so many mistakes in a day, which meant they were running out of ‘lives’ regularly. So, I bought the family version for the year.

Knowing how kids are with such things, I decided that, rather than waste the money, I would do something that I’d always wanted, and it would be just for me, to treat myself. I would learn Italian.

Early on in my journey a friend suggested that since I already spoke English and Welsh, maybe I have a flair for languages, which intrigued me.

I finished the Italian course and moved on to Spanish, then French. And now, almost three years later, I’m on Brazilian Portuguese. And it’s become a hobby.

Whether I’ll ever use these languages remains to be seen. I’m keeping them fresh by reading and watching videos in those languages. But for me, it’s a hobby, and it’s just for me.

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.