'Words are cheap.' Or so they say. Actually, though, they are free. Libraries are full with words that anyone could read without charge. Billions of people across the planet converse merrily away from morning till night. It costs them nothing. Nowhere on the globe has a government yet managed to impose a vocabulary tax. People can say what they like. They can mean it sincerely or they can be talking through their... Well, let's just say that what matters now is not whether something sounds right, but whether it smells right!!!

How do we know that the Sun will rise tomorrow? We don't. We take it entirely on faith. After all, if it doesn't we're all sunk. So we may as well make that presumption. There are other factors of which we could be similarly sure. It is one thing to avoid being arrogant and to try not taking anything in life for granted. It is another to ignore one's own experience and try to pretend that the inevitable is merely some remote possibility. Sometimes I feel I know darned well how a certain situation is going to turn out...but then I get surprised....knowing that...one can't stop the paranoia!!! 'You can't be too careful.' That's what people say. But you can. You can end up worrying about everyone and everything. You can miss out on glorious opportunities, simply because you have rejected them with so much suspicious scrutiny that they have withered under the intensity of the inspection. 'You don't want to be too generous.' People also say that. They argue that if you are, you'll be thought of as a fool. But who cares what folk think as long as you are and your kindness are going out together on a brave adventure?

'More haste, less speed.' That's what they say. Their point, which is reasonable enough, is that one will go further, faster, if we stop first and think and then proceed at a steady pace. Sometimes though, we have to have lightning fast reactions. We need to make our move in a matter of moments or risk missing our chance forever. Maybe there's absolutely no need in my life now, for panic, pressure, stress or anxiety. But what if I see something that it makes sense to seize? should I sit around trying to talk myself out of it? We tell ourselves that there are many things we need to do.

We say, 'I shall be much happier once I have shifted this obstacle/solved this problem/attained this objective.' Then we set about doing whatever we feel will help get us closer to that goal. We form plans. We develop big ideas. We make sacrifices of time, energy and money. When all this effort makes us miserable, we redouble it. We forget that we might be happier still if we just stop trying. Perhaps we shouldn't allow a sense of obligation to let us rule out the easy options?!!!!

People like answers, much more than questions. Answers are reassuring, comforting and clear. Even if we disagree with them, we have something to react to. Questions, by contrast, are aggravating and exasperating. They hang around, making everything uncertain and unsettled. Even if you clear up one, you'll probably just end up wrestling with another. Which is all fine, apart from one thing. Answers, too easily arrived at, produce problems in the end. Like when, it's tempting to pretend that a certain situation is all sussed and sorted. But it isn't. Yet. We Keep on questioning a complicated situation. We don't just want the most convenient answer, we want the right one.

Intolerant people should be shot. Impatient folk should hurry up and learn how to wait for things. Lack of forgiveness is truly unforgivable. You see, that's the trouble with good intentions. There's a vast gulf between rhetoric and reality - and it is all too easy for even the most noble and sincere amongst us to slip inadvertently into that awkward abyss. Somewhere in my world now, a great statement is being made. Yet when I listen more closely to it, I find that I seem to have zero tolerance...perhaps I should hurry up and learn to wait...but hey...why doesn't it hurry up and happen instead of me having to learn to wait!!!!

Everytime we say goodbye...a little piece of my heart goes with you!