Someone once said to me how come you never write about happy stuff...'Writting about happiness can only be done by really good writers', I thought to myself.

Ready, steady... stop! Sometimes, when we set off on a journey, we experience this phenomenon. We race to get everything packed and then hurry to our point of embarkation. Finally, excitedly, we get aboard the vehicle. And then we hear the announcement. 'We apologise for the short delay but...' There's a sense in which I can now relate to that situation. I seem to have moved so much, set such a lot in motion and severed so many ties, and hence I am expecting to take a big step forward... It hasn't quite happened yet, but lets hope that it will!

Let me tell you a story. Actually, it is a story about a story. Now, this story has two sides, as all stories do. And there is a story attached to each of those two sides. And that story too, also has two sides. Are you keeping track? That's a lot of sides... and a lot of stories. Plus, of course, this is a story about a story. So there are another two sides. Confused? That's healthy. It is the folk who try to pretend that everything is straightforward that we really need to worry about. I guess my s big story is really about one question. Where is it all going? Why am I where I am and how the hell is it ever going to end...that is ironic....because I haven have trouble looking for when did it all Start...Maybe I should suggest one of those books with two side of the story in a shadow...you know that he said...she said...type of stories...!!! ummmm

Thinking about how it all ends... lets take baby tiger cubs...they are so cute. It is hard to believe, when you look at them, that they are going to grow into such ferocious beasts. Yet the laws of nature are immutable. Nothing in this world can stay the same forever. Nor, really, can we consider ourselves entitled to complain that the change has not been for the good. It may not suit us to see kittens turning into big cats. But the tigers are more than happy with the arrangement. Surely there will be growth in situations but how do we trust it, or keep in control? I don't suppose fear or resentment is the answer...but I can't help being scared....ya to some extent we cannot help getting wiser as we get older. Experience invariably teaches us something. Yet there are various subtle ways in which we can prevent ourselves from becoming as enlightened as we should. We may, for example, refuse to digest life's lessons properly. We may grow overly embittered or sceptical. There's absolutely nothing wise about that, regardless of how justified it may seem to be. As it seems I have no option than to do what is truly wise...stop over analysing the hell out of situations and just take it day by day!

We can't always wear our heart on our sleeve. Can we? Indeed, we are adept at pretending that all is fine even when we are concerned. Many of our companions have a similar capacity to disguise their emotions. The empathy that leads us at some level, to choose each other may even have been partly based on this shared ability. If we really need to know where someone stands, perhaps it is easier to begin by deciding what we feel and saying as much. It's risky... but not as risky as saying nothing. And it should draw a clear reply. Even if it is body language...but then again...It is interesting that the features on a human face designed for the reception of information come in pairs. Most people have two eyes and ears. We are equipped with just a single primary transmission device, or if you prefer plain English... a mouth! The symbolic inference is that we need to be able to see two sides to every situation and hear two sides to every argument, but we are only physically designed to tell one story at a time. I guess we ought to be sensitive to others points of view, but do we alter our own depending on others feelings? Or do we trust what we feel and have inevitably made a commitment to?

We can't always wear our heart on our sleeve. Can we? Indeed, we are adept at pretending that all is fine even when we are concerned. Many of our companions have a similar capacity to disguise their emotions. The empathy that leads us at some level, to choose each other may even have been partly based on this shared ability. If we really need to know where someone stands, perhaps it is easier to begin by deciding what we feel and saying as much. It's risky... but not as risky as saying nothing. And it should draw a clear reply. Even if it is body language...but then again...It is interesting that the features on a human face designed for the reception of information come in pairs. Most people have two eyes and ears. We are equipped with just a single primary transmission device, or if you prefer plain English... a mouth! The symbolic inference is that we need to be able to see two sides to every situation and hear two sides to every argument, but we are only physically designed to tell one story at a time. I guess we ought to be sensitive to others points of view, but do we alter our own depending on others feelings? Or do we trust what we feel and have inevitably made a commitment to?