Hope…..

Jeannie with the light brown hair...

                         That is what bees have in mind when they buzz around the garden hoping to collect pollen so they can make honey !

 

However, without living amongst the flowers that surround them  – that hope may be abandoned.

 

This is how I liken my family and friends, without them I would be living a life without hope of living a happy and productive life  – like a bee trying to make honey without any flowers.

 

It’s family and friends that make life sweet.

 

Love and friendship are the elixir of life that give us purpose. – Our “raison d’etre !”

 

That’s why we get a buzz when a friend contacts us.

 

That’s why we seek love and why are all happy knowing our family is close by and we can count on them for whatever our needs might be.

 

Whenever,wherever!

 

After all, life is for sharing, the good and the…

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Picking and choosing….

Source: Picking and choosing….

Gifts and giving….

Gifts and giving…..

Cats…..

Cats…...

Discounts and dockets…

Discounts and dockets….

Discounts and dockets…

Everybody loves a bargain. Others gravitate to anything that is a free gift.

Discount dockets and free offers are a proven lure the unsuspecting public,  like bees attracted to  a sticky honey pot. – “Gotcha!” would be a very apt exclamation at this point. – Just what the retailer wanted!

What people fail to realise is – that there isn’t any such thing as a “free lunch.” – Ultimately, someone has to pay!

I f only people would stop to think just how discounts and dockets control their choices of what they’d really like to buy. – The fact is, that it’s the retailer that is getting them to buy just what the retailer wants them to buy.  –  It’s just amazing how many people will only consider buying  something only if it’s on special or because it’s cheap!

The market is full of rubbish which is sold off with the discount already factored into the price. – Which in turn,  ends up in someone’s shopping bag.  – Someone who really didn’t want or intend to buy the product in the first place.

–  If they were honest with themselves and really thought about what they were buying, they would have preferred to spend their money on another quality item of their choice.

The public doesn’t realise this –  but it has been gradually conditioned and psychologically brainwashed to buy anything that has a red discount ticket on it! – Like it or not!

–  If only they’d stop and think about this fact and buy something that could be considered as true value for money – not because it is cheap! – After all, if you pay peanuts and you’ll get monkeys.

Mothers buy cheap imported starchy foods to fill up their shopping baskets, which in turn get fed to their children instead of fresh and nutritious foods which they could have spent the extra money on. – Youngsters buy anything that is cheap, plastic and trendy and of no intrinsic value, just because they have seen it on TV and true to form , they tire of it soon afterwards.

Cheap goods have flooded the western market which in turn compete against the home country’s quality products produced by its long established companies that pay a fair working wages to their workers. –  Many companies have been forced to close their doors because of this trend, people lose their jobs and then wonder why!

If only people would be prepared to spend a little extra to buy quality goods and support their home country’s farmers and manufacturing companies.

It goes without saying that we’d definitely  have a better choice of products  on the supermarket shelves and in turn ,the purchasing of these products would also support the jobs of workers employed by these companies and on the farms. –  Far better to a spend a little more on our home grown products than donating money to a charity in order to support someone who unfortunately has found themselves out on the street, without a job to support their families and the hope of finding more work in the same industry  because they’ve been made redundant!

Think about it!

Wear and tear….

Wear and tear…..

Christmas and all that it means….

To me Christmas means, “Peace, goodwill to all men.” It is a celebration that Christians every where celebrate on 25th December every year.

However, I think this message should apply to all faiths everywhere, after all many of us are born into the religion of our culture and few of us stray from what we know or taught.

The fact is, we’re all human beings and our desires are much the same as anybody else, no matter what our faith happens to be, after all faith is a personal thing.

Basically we all want to do no  wrong and try to do the right thing by everybody but alas as history has shown us. –  Humanity is far from perfect, it’s frail and it makes mistakes.

Many of us have lived through wars, been aware of massacres and killings of the innocent and most of us ask the same question –  “Why!” – Particularly recently, in view of the tragic occurrence and murder of twenty innocent children and their teachers at school in America, all between the age of six and eight, all shot to death by a madman which I’m sure has put a damper on everybody worldwide.   Particularly as it is Christmastime. – We all feel sick at heart.

I don’t have the answer to the question “Why?” – All I understand is that we are human and many terrible mistakes have been made because of our lack of understanding or willingness to treat our neighbours as we would ourselves. To nurture instead of destroy. The human psyche has yet to be unraveled and understood completely.

Madness is rarely understood but even the sane need to answer a lot of questions in regards to the reasons why they do certain things and their lack of action in  rectifying  wrong doing. – No one really has an answer.

Personally, I love Christmas. I keep it simple and I keep it nice. It’s a family occasion which often invites friends and relatives to join in. I steer well away from the commercialisation of Christmas as I think it taints the real meaning of Christmas somehow.

I just love the smell of Christmas cooking. I  enjoy setting an inviting table and really have a lot of fun watching everybody open their gifts be they big, small or even a gift given in jest. – But most of all,  having a family around us to enjoy and share things with. This  is our greatest treasure.

We should give for the sake of wanting to give and according to our means,  but not as an expectation. We should receive with graciousness and not with disappointment. –  But most of all, I think we should  share this occasion with the less fortunate, such as families in crisis, those that are very sick in hospital or with those that are all alone in the world.  – It’s really not so very hard to do. – To my mind, this is the true meaning of giving.

Here’s wishing everybody a lovely Christmas as I’m sure we are all offering  a special prayer for those that have lost love ones this year, particularly to families of the little school children and their courageous teachers that died so tragically in America just a few days ago.

God Bless and all the best for the New Year and always.

One thing leads to another…

I am what a lot of people these days would call a  lady of a certain age. – Therefore,  I can take the liberty and assure you that the well known saying of  “One thing leads to another.” –  is absolutely true.

I can look back over the years and I notice that there are quite a few people that I know in my life, that perhaps would not have even been born, if it hadn’t been for me making a certain decision or taking various actions in the past that actually led to the event of their parents meeting each other, which in turn led to them falling in love, forming a relationship, marrying and giving birth to them.

– I dare say quite a few people, once they think about it,  can also claim the same. – Some people may even put it down to destiny. Paths do cross and events do happen.

I was born during the second world war and stories abound about soldiers and sailors meeting their wives overseas whilst they were serving for their countries. – Had it not been for the tragic event of the war, perhaps they would never had met, moved to another land and their children would not be alive today.

We can all remember our school days, teenagers that became friends because of a romantic evening at the school prom or friends that met at church or our local youth club. – Thinking about it, rock and roll and religion certainly have a lot to be responsible for!

Uni students meet and marry, had they not passed their exams and decided to study at university, perhaps they would not have had the families they have today.

Within my own family business which we formed many years ago, we’ve had quite a few marriages between workmates and when I see their lovely children running around visiting our factory.  – I think ” Gosh,  had we not made the decision to create our business all those years ago, they wouldn’t be here!”

Same goes for friends that we have taken on holiday with us and that have met up with some of our overseas friends, met, married and now have a family. – Had we not extended the invite, their children wouldn’t be here either!

As a young man, my husband ended up staying in Australia after a quick decision not to continue working on board a ship where he’d had an unpleasant disagreement with the captain. He decided to stay a few years, work a while and eventually return to his home country, which in time he did. – At the same time, on the other side of the globe, I too, at a crossroads in my life and just about to turn twenty-one years of age, had made the decision to travel and migrate to Australia.  -Two decisions that led us to meet, marry and have a family. A boy and a girl, that wouldn’t be here today, had those decisions not been made.  – The rest is history!

Yes, one thing always leads to another. – Our thoughts and the words we speak, lead to the decisions we make.  Our actions lead to events,  including the good and bad,which definitely direct our lives in such a way, that they lead us to new discoveries, new friends, new careers, new lives and more often than not, always for the better.

As John Lennon once said “Life is what happens when you are making other plans.”

I guess it is all a matter of being in the right place at the right time!

Flowers…

I just love flowers, any kind of flower. –  I think they are some of nature’s works of art. – Surely the design of a great creator.

They are beautiful and they fascinate me. –  Flora and fauna being two of my great loves.

In fact, I’m always taken back and remain little disappointed when some people stress that they think flowers are a waste of money because for me personally, they give me great joy.

Others make a point of saying “No flowers please” for funerals and prefer to donate the money that they may cost to a charity. – This is a personal choice of course.

– But to my way of thinking, why wait until a funeral to donate to charity.  – To my mind, monetary donations can be done at anytime, we don’t need to wait for someone to die to do it.

– I think flowers are a lovely way to say good bye. – After all, buying flowers also support the living.  The flower cultivators, gardeners and the florists who create such beautiful arrangements.

– This is not such a bad thing is it?

Flowers make me wonder. – I am in absolute awe of nature. Amazed at how a flower can sprout from beneath the earth from a tiny seed or bulb. Then after being drenched by rain, grow a stem which by its own accord, reaches towards the light and sunshine. – Then just as a mother would unwrap a shawl from a newborn baby. It unfolds its leaves one by one and a flower bud  shows its pretty head. – Then gradually, gradually it opens its delicate petals and blooms into some exquisite design. –  Everyone a different colour and  unique in its own way.

Who cannot be swayed by the prettiness of a flowery meadow, a rose bush A  cherry blossom tree. A lily or the elegance of an orchid?

– Who can resist the perfume of a fresh gardenia, a frangiapani tree, lilac or an English rose?  – I can’t.

Gifts can come in many shapes and sizes and the occasions are many. Money of course, has its uses and is very practical and naturally, we are always grateful to receive such gifts.

– But for me, no matter what the occasion may be, there is nothing quite like ” saying it with flowers. ” –  It makes one feel special and it is always that one small kind gesture that really makes life feel worth while.

After all, memories remain and a thing of beauty is a joy forever…