Just a Little Thought to Make you Smile.

 So many of you try to get the weekend off to a good start with a light hearted Friday blog, I have had a somewhat heavy blogging week, so I thought today I might keep it light. I have to say though that after reading Sherry’s blog yesterday I had a fairly heavy heart for large parts of the day. How I wish I could think of a way we could help.

Last night I went for a long walk on my own. I walked through the woods and watched the deer have a last meal before settling for the night. It lifted me to see nature in the raw.

Yesterday I watched some young lads in a shop giving the other customers a hard time with their behaviour. It is amazing that the teacher/judge voice still works.

This reminded me of a tale that made me smile. It was a real event. There was a queue of people waiting for the arrival of a bus. At the front was a big burly lad, behind him an old frail looking lady. A man came to join the queue and just pushed in front of the old lady. Nobody said a word. The big lad at the front turned and said to the old lady, “Would you like to step in front of me?” She moved to the front of the queue. The big lad then asked the next person behind the bully to do the same. He did this until the bully was at the back of the queue and he was second from the end. The bully fumed but said nothing. When the bust arrived the tall lad heard the old lady at the front of the queue call him, “Would you like to step in front of me?” Problem solved!

There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit not a vegetable.

Wisdom is knowing not to include it in a fruit salad.

A young teacher from an industrial city in central Scotland had accepted a temporary job teaching a class of five-year-olds out in one of the most isolated, rural parts of northern Scotland. One of her first lessons involved teaching the letter S so she held up a big colour photograph of a sheep and said: "Now, who can tell me what this is?"

No answer. Twenty blank and wordless faces looked back at her. "Come on, who can tell me what this is?" she exclaimed, tapping the photograph determinedly, unable to believe that the children were quite so ignorant. The 20 faces became apprehensive and even fearful as she continued to question them with mounting frustration.

Eventually, one brave soul put up a tiny, reluctant hand. "Yes!" she cried, waving the snap aloft. "Tell me what you think this is!" "Please, Miss," said the boy warily. "Is it a three-year-old Border Leicester?"

Now is that knowledge or is that knowledge with wisdom?

One last tale before I head out to face the rain for my morning run.

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and the beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached, he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.

The man was stuck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached, the person continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person, he said: "You must be crazy. There is about three miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The person looked at the man. He then stooped down and picked up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said: "It sure made a difference to that one!"

We cannot change the world but we can change the small bit we live in.

This is the way of the Tao.

This blog is linked to my other blog. Sun and Calm Looking to Arran