https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/science/11tierney.html

Traditionally, envy is linked with the eyes,” Dr. Smith said, noting that the word comes from the Latin “invidere,” which mean to look at with malice, or cast an “evil eye.” Just as an invidious comparison is by definition bad, so is envy defined by some psychological researchers to be inherently malign.

Mary was feeling very bad tempered.Wearing her good brown coat without its fake fur collar she had ventured into Waterbones Bookshop.Putting her crutch against the wall she sat down on a small metal folding chair for a few minutes., pondering whether to buy a book for £20 or to go into Boots and buy some foundation cream and pink nail varnish
Suddenly a young woman approached and said in a strangely peremptory manner
If you want to sit down, you will have to go upstairsâl
I can’t get up the stairs Mary told her truthfully.You have no lift
Well, you are next to the Crime Section, it is very popular
There’s nobody here right now.So if people come I shall have left
No,get up cried the assistant
As the woman seemed unable to leave her alone, Mary left the shop.She decided to use Amazon.
So much for protecting her High Street!
As she approached her home. a neighbour came by and said a very offensive few sentences.Maybe she had an aversion to women
In the evening Mary received a text
I realise I offended you.I was in a hurry.Apologies.
After a few days Mary replied
I am sorry I could not stay to allow you to insult me further.I am in severe pain when standing still.If you wish to verbally attack me or insult me please invite me to your house and let me sit down .Then you can ring 999 and ask for Dave.
Later on Dave the transexual,transvestite and transforming paramedic ran in with a chocolate cake in his hand.He wore his denim dress with a yellow pinny decorated with embroidered ladybirds and some pink velvet shoes he had just got in the Market
Would you like me to make you a cup of tea,Mary? Where’s Annie? Dave said anxiously
Annie is down in Brighton for the weekend.She wants to see the sea,Mary lied
What’s wrong with Sheringham? Dave asked thoughtlessly?
She liked the shops in the Brighton.She likes to wander aimlessly about the lanes bumping into men now and then,Mary cried ironically
She could be arrested and imprisoned,Dave said untherapeutilcally
The men don’t seem to mind! Mary muttered loudly with envy on her voicel
You look pale,Mary,Dave whispered into her ear.Are you ok?
No , she murmured.Why are people so cruel to me?
Why not hit one with your stick, he suggested brilliantly
I am a pacifist and anyway they might hit me, back she thought out loud
How about :The gentle art of verbal self defence? I saw you read it/
I’d rather kick them, she answered pointedly
Now I have an idea,said Dave.I’ll put a suit on and accompany you out to the town
I can’t believe I need a “man” to protect me, she said in a low voice
But I am not a “man”, he cried desperately
Are you ” other” she queried
I am all and nothing, he said in a puzzled tone.
Are you God? she said in a sudden panic
Not yet, he cried.It’s Emile who is to be the New Messiah
No, mewed Emile.I am still not fully converted to Judaism.It is complex.
Well, get a move on.We can’t keep living the way we are,Mary sighed
Would you like to walk on water in this weather, the cat answered . Many are called and a few are frozen, he continued philosophically.
It would make a change, from the Gaza protests, Dave cried
I wish the PM would try it,Mary giggled fervently.Would her leopard skin shoes get wet?
We will never know.She’s into ankle boots now.
Next it will be knee high boots
Heil Theresa…..
Heil Boris
Who’d have Brexited that?
Send us peace in our rhymes,Lord

Its horizontal fur like wire

The black cat runs, climbs fences

Dances on the roof of the shed

Hides in the forsythia branches, like a demented child

My hair cut that way I could pass for 23.

The cat runs up the seesaw, its teeth gleaming like an advert for Colgates’

Back up the seesaw, the little devil flashes green eyes like old marbles iced with frost

Now he wants some money he says.

He’s just a stand-up comedian nowadays.

Are you allowed to have four legs?

I don’t know what God would think

But does he even think?

The black cat laughs and I say would you like to borrow my hair dryer for a blow dry.

But you can’t blow dry wire!

https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2006/oct/04/guardianobituaries.religion

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/03/creative-writing-better-pen-longhand

Many people suffer a lot in life most people suffer a certain amount it’s inevitable. It’s possible that sometimes it might have the effect of making you change or become more sympathetic was the suffering others but I don’t think that suffering itself should be sought.

On the other hand I don’t believe that emotional suffering is necessarily a sign of mental illness. How many people have suffered broken hearts? Nearly everybody probably in our society at some point but that doesn’t make you mentally ill.

If anything it might really be the inability to tolerate suffering in the form of painful emotions that could cause mental illness.

I have refined you, but not as silver is refined.
    Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.”
Isaiah 48:10

When the sun is high and bright and strong
We feel that it will always be the same
But when we live on earth we know we’re wrong
And for that darkness we have got a name

Now in England we have lights and screens
We do not fear the dark,the devils’ night
But often in the winter we will dream
Of summer heat and places full of light

The steps at Aldeburgh where we saw the sea
The cliffs at Lyme and Charmouth in the spring
But from such places I dread memory
The pain of loss is hard and no child brings

Now the sky is lilac in the dusk
In creation I find what I trust

Startled by the lilac of the sky
More blue dilutes the pink I saw before
Dark branches stand like fingers pointing high

The little bay tree potted is too dry
I gave it drops of tea but it needs more
Entranced by  softest lilac ,oh, the sky

I see two trees have grown like Russian spies
They got stuck in and blossomed then I saw
Dark branches,unboned fingers pointing high

Elderberry,cherry, seeds  have strayed
Don’t tell us that  green Nature may have flaws
Enhanced by  lilac , darkening, goodbye

Soon will come the ending and the prayer
The drama is all done, if any care.
Dark branches ,boneless fingers, pointing high

We may live, but God it is that stares
Like the Langdale Pikes watch Windermere
Down beneath the  silence of the sky
Dark branches stand like judges  from on high

 

 

 

 

Old man,bending over,
arched like a fallen moon
in a dark lilac November sky.
joy and pain wrestle my heart across the emptiness
and toss it up like a damp rocket
to fall in a hidden corner where mice live.
Would that not be a good ending,to be dust
to these little creatures nesting
in my chewed green twine and my tartan basket?
They have eyes and shiver in my hand when I rescue them
from the cat…
as any heart might.
Now night falls on the newspaper basket
where the damp Times and the Guardian mix into glue
and tomorrow the sun will rise
and it will just be the garbage
with no poetic undertones nor deathly hushes..
Heather and a silver light
you stand on a hill top like a god
looking over his domain.
Strong and now weak
it’s the humane condition
Everlasting life is too dangerous for humans.
Silent,motionless,home of beetles
bit by bit we fall away
into the mother soil
with cracked jugs and dropped coins
for a future academic to dig into.
Transparent hand touches me.
Whose might it be

Hallowe’en
Stan was feeling sad because the clocks had turned back so it was dark at 4pm.His wife Mary was out on her old Raleigh with battery lit lights front and rear….though not quite on her ass.Stan is very vulgar sometimes as it cheers him up.When Mary gets home he did say to her once,You need a light on your ass .Mary,like the Queen,was not amused.
Emile Stan’s cat suggested they go for a walk before sunset and so off they went.Stan wore an old green overcoat and a flat cap.Emile was running ahead as he was so excited.Some times he sat on the sturdy old man’s shoulder on a cat pad.[On sale everywhere for two pounds ten and sixpence.]Stan felt his spirits rise as he walked as the sky was so beautiful striped in blue and peach just like it had been in the Holy Land when he went on a Pilgrimage with other old Catholics from Knittingham Cathedral
How lovely it would be to walk in the wood and feel crunchy leaves under his boots.[From Hotters of Whelmersdale,Lancs] And Emile liked to bury himself in the leaves and leap put as Stan went by.But as they approached the wood a strange sight met their eyes,,, all four!
The trees were full but not with birds.They were full of cats.Big cats,fat cats,thin cats,pedigree cats,mixed race cats,cats of all colors and sizes.You can imagine the effect of having a hundred or more cats’ eyes staring yellowly at you in synchronized glares.Why,it was almost enough to send Stan running home for some brandy

Emile went nearer.He spoke to a big black cat

What’s going on?,he mewed.You are in my territory,

The black cat looked at him with his big green eyes.

We are witches‘ cats.We have come from all over Great Britain,excluding Northern Ireland as cats are not allowed on the boats now. no ratsl eft]..Tomorrow is All Hallows Eve and we are accompanying our multi-ethnic multicolored witches on a grand flight over Knittingham…tonight we are having,The Big Sing… at midnight precisely.
Did you remember to change the time on your smartphone,asked Emile.All the cats began to giggle and laugh.
We don’t need phones or clocks.We go by the stars and the moon…though doubtless the witches have watches.
Do witches have watches?,Emile asked Stan,after telling him why the cats were there.
Old witches have watches,Stan murmured,mesmerised by the vision of the cats swaying in the gale force winds.Thank God cats have fur,he thought lovingly.
Can we have a walk here,?he asked testily.
Well,Sir,do you recall a song from your childhood,If you go down to the woods today,you
’re sure of a big surprise.At your age,is your heart soft enough to stretch when you see five thousand cats…
I am sure I shall be ok as long as the Good Lord does not come here to feed them with five loaves and two fishes
All the cats laughed again.Stan was puzzled how they managed to stay in the trees with wind and giggles and a few scrapping and fighting as tom cats so when lady cats are near.
We are already full of fish supplied by all the local pet shops,markets and goldfish bowls!
How disgraceful, thought Stan,to eat pet goldfish.but owing to the number of crazy cats he decided to keep quiet…As he got nearer he saw a few cats smoking pipes..Well,I never knew cats smoked,he said to Emile
.Maybe it’s magic mushrooms or coyote,the cat said cheekily
Do you mean peyote?,Stan said querulously.Coyote are animals..
Ah,well.you get my drift,Emile replied cheekily
What was most strange was why this big meeting was taking place in Knttingham
Then he remembered it was the cent of the UK…that must be it.Most intriguing to see all these cats.A few even had tartan ribbons on as they were from Scotland.But how did they travel so far.No doubt it was all arranged by the Chief Wizard.
Somehow Stan and Emile felt self conscious as the cats were almost glaring at them,reminding Stan of an occasion when he and his wife had wandered by accident onto a remote beach for gay nude men.The looks they gave the old folk were far from gay;So he and Emile turned round and headed for home… at least they were forewarned of the midnight concert they and Mary would hear.Stan made some tea with twice as many tea bags as usual.
as he was concerned he might get PTSD or worse,maybe kittzophrenia.This poor man was blessed with a vivid imagination.
When Mary came in from the University he called out,
We have had the most amazing day,Mary….But Mary was wearing a pointed black hat and cloak…. and a big smile.
I know what you mean,Stan….I am just off to take a peek myself.She picked up her broomstick and rode away into the darkening sky.~to think one could be both a witch and a mathematician,,though numbers have a certain magic of their own as we all know

I have been wondering no 8 recently about doubling the last letter of the word as for example

Focus…should it be

Focused or focussed?

There is a rule about this as follows

Is the last syllable of the word is stressed and ends in a consonant then you do double the last letter.

But for focus but the last syllable is not stressed so the past tense will be

Focused

If I have made a mistake please tell me

Artists and Activists Both Have a Role. But Not the Same One. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/05/magazine/activism-propaganda-artists-writers.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

I thought I had lost my  cheque book and I don’t use it very much so it’s not so important but there’s one person  i deal with to whom I must give s check sometimes I remember thinking that it was making my handbag too full

Then I believed that I had taken it out but I couldn’t remember where I put it so I’ve been searching as they say high and low for several days and then I sat down on my chair staring at my handbag which is red and I noticed that there’s a pocket on the back with a zip in which I kept my bus ticket or train tickets .So sweating with professional versatility I gazed at this bag then I picked it up and of course the check book was in that compartment where the tickets normally go.

So I suppose the lesson is make sure you really have lost what you think you’ve lost before you start searching for it because believe me 1 searching in my living room is no fun whatsoever as it’s full of computers houseplants books pens paintbrushes different sorts of reading glasses  tissues combs brushes paint brushes watercolor paint

I think I left it too late to learn to be tidy up but I can see the attraction of being a nun just two habits one in the washer one on I  have don’t know what they were underneath there habits in fact probably they’ve given up wearing them all together but if so they won’t have a lot of clothes maybe two skirts and three blouses and s cardigan

When Jesus told us to give away all our possessions and maybe it wasn’t help other people it was to help us that we would have more time and less worry if we had fewer possessions it’s just a problem when you’ve already got them and you’ve got  arthritis ato try to sort it all out but rest in peace because I know how to do it now

I have found an organisation that comes around at a pre-owned time and will take away clothes books almost anything that’s clean and in good condition so having given them 10 by within the last two weeks we’ll probably be getting some more next week and so this will help the shops that sell these things to get more money to help their cause whether it’s Oxfam or mental illness or cancer.

full

We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us that they may see, it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet.

William Butler Yeats, The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

I have what I think is a cartoon by Picasso in my living room. I’ll probably it was used to advertise a show when he had done the bullfighter paintings.

2 weeks ago I had a visitor and she said to me, gosh I didn’t know you did painting as well.

I didn’t say anything contradict here because I thought it might mess her feel bad because she doesn’t know much about painting.

Maybe it’s unfinished look made her think that I had just done it in a spare moment

So beware in case you become famous for something you didn’t do.

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/how-to-complain-to-the-nhs/#:~:text=Contact%20your%20local%20integrated%20care,often%20displayed%20on%20its%20website.

So uninspired, the vivid moles did fire a thimble on the waves

So crumbly were the unbaked loaves

The home cats all strayed

Come with me my little pal, I’ll take you out and pay the knaves

My Google payment was devised

On the comb I found your waves

So definitely the PayPal loved, uncensored symbols overcame.

The term denied, it was unsafe

In the end we all were crazed.

Symbols thimbles stop and blink till men are kinder and still brave

My phone will not with contact pay

I think it’s better to pray my way.

Stephen Leacock Lewis Carroll put me in and wouldn’t borrow

My heart was filled with God’s own power

We’ll play the lame for half an hour

https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/health/wellbeing/redress-the-balance-being-steady-on-your-feet

There are three components to balance. The first is the visual system, which shows us whether we’re tilting. Then the vestibular system in the inner ear sends information to our brain about the motion of our head in relation to our surroundings. Thirdly, proprioception is our body’s ability to sense its location, movement and actions. 

“People with ear problems that cause dizziness […] are more likely to have balance issues”

People with ear problems that cause dizziness, or with joint problems or muscle weakness are more likely to have balance issues. If you suffer from dizziness, see your GP to find out the reason.

Get your strength up

 
Exercise goes a long way to helping you stay steady on your feet

But there’s a lot you can do yourself to improve physical strength. If you exercise, you’re ahead of the game. One study found that a group that did 32 weeks of resistance training improved their ability to stand on one foot by 25 per cent and another group that did 32 weeks of aerobic exercise increased theirs by 31 per cent.

” If you exercise, you’re ahead of the game”

null

Otherwise, improve your balance by walking, cycling or climbing stairs – this will strengthen muscles in the lower body – or by practising yoga, pilates or tai chi. Or simply practise balancing on one leg – hold onto a chair to begin with, if necessary. 

Read more: Sex and ageing: Fact or fiction?

Read more: How to protect your hips

Keep up with the top stories from Reader’s Digest by subscribing to our weekly newsletter

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There are three components to balance. The first is the visual system, which shows us whether we’re tilting. Then the vestibular system in the inner ear sends information to our brain about the motion of our head in relation to our surroundings. Thirdly, proprioception is our body’s ability to sense its location, movement and actions. 

“People with ear problems that cause dizziness […] are more likely to have balance issues”

People with ear problems that cause dizziness, or with joint problems or muscle weakness are more likely to have balance issues. If you suffer from dizziness, see your GP to find out the reason.

Get your strength up

 
Exercise goes a long way to helping you stay steady on your feet

But there’s a lot you can do yourself to improve physical strength. If you exercise, you’re ahead of the game. One study found that a group that did 32 weeks of resistance training improved their ability to stand on one foot by 25 per cent and another group that did 32 weeks of aerobic exercise increased theirs by 31 per cent.

” If you exercise, you’re ahead of the game”

null

Otherwise, improve your balance by walking, cycling or climbing stairs – this will strengthen muscles in the lower body – or by practising yoga, pilates or tai chi. Or simply practise balancing on one leg – hold onto a chair to begin with, if necessary. 

Read more: Sex and ageing: Fact or fiction?

Read more: How to protect your hips

Keep up with the top stories from Reader’s Digest by subscribing to our weekly newsletter

RELATED CONTENT

WELLBEING

CBD oil: Benefits, uses & best UK brands in 2021

HEALTH CONDITIONS

5 Types of bodily pain – Marietta, GA

WELLBEING

Can gossip be good for you?

WELLBEING

5 Ways regular exercise keeps your mind fit

null

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I would like to take you in my arms now

And I will lie in your grave with you

I don’t want you to be alone

I will hold you until you are cold

Then I will sleep in the earth

Where you desire to go.

And all will be well

Without you there is so much emptiness.

The earth Will absorb us

Until we rise again

This is a really interesting man

The true direction of the development of thinking is not from the individual to the social, but from the social to the individual.

OBy giving our students practice in talking with others, we give them frames for thinking on their own.

https://www.azquotes.com/author/18302-Lev_S_Vygotsky

Love can reach the same level of talent, and even genius, as the discovery of differential calculus.

Lev Vygotsky

O

Style Citation

Lev Vygotsky Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved August 2, 2024, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/lev_vygotsky_70080

https://www.edmontonpolice.ca/CommunityPolicing/FamilyProtection/ElderAbuse/WhyElderAbuseHappens#:~:text=Whether%20intentional%20or%20not%2C%20abuse,that%20can%20accompany%20old%20age.

O

Abusive style of interaction

In some families, the members have a way of relating to each other that is generally hostile and non-nurturing. The adult children may have been abused by their parents, and having learned to interact in such a manner, carry it on into the next generation. Or there may be some unresolved family conflicts which foster abuse. The family may have a history of wife abuse which carries on into old age.

Waxy flowers poking through
Snow so white
Flowers bright.
Made me think of you.

I see once more your just washed hair,
Soft as snow,
On pillow.
Now my bed is bleak and bare

,
Face alight,flower to sun,
I loved you.
Love so true.
Fear by love,overcome.

Cyclamen in the snow,
Pink and red,
Now frozen,dead.
Love was,oh,so long ago.

But never gone from in my mind.
Thoughts so deep,
Upwards seep.
Love was gentle,love was kind,

Always in my mind

Evoking the beauty, the stars so far away,
I like to watch geese at the end of day.
Patterns and poems disclose other worlds.
Feel the hand of a baby with the fingers all curled

See the trust and the smile when the mother is home,
To create entire worlds for the one she has borne.
For chaos and panic or not far away
Even in adults who don’t care to say.

The little hands touch me so deeply, so well;
How come the world is diving to hell?
How can we kill little wains by the score
Was it for this that I opened your door?

Was it for this that love electrified us,
And we were lost in each other, in the holy white dove.
Was it for war that we gave love our wombs
Making more soldiers and filling more tombs?

The bombs are a-loading they’re having parades.
It’s not North Korea, it’s Washington, dude.
Let the tanks roll on Corrie and the Bedouin tribes.
Let the allies laugh blindly as the Lord Jesus dies.

O take me, dear mother.Please take me away
I can’t see no point in saying my prayers.
The leaders’ religions are making God frown.
The desert is empty, the tents all dragged down.

The centuries of living so free , so mobile;
The holy land blessing as they pause for while.
The little black tents like wombs of the night
Are all gone to shredders as we sing, Silent Night.