Quiet Kindness

A couple of weeks ago our friend Yasue Hodge donated a mass of her own beautiful long hair, to the Little Princess charity for children with cancer.

Hopefully we all have time to do a little bit of charity fund raising

now and again. We all need to do our bit for each other. It is just a few weeks since Nathan Abbott worked so hard to raise money for his Freestyle 4 Smile charity that he started himself, to provide cleft palate operations for children in countries where it is not done as a matter of course.

It gets harder to squeeze money out of people who complain about suffering from some sort of charity fatigue, when in fact they should just be giving quiet thanks that they are only being asked for a small donation and more importantly that they are fit and well enough that the fund raising does not have to be done on their behalf to help with their own suffering.

Our friend Nass in Arundel, who suffers from MS himself did the Arundel festival 10km for two charities last week. One being for little Catie-Ross who has spent most of her first year on this earth in a children’s hospital in Maine, USA where she was born with heart and lung defects.

Steve and I am in the very early stages of making plans for another fund raising scheme of our own in summer 2019 when I will probably extent the 75 mini tri’s I did on reaching my 75^th birthday. Of course it will be five days longer the next time and the runs may be slower and contain some walk-run sections (who knows) as I hit 80. It is only 101 weeks away and as we all know, times really does fly. We had a lot of fun and help from friends the first time and hope it will work well again.

Ugly Threats and Quiet Kindness

As the world’s most ghastly leaders

threaten neighbours with their might,

their ugly faces contorted into hate,

lowering watchers respect at the sight.

Mostly our hearts fill with sadness,

while others feel much closer to fear.

They could destroy the things we love,

crush in their hands all that we hold dear.

Then just as we think that all will be lost,

far too late to step back from the brink.

An act of kindness brings our hope back

as one woman makes us stop and think.

Monsters continue their shouting match

each day a bit now closer to disaster there.

Then an ordinary girl lifts our hearts and

for a kid’s cancer charity she cuts her hair.

Where there is life there is indeed hope

let’s search for that tiny ounce of good.

Give kindness and tolerance every chance;

love one another as we know we should.

I leave you here, with a reminder to invite yourself to the first gathering of my newest venture which is:

Scribblers,

Sunday October 8^th from 2pm until 4pm

Look and Sea Visitor Centre

You can come and read anything you wrote be it a poem or a short story, a letter to somebody special.

The Meeting room is above the Harbour Lights Café so collect a tray of tea on the way up or pop down half way through the readings. Hopefully it will be fun. There is no charge as such but a small amount into the pot will help with the cost of hiring this lovely venue.

 The photo here, is of a handsome glossy Rat who appears to be admiring his good looks, this was taken by another friend, Deana Alberti Carrillo who works in at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City and is a keen photographer in her time off.