"What a wonderful world"

Remember that song which Louis Armstrong immortalised for one of the early James Bond films?

"What a wonderful world" has become a standard both for its simple yet refined music but all the more for its message.  Hit this link if you want to see a clip of this well known song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5IIXeR5OUI&feature=fvw  Yes, the world we live in is wonderful.

Doesn't it make you wonder sometimes how all this beauty around us came to be?  How did it start? Where did it come from? Evolution has been wonderful indeed (or so they say) and we now live in a world so distant from the dinosaurs yet which couldn't really exist hadn't those monsters existed in the first place, well before man appeared on this planet.  It makes you wonder where it all came from (accident?) or if someone actually thought it all up and had anything to do with creating it all.  Someone like The Force (of "Star Wars") or Gandalf (the Wizard of "Lord of the Rings"). Perhaps Frodo, the free spirit of Tolkien's "Rings", may have been involved too. Interesting thought.

These characters from modern literature and filmography, have led us to believe that there is a Greater Good around us constantly battling the not-so-great Bad who wants nothing better than to see us destroy ourselves and our lives.  Superman and The Joker all over again? But don't you think that the Good Life deserves more respect than  this?

In His Footprints...anew

If, like me, you're on the internet often you probably receive dozens of e-mails that are being circulated and re-circulated – one friend actually calls then regurgitated e-mails! They come from whoever to wherever, their original author well and truly lost. A favourite of mine....which has popped up countless times... reminds me that The Almighty Good's way of doing things is different to mine, always, yet He has my best interests at heart, always. That's why I should learn to see Him in everyone around me and then, hopefully, they will see Him through me. So....

I asked God for a flower…..He gave me a garden.

I asked for a tree…..He gave me a forest.

I asked for a river…….He gave me an ocean.

I asked for a friend……He gave me "YOU."

"How low can you go?"

  "How low can you go?" was a central part of the Sixties hit by Chubby Checker called "Limbo Rock" which changed a lot of ways of how people danced in those days. (If you want to listen to it hit this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKu0ZFZ7rp0).  But in reality I was really thinking of "How low can you go in the wilderness of Ein Gedi?"  Emmm...where?

Bear with me.....as our imaginary coach bobs along the road that snakes along the 76 km shoreline of the lowest spot on earth.  We look out onto the northern part of the Dead Sea, 1,373 feet below sea level. Psychologists would have loved to be with us….wow, we are on the way to see deepest depression in any part of the earth.

Depression?   Well, with her sister Desparation, they are the targets we love to point all our fingers at for the way society at large is today.

And a Dead Sea?   Yes, I suppose that clearly indicates that there’s nothing left. Everything has come to an end. Finished. Death, in this case, means that no fish or marine life can possibly live in this very Salty Sea, as the Hebrews call it, Yam Hamelach….. the Bahr el-Miyet of the Arabs or Devil’s Sea of the Crusaders. Yet this very death has become a novelty, a newfound lifeline as today’s tourists to Israel like us quickly find out, the sea with the marvellous quirk where everyone can float without much effort due to its high concentration of salt.

I’m looking for someone to change my life

From “Question” composed by Justin Hayward and performed by The Moody Blues

Over the past 45 years that I have been writing professionally as a journalist, public relations man and copywriter, I have penned many articles of a business, social or religious nature for the media according to the demands asked of me. Yet deep down I have always wished to be able to apply my talents to a project of my own choice, not requested by anyone and definitely not with monetary interests in mind.

Various projects are now on the drawing board as I enter my Sixties and look forward to reduced working hours in the office. This blog is one of them and has been ongoing in the undefined back rooms of my mind in recent years. It is the result of a small journal of thoughts and reflections, some even of a spiritual nature, aimed at unravelling some of the most common questions we tend to ask in our lives, the Why’s, the Wherefore’s, the But’s.

Why CAPPUCCINO?

hooded origins

The best place to start anything creative(!?) is to set it firmly on its proper feet, so a few words on the title is more than a valid place to start. The word cappuccino needs little to define and is now well and truly a household name around the world. This Italian coffee drink, prepared with espresso and milk, is generally described as 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk and 1/3 frothed milk. Another definition would call for 1/3 espresso and 2/3 microfoam. A cappuccino differs from a latte macchiato, which is mostly milk and little foam. (A "dry cappuccino" has less milk!)  In Italy it is consumed almost exclusively early in the day for breakfast; in some other countries it may be consumed throughout the day or after dinner.With typical Italian culinary finesse, a cappuccino is ideally prepared in a ceramic coffee cup, which has far better heat retention characteristics than glass or paper.