Thursday Tidbits

Posted on March 11, 2021 under Thursday Tidbits with 2 comments

 

Cherish the good times

 

“Don’t take the good times for granted,

For things keep changing each day.”

Don’t Take The Good Times For Granted. David and Daniel O’Donnell

 

I am blessed to have a lot of friends. Many of them are close friends going back to my school days, but I’ve managed to accumulate many more over the years through my writing and travel. At a time of life when most of us are losing friends, I am collecting new friends as fast as a pair of velvet pants might pick up cat hair. Cat hairs are a nuisance. New friends are a treasure.

The other day, I received a lovely song from an old friend. She’s younger than me so technically she’s not that old! We chat quite regularly. We took our education year together back in 1975-76 and then we went off in different directions as is often the case. The death of a mutual friend a couple of years ago reconnected us again. Also, her mom is in the nursing home in my hometown where I used to do music five days a week. When she would travel home to visit her mom, we would get caught up on each other’s lives.

I’m always interested in new music or at least music that I haven’t heard before. I receive all kinds of videos as I’m sure most of you do. Many times, I ignore them. This is mainly because my internet signal is so weak that it could take me ten minutes or more to listen to a 3- minute song. Lately, my internet at home is passable which almost rates as a miracle which should be reported to the Pontiff.

Early Monday morning before heading to work (after watching the Highlight of the Night on TSN), I played the song. It’s a bit syrupy. I happen to like syrup. While the tune was pleasant enough, it was the words that caught my attention.

“Don’t take the good times for granted, for things keep changing each day,

Make time to be with the ones that you love, let nothing stand in your way.

We don’t know what waits round the corner, we never know what lies ahead,

So just for a moment, forget all your troubles, and count all your blessings instead.”

Sadly, for most of us, we are caught up in our day to days lives and when there are no speedbumps along the road, we rarely take time to heed the words written in this song. It’s only when hard times befall us or our friends that we become conscious of life’s fickle nature. I know that there are some of you out there who are dealing with cancer. There are others who are dealing with mental health issues, anxiety and stress. You might be ready to throttle me for putting on such a shiny face. I’m not naïve. As the song says, we don’t know what waits around the corner and a time will come that I might not be singing from the same songbook that I’m singing from now. Until that day arrives, I choose to count my blessings everyday and try to be consciously grateful. And we can show empathy to those whose lives are in turmoil.

Thanks, DB.

If you have a few minutes, give this song a listen. https://youtu.be/AssqoXawaoY

Have a great weekend.

P.S. The winner of my book giveaway last week for correctly identifying The Cremation of Sam McGee was Len MacEachern. There was a time when I could recite the entire poem and I’m guessing that there are many of you who still can. Now you must admit, that I tossed a lob ball with the opening lines of that poem. Ok, you smarty pants. Try this one on for size. For a free book of your choice form my vast (6) collection you need to identify the name of the poem and the author. NO CHEATING. NO GOOGLING.

“I caught this morning morning’s minion, kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding.”

Honestly, I still don’t have a damn clue what this poem is about but it has been stuck somewhere in the recesses of my brain for almost 50 years.