Why am I “Still Finding My Way?”

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Posted by in My Life (as it is)

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I’m now 71 years old – I mean young
I’m an Aries – that says a lot
I’ve had 3 “long term” relationships – we still get along
I’ve been married for two years – she’s a Chinese Dentist
I have two wonderful children – young adults now
I have three younger sisters – all older now
Both my parents have passed away – ALS & Alzheimer’s
I’ve gone through bankruptcy – that really sucked
I’m a Saskatchewan Roughrider fan – I grew up in Regina
I’m a storyteller – a filmmaker, coach, author and educator
I’ve had good days and bad days – and occasionally just daze
I am now living and working in Shanghai – China is an amazing country
Years ago I found myself – then I got stuck in the muck
Now I’m finding myself again – by gazing into the reflective pool
My name is Peter D. Marshall – D is for David
I hope you’ll find inspiration here – or at least a smile


And please leave your comments – and your thoughts
(or I’ll just be talking to myself – and that’s not good)

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These are my feet –
and my shadow.

Where does one end  –
and the other begin?

The Future Belongs to Flexible Thinkers

19 Sunday Sep 2021

Posted by in The Future

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Until you improve your capacity to change, upgrade or reinvent yourself in the face of uncertainty, your progress would take longer than you expect.Moving into the new future will require mental liquidity — the ability to adapt to the transformation around you and thrive despite the uncertainties.
https://medium.com/mind-cafe/the-future-belongs-to-flexible-thinkers-b5e36e691079

Fog – Coming out of a Haze

21 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by in Changes

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by Madisyn Taylor.

Man_in_the_fog_by_tehsushikitteh-d4ek5y6

We can all fall into a fog once in while, but know it will soon lift and the sun will shine upon you again.

When we feel muddled and unfocused, unsure of which way to turn, we say we are in a fog. Similar to when we are in a fog in nature, we may feel like we can’t see where we’re going or where we’ve come from, and we’re afraid if we move too quickly we might run into something hidden in the mists that seem to surround us. Being in a fog necessarily slows us down by limiting our visibility.

The best choice may be to pull over and wait for the murkiness to clear. If we move at all, we must go slowly, feeling our way and keeping our eyes open for shapes emerging from the haze, perhaps relying on the taillights of someone in front of us as we make our way along the road.

By and large, most of us prefer to be able to see where we are going and move steadfastly in that direction, but there are gifts that come from being in a fog. Sometimes it takes an obstacle like fog to get us to stop and be still in the moment, doing nothing. In this moment of involuntary inactivity, we may look within and find that the source of our fogginess is inside us; it could be some emotional issue that needs tending before we can safely go full steam ahead.

Being in a fog reminds us that when we cannot see outside ourselves, we can always make progress by looking within. Then again, the fog may simply be teaching us important lessons about how to continue moving forward with extreme caution, harnessing our attention, watching closely for new information, and being ready to stop on a dime.

We cannot predict when a fog will come, nor can we know for certain when it will lift, but we can center ourselves in the haze and wait for guidance. We may find it inside ourselves or in a pair of barely visible taillights just ahead. Whether we follow the lights out of the fog, wait for a gentle breeze to lift it, or allow the sun to burn it away, we can rest certain that one way or another, we will move forward with clarity once again.

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Most European Men are Descended from just Three Bronze Age Warlords, New Study Reveals

05 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Men & Women

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by Mark Miller.

Bronze-Age-warriors

The majority of European men are descended from just a handful of Bronze Age male ancestors, says a new genetic study in the journal Nature.

The presence of genetic material from just a few men in the Y chromosome sequence resulted from a population explosion several thousand years ago, researchers said. The team of scientists found that there was a huge increase in the population 2,000 to 4,000 years ago, in a band from Greece and the Balkans to the British Isles and Scandinavia.

Read the rest of this article from Ancient-Origins.

Healthy songs: the amazing power of music therapy

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Health

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by Kathleen Howland.

A newborn baby rests in a box, listening to music played through earphones in Saca Hospital in Kosice

When I was a child, on most Fridays, my dad, mom, brother and I would travel to Cape Cod to visit my grandparents. For my father, this drive would come after a long day of work, during which he had already commuted from our home, an hour outside of the city, to Boston, where he worked as an accountant, and back home again. He was an intense man, and during these drives to the Cape we were often silent, on edge – unsure how to interpret his sullen and grave demeanor.

After we arrived, my grandmother would typically begin playing a mix of classical music, folk songs and pop songs on her spinet piano – and I would watch my dad’s face transform: his jaw would slacken, while the lines between his eyebrows softened, lifting the intensity of thought that always seemed to burden him.

This was my first experience of the power of music.

Read the rest of this article from The Coversation.

In Pursuit Of Happiness: Why Some Pain Helps Us Feel Pleasure

10 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in Health

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by Brock Bastian.

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The idea that we can achieve happiness by maximising pleasure and minimising pain is both intuitive and popular. The truth is, however, very different. Pleasure alone cannot not make us happy.

Take Christina Onassis, the daughter of shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. She inherited wealth beyond imagination and spent it on extravagant pleasures in an attempt to alleviate her unhappiness. She died at 37 and her biography, tellingly subtitled All the Pain Money Can Buy, recounts a life full of mind-boggling extravagance that contributed to her suffering.

Aldous Huxley recognised the possibility that endless pleasure may actually lead to dystopian societies in his 1932 novel Brave New World. Although the idea of endless pleasure seems idyllic, the reality is often very different.

We need pain to provide a contrast for pleasure; without pain life becomes dull, boring and downright undesirable. Like a chocoholic in a chocolate shop, we soon forget what it was that made our desires so desirable in the first place.

Emerging evidence suggests that pain may actually enhance the pleasure and happiness we derive from life. As my colleagues and I recently outlined in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review, pain promotes pleasure and keeps us connected to the world around us.

Read the rest of this article from IFL Science.

How photography evolved from science to art

07 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in Photography

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by Nancy Locke.

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Much like a painting, a photograph has the ability to move, engage and inspire viewers. It could be a black-and-white Ansel Adams landscape of a snow-capped mountain reflected in a lake, with a sharpness and tonal range that bring out the natural beauty of its subject.

Or it could Edward Weston’s close-up photograph of a bell pepper, an image possessing a sensuous abstraction that both surprises and intrigues.

Or a Robert Doisneau photograph of a man and woman kissing near the Paris city hall in 1950, a picture has come to symbolize romance, postwar Paris and spontaneous displays of affection.

Read the rest of this article from The Conversation.

Remembering my father on November 11

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Remembrance Day

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dadMy father was just a 19 year old Canadian kid from Alberta when he landed on the beaches of France in 1944. By the time the war ended, he had participated in the Liberation of Holland, he saw many of his friends die and he was wounded several times.

(I remember when I was a kid my mom showing me small pieces of shrapnel that were still coming out of my dad – over 20 years later!)

My father (David) passed away in 2005 and my sister Miriam wrote this story about him. I would like to share it with you:

“As I was looking through my dad’s war memorabilia today (I’m going to send a photo and his war record in for the Virtual Wall of Remembrance in Ottawa and do a bio for the South Alberta Regiments Veteran Assoc) I found one of his notes he used when he did school Remembrance Day ceremonies.

He recounted how he and Mom went to Holland and visited the Dutch family that had billeted Dad after the liberation of Holland. He said that Mom asked one of the women who was a teenager when Dad stayed with the family, “Why are you making such a fuss about David? You would think that he had liberated you all by himself.”

The woman grabbed Mom’s hands and said, “You will never understand the horror of living under enemy occupation when you never know when your father or brother might be picked up and shipped off to Germany and used as forced labour, and every day you dreaded seeing these German soldiers with their rough voices and their rough ways. And suddenly one day hearing the Canadian guns getting closer and closer and then having the soldiers arrive with their friendly smiles and cheerful faces. It was indescribable.”

Let’s never forget what our soldiers did for this country and others. Go to a Remembrance Day ceremony, wear a poppy, shake the hand of a veteran … take a moment on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to thank them.”

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Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (No More Wars)

13 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in Song

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30 wars are raging in the world
There are more than 300,000 child soldiers
2 million children have died in the past decade
90% of the casualties of war are civilian
12 million children have been left homeless due to war
10 million children have been left psychologically traumatized by war
Entire generations of children have never known peace

      Click on photo below to hear song

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Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Lyrics by Bob Dylan
Vocal’s by Avril Lavigne