You know I was listening to all of the shenanigans in the US and thinking about how tragic it all is. I love the US and NY is one of my favourite cities. I have visited over 100 times, worked there, ran marathons there and even got married there under Brooklyn Bridge. Now, the story of Brooklyn bridge is very relevant to what I want to share today. It’s 1883, an engineer named John Rambling came up with the idea of ​​building a bridge connecting New York and Long Island. Everyone said he was nuts and that it is impossible to build the bridge. John Rambling and his son Washington decided to build the bridge, despite the insurmountable odd and opposition.

I remember it like it was this morning, it was 17:28pm 17 May 1974, when in one moment, fate decided that I should live this life I live now. At 17.27 pm I walked past a car that 30 seconds later exploded, killing 10 people, including two infant girls and their parents. At 11.30 on 19th June 1976 I was involved in a car crash where by 3 seconds and 4 meters I avoided certain death. These were two examples of events in my life where for whatever reason, be it luck, fate, timing, co-incidence, the hand of God, it was not written anywhere that my story should end at that time.

“Happiness is a form of courage.” – Holbrook Jackson

A young girl called Mary from a poor background won a scholarship to an elite school. Many of the pupils and teachers were rather particularly patronising to her. In one of her classes Miss Smith asked the class to list the seven wonders of the world. The class started writing down their choices. Miss Smith looked around the class and saw all the pupils writing away, but not Mary. She asked, "Mary is everything ok?". Mary said, "There is just so many to choose from". Miss Smith said patronisingly, "Just list your top seven". Miss Smith gave it a couple of more minutes and asked the class to stop. She noticed Mary was still writing, and asked Mary if she was having trouble with her list. Mary replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many." Miss Smith said, "Well, write what you have, and maybe we can all help you a little later." Mary said ok, and finished. Miss Smith picked up all the papers and started going through them. The lists from all she read were: Egypt's Great Pyramids  The Taj Mahal in India The Grand Canyon in Arizona The Panama…

Have you ever thrown a rock or pebble into the still waters of a pond or lake? Did you notice how the little waves ripple away from the centre in circles and continue on and on? Emotional contagion, the transfer of emotion between individuals happens every day in our lives. Little things we do create ripple effects that can sometimes result in good things and sometimes make bad things happen to other people, even people we have never met. Suppose one morning you happen to see a friend who is grumpy and somewhat unhappy, and you give her a big smile and say hello. Since smiles are contagious, she gives you a smile right back and suddenly feels better. If so, she may smile at someone else. The ripple effect can continue to others, all from that one smile you gave. Positivity is like a virus it transmits human to human. One evening on a lonely country road, an old man was standing on a bridge, high over a deep river. He had just dropped a pebble to see how long it would take to hit the water below. As the stone hit the water, he watched the ripples fanning…

We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are. Optimism has never been cool but even COVID-19 can give us reasons to be cheerful. Stressful life events, such as those instigated by the coronavirus pandemic, have significant influence on our psychological functioning and well-being, and can be a catalyst for psychological problems including anxiety, confusion, social withdrawal, and depression. We have a choice in how we think about any situation we face. Even if you weren’t born an optimist, you can still learn to think like one. Optimism seems to me as essential a commodity as antibacterial gel. Along with vaccine and ventilators, it’s a vital weapon in this global duel with COVID-19. For the first time in history, nearly every scientist in the world is focused on the same problem and this is starting to pay real dividends There are reasons to be cheerful amid the gloom. Even if we don’t know how to defeat this enemy yet, we know a lot more about how it operates. Offstage, an unprecedented scientific collaboration is under way to find vaccines and treatments. Doctors and nurses are learning fast about how to handle the symptoms. When we come out…

When all about you is sh*t , who can you rely on to hold you up when you bend, carry you when you stumble, tell you when you are wrong, step into your life, as others step out, to provide calm advice and help when the world seems against you. I was feeling very down and thinking about someone very close to me who was suffering and I happened on this story which gave me a lift. I hope it does for you too. Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile.  Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands.  He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison.  He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience!

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves.”― François de La Rochefoucauld