Well it’s more like rainshine than sunshine these days. We get the odd teaser of what a summer’s day is like and then wham it’s back to the brollys. Imagine last Saturday in Thurles, the second-half of the Galway/Cork match was played under floodlights – in mid July! The first ever such an occurrence for a championship match, I believe. And we are not even mentioning the gloom being cast by our equally dismal economic state of affairs – a touch of pathetic fallacy, I dare say, to add to the national mood. Therefore it’s an opportune time to go all reflective and wax philosophical if not lyrical. Here follows is one of my favourites.
Golf Balls and Two Glasses of Wine…
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 glasses of wine. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “yes.”
The professor then produced two glasses of wine from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed “Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things; your family, your friends, your children, your health, and your favourite passions; things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else; the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Take your friends for drinks. Play another 18 holes of golf. Call a friend for no particular reason. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first; the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the wine represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of glasses of wine with a friend.” Make mine a pint!
Summer Session
No fiddles, banjos or bodhrans bur surely to get you toe- tapping at these sessions organised by your local library at Ardkeen which have been on-going over the Summer.
(1).Would you like to rebalance your body and encourage its natural ability to establish and maintain proper balance, then come along to Ardkeen Library on Saturday 25th July at 3.00pm where angel therapist Grainne Delaney will talk about integrated energy therapy. Integrated energy therapy is a deep cellular healing, with the energy of angels. It is so called because the angelic integrated energy therapy releases the suppressed pain of the past by integrating it with the joy of the present moment. This helps to rebalance the body, encouraging its natural ability to establish and maintain proper balance. It provides a simple and gentle way to open the flow of vital life force energy within the body.
(2) Meant to bring you word about this last week which proved both interesting and popular and so likely to be repeated: Would you like to boost your energy levels, relieve your aches and pains or reduce your stress levels then you could have learned all about at Ardkeen Library on Saturday 11th July where therapist Jacqueline Merne talked about how magnets have been used throughout the ages to relieve pain and boost energy. How do magnets work? Magnets get you blood to work more efficiently boosting energy, relieving aches and pains and reducing stress. Magnets have been found to help with conditions like, arthritis, asthma, eczema, backache, migraine, psoriasis, sleep problems and many more. Magnets are drug free, simple to use and have no side effects. Find out what else is coming up. For further information about Summer Sessions at Ardkeen Library please contact Mary Foley on 051 849755, 051 843633 or mfoley@waterfordcity.ieMore Magnetism
Some very valuable advice
Especially for those due to go on Summer holidays be it abroad or a ‘Staycation’ a useful bit of advice. In my opinion this is pretty good info. Never even thought about key cards containing anything other than an access code for the room! Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card? Answer: a. Customer’s name B. Customer’s partial home address c. Hotel room number d. Check-in date and out dates e. Customer’s credit card number and expiry date! When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner. An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense.
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee reissues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new guest’s information is electronically ‘overwritten’ on the card and the previous guest’s information is erased in the overwriting process. But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR information on it!
The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room. They cannot charge you for the card and you’ll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader. For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip! Paranoid or plain sensible – well annoyed if caught out!
If you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several times. Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything on the card. The all-versatile wee magnet!
Go Seachtain Eile, Slan