We are well = we have a reservoir

When someone asks "How are you?", one of our usual replies is that we are well.

It's good to recall the other meaning of the word "well".  It means a reserve.  A reservoir.  Usually, a well brings to mind a place where we can get fresh, pure, clean water, and as we know, water is absolutely necessary for life, for survival.  But a well can also be a storage place for anything else - a resource of energy, patience, perseverance, determination.

So, the next time we say that we are well, let's remember that each of us is indeed a  pool of power.  A store of strength.   Resources, energies we can draw on, like drawing water out of a reservoir, at any time we need something extra to get us through any challenging moment.

C'est la vie = Vie = strive for what you want

The French phrase "C'est la vie" means "That's life" - "That's the way life is".

In English, the word "vie" means "to strive, to struggle, to compete, to battle".

In life, we have to fight hard for what we want.  We have to strive, struggle, battle, compete to achieve.

Because just sitting, and wishing, and hoping, isn't going to make our dream come true.

We have to fight for it.  We have to battle for it.

That's life.  A training ground.  A hard school, sometimes.  To teach us to become better, stronger.

That's why "C'est la vie"  =  Vie = Strive

Everything is meaningful

"Courage... is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life, with all its sorrows, is good; that everything is meaningful, even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow."


Dorothy Thompson

An untroubled spirit

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.  The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."


Marcus Aurelius

Photo of a lioness from a magazine cover

Beautiful photograph of a lioness from a magazine cover.

I came across the magazine by chance, when I was staying at a guest-house, during a visit to Thailand some years ago.  I don't know the name of the photographer, but I'd like to send him or her my compliments here, for giving us such an incandescent picture - I love the intense, fiery light in the lioness' eyes.

It makes me remember.......  There was a time,once, at Nairobi Safari Walk, in Kenya, when I was just a few  inches away from a lioness.  Only a wire fence separated us.  The heat that radiated from that fiery being...  I could actually feel it blasting outward - it was like standing in front of a gigantic fire - a furnace.

Mind you, that particular lioness was in a calm and tranquil mood.  She'd simply come up to the fence out of curiosity.  I stood there quietly with her, for a few moments.  And yet, I could still feel the immense, tremendous lion-fire - like an aura.......  Unforgettable.......

Words on a tree

There were words, and initials, written, carved, gouged on the trunk of the baobab.  The one I saw a few years ago at Voi, in Kenya.

It's believed that some baobabs are thousands of years old.  How old will this particular one in Voi get to be? For how many centuries in the future will it be standing guard at the railway station there?  How much history has it already seen?  If only that tree could talk.......

I felt for the tree.......  And also for the people who wrote those words on it....... who could they have been, when, and why did they do it, what were their feelings at the time, where did they go afterwards, and where are they now.......

The sight of that baobab.  It touched my heart.  And stayed with me.  For some reason I can't completely explain.......

Photo of a baobab 2

Another photo of the immense baobab tree at Voi Railway Station, Kenya, East Africa.

Photo of a baobab tree... ("The Little Prince"...)

A huge baobab tree at Voi Railway Station, Kenya, East Africa.

(I took this photo during a stay in Kenya a few years ago).

Seeing it reminded me of the baobabs in the "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.....

L and L and G!

"Another fresh new year is here ....... Another year to live!  To banish worry, doubt, and fear, to love and laugh and give!"


William Arthur Ward

1 Jan. is everyone's birthday

"New Year's Day is every man's birthday."


Charles Lamb