When the TV came to my house, I forgot how much joy and inspiration reading books had brought to me.

Now, I sometimes think back I remember those books but forget immediately the television programmes I watch.

Then the car came to my doorstep and I forgot the joys of walking and meeting friends as we each went on our way. Then came what the fashionistas call the Smartphone and my writing hand turned dumb. I not only forgot how to read I forget to write letters too.

Then the computer came to my house and social media took the place of books penned by truly great writers. Somehow, I convinced myself that the selfies posted by ‘friends’ I had never met or even knew as were the images of the meals they had eaten or the children they had given birth to. I stopped to value time.

When the air-conditioning units arrived, I stopped walking under the tree and along the waterfront in search of a cool breeze. When I stayed in the city, I forgot the aromas of God’s soil, the growing grass and the perfumes of the meadows.

Using bank debit cards, I forgot how to count and value real money. It never occurred to me that bank cards were turning millionaires into trillionaires whilst my local family businesses went bust.

Using my credit card, I forgot the joy of earning and saving money for those special occasions like holidays, anniversaries and home improvements.

With the smell of expensive bottled chemical-made perfumes, I forgot the perfumes of fresh flowers and the aromatic scent that God gave to natural women.

With the arrival of fast food, I forgot how to prepare and cook traditional, environmentally healthy dishes. My family and friends will never know the flavors of freshly cooked natural food as were enjoyed by past generations.

Dashing from one task to another I forgot how to stop, linger, chat and contemplate the joys that I can no longer see. For when I got WhatsApp, I forgot how to talk and communicate.

When we die, our money carries on living and working for the bank. However, when we are alive, we never seem to have enough money for what is meaningless in real life. In fact, when we’re gone, there’s still a lot of money left unspent.

A business tycoon in China was consumed by the need to accumulate money he personally had no need or use for. When he passed to the other side his widow, who was left with $1.9 billion in the bank, married her gardener who had also driven her wherever she wanted to go.

Her driver smiled: “I kept thinking that I was working for my boss. I just realized now that my boss was working for me the whole time.”

I was faced with reality: It’s more important to actually live and to enjoy life than to chase wealth superfluous to my real needs. After all, you are nearer to God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth.

Surely it is better to strive for a rewarding day-to-day lifestyle spent with friends whilst nurturing a strong and healthy mind (books) and body (strolling). It really does not matter who works for whom.

70% of our routine functions are useless. An expensive car doesn’t necessarily do what a less expensive car does: car badges are not genuine status symbols.

If you own a home with bigger or more rooms than you need you are working to spend money on emptiness. 70% of the area is usually unused. How about the clothes in your wardrobes 70% of which are never used?

All our working and earning lives we work and live to improve the lives of others most of whom we don’t really care about and they don’t care about us. Therefore, we must protect and use our 30% to the fullest!

Drink more water, even if you’re not thirsty. Learn to let go and move on even if you encounter serious problems and injustice. Try to be silent even if you are right. Remain humble, even if you are rich and very powerful.

Learn to be content even if you are not rich. Train your mind and body even if you are very busy. Make time for the people who genuinely care for you and whose friendship enriches your life.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. ~ Mark Twain. MICHAEL WALSH – PLEASE SHARE OUR STORIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

RETRIBUTION A Liverpool-based city-vigilante thriller more gripping than Death Wish by Michael Walsh award-winning novelist. ‘Retribution is the greatest movie never made’ ~ William Housman. ‘An excellent thriller written in the tense style of a John Le Carre spymaster novel’ ~ Brian Smyth.

LINK TO BOOK     https://tinyurl.com/4n6ysckj

THE STIGMA ENIGMA. Michael Walsh award-winning novelist. Double-crossed in love, ex-mercenary Jack Scarlett has the sinister sinners of Liverpool’s underworld in his cross-hairs. Detective Chief Inspector Eric Jansen vows to stop his high-octane lethal feud. Can Detective Chief Inspector Eric Jansen stop Jack Scarlett, and does he really want to?

LINK TO BOOK   https://feji.us/csecyi