Happiness is when Irish eyes are smiling…

You know someone once said, “Happiness and sadness run parallel to each other. When one takes a rest, the other one tends to take up the slack.”

About unhappiness one Don Herold had this to say, “Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.” I find that very true even today.

We generally know what brings on unhappiness but it's pretty hard to tell what actually does bring happiness. I think poverty and wealth have both failed.

To paraphrase John Barrymore, “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.”

Every day may not be good, but there's always something good in every day. The secret is to find it and you’ll be happy.

Mark Twain had put it this way, “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.” And that’s what I am trying hard to do here.

When I am sad or angry, I take a break and listen to my collection of old hits. They not only bring back memories but they cheer me up quite a lot.

This one in particular by Joni James entitled “When Irish eyes are smiling” is very mind-soothing and heart-warming to listen to.

Here it is courtesy of “itscalang”. The advice is: "Smile always, laugh often and much and why not just be happy." Enjoy.

Library, a great place to go

Library, a place for mind enrichment & scholarship? And books are like windmills of your mind? Yes, indeed.

A public library is very much like a big bookshop. On the outside it seems cold and dreary but you might be surprised by what you’ll find going on inside.

Inside, you will of course find books of many kinds; little books on life’s instructions and big books about successful men, politics, philosophy and economics.

Books of history and the sciences, of human relationships and novels; indeed the variety is as many and as endless as the length and breath of human endeavors!

There is a quietness and an air of “scholarship” in a library which you will probably not find in any other place.

The view is serene. You’ll find that all the books are nicely stacked up in their proper places and each has been sorted out according to its category.

Indeed, there is harmony in variety and beauty in simplicity! I wish that our world could be like that.

Yet a library is more than just a serene place to keep books and records of all kinds. It does more.

For instance, we all know it facilitates reading and teaching; it promotes knowledge of many kinds and not forgetting, the enrichment of minds as well.

Perhaps what we don’t know is this that it is also a place that enriches world class scholarship thru’ the pursuit of definitive learning, serious study and deliberate research.

I dread to think where humanity would be today if not for libraries? Indeed, knowledge seekers cannot do without them.

When was the last time you paid a visit to a library? If you haven’t done it, isn’t it about time you visited one?

Believe me the time spent browsing inside a library (or a bookshop for that matter) is never wasted. Try it otherwise you’ll never know what you have missed!

Thanks to "lettermen1" for sharing this beautiful song entitled " The windmills of your mind" with us.

Beautiful Ireland – A call to Galway Bay

I haven’t been to Ireland which country I have been told is well-known for its natural beauty, rustic charm and interesting people.

However I just love Irish songs and this one in particular which you’re going to hear is entitled “Galway Bay”. If you’re of the baby boomers’ generation, most probably you would have heard it in your childhood years.

It has a nostalgic appeal and to me the melody lingers long after the song is sung.

There are many versions of it but the one I have for you is sung by Joni James. She has a beautiful voice and the pictures shown in the accompanying video depict just a touch of Ireland in its natural beauty.

When you have the lyrics it's quite easy to sing along with the song; so here it is. The tempo is Celtic and typically Irish folk. Try it.

If you ever go across the sea to Ireland,
Then maybe at the closing of your day,
You will sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh,
And see the sun go down on Galway Bay.
Just to hear again the ripple of the trout stream,
The women in the meadow making hay.
Just to sit beside a turf fire in the cabin,
And watch the barefoot gosoons at their play.

For the breezes blowin' o'er the sea from Ireland
Are perfumed by the heather as they blow
And the women in the uplands diggin' praties
Speak a language that the strangers do not know.

And if there's is going to be a life hereafter,
And somehow I am sure there's going to be,
I will ask my God to let me make my heaven,
In that dear land across the Irish sea.

Yet the stangers came and tried to teach us their way.
They scorned us just for bein' what we are.
But they might as well go chasing after moon beams,
Or light a penny candle from a star.

Thanks to "itscalang" for sharing this video-clip with us.

Cheers!