"Thought for today:
"When I was a young boy, my mother would say, 'Billy, you may never know what you want to be when you grow up, but whatever you turn out to be, I pray that you are content!' I learned very early on in my life that 'contentment' was the art of getting out of every situation all the good that there was in it. Being born the eldest of seven children into a family of materially poor circumstances taught me that the richest person isn't the one who has the most, but the one who comes to need the least.
Sometimes when I complained that I didn't have the things that other boys had, my mother would remind me, 'Billy, you have much more. You have your loving family! When I die, I will leave you the greatest inheritance of all. You will have the knowledge that I always loved you and the legacy of your six brothers and sisters by your side. There is no greater treasure I can leave you, believe me.' She was so right.
Over the years that followed, my mother's words proved their weight in gold. I learned that however difficult life could get from time to time that I never felt alone. After I became a Probation Officer and saw people in their most torturous of circumstances, on subsequent occasions when I didn't get everything I wanted, I could at least be content with the fact that the things I didn't want, I didn't get either! These were things like depression, despair, destitution, dissatisfaction in all I do, lack of confidence, feeling unloved and unwanted, being devoid of purpose or harbouring doubt in myself and the future!
The power of positive thinking taught me that nothing is either good or bad in this world that thinking it so, will not make it so! I also learned through positive thinking that I could always get what I wanted out of life once I learned to want what I got!
Finally, teachings from my religion along with teachings ascribed to the Buddha taught me that 'less is more' once I started to appreciate and accept that everything we possess that is not necessary to life or happiness has the potential to become a burden, and that a day rarely passes when we do not add to it. Therein lay the wealth of my inheritance and legacy that my mother and father left me when they died. Dad was a man who walked as proud as any other man and never looked up to or down on no other. Mum was a woman who often carried an empty purse but had a heart filled with love and a mind stuffed with Irish wisdom that she gladly shared. Together, along with my six siblings, my family represents to me where I came from. My relationship with my loving wife, Sheila, represents the happiness cloud I've been floating inside for the past eight years since we first met, and my relationship with my God will keep me alive eternally in His house. " William Forde: March 14th, 2018.
