If you’re irritated with a person and you tell that person you’re irritated with them, and you tell someone else how much that person irritates you, are you likely become more irritated or less irritated with that person? In the late 1930s  Harvard University in America started a study of Adult development involving  724 boys. One of the

Don’t be yourself I love the joke where a husband in a rare romantic moment leans over and softly whispers in his wife’s ear, “I’m the only one in your life, aren’t I?”  The wife gently turns to look at her beloved man and with a smile on her face, whispers back, “Of course you

Sarah Several years ago I had the privilege of getting to know a couple who’d recently moved into the district to start a local business. This is an abbreviated version of a story they shared with me. Their daughter Sarah (not her real name) had been born with spina bifida and was not expected to

Thanks for the hand I’m reminded or the joke about a person that was walking along the top of a high cliff admiring the view of the ocean as it stretched out into the distant horizon, when in a moment of distraction, they lost their footing and began to fall towards the rocks below. Thrusting

Thank goodness for Lighthouses   The story is told of an American Navy ship sailing in thick fog during an exercise off the coast of England. Up ahead the battleship sees a light coming towards them. Fearing a collision, the ship’s captain gets the signal man to flash a signal to the approaching ship; “Sir,

Turning down the heat. Dad was forty-three and mum thirty-six when they married. I was their third child so dad was getting on in years when I came along. As a little kid I played schoolboy rugby on a Saturday. In all the time I played I only remember dad coming to watch me once.

We are all worth $10 If I held up a ten dollar note and asked the question, “Who can tell me what this is? And how much is it worth?” You would answer it’s a ten dollar note and its worth that because it comes from the Government printing press and has the Governor of

Over the years I’ve helped build a house or two. If I hadn’t done this, then one thing that wouldn’t be obvious, is just how much time and effort go into preparing the foundations for the house to sit on. You also realise that if you don’t do the necessary groundwork then in time cracks

I’m one of six boys in my family … no girls, Mum and Dad couldn’t afford daughters they were far too expensive.  We lived in a two-bedroom house on a quarter acre section in a rural town in the Hawke’s Bay.                                                                                                                                                                       As kids we were terrified of one of our neighbours, an old widow by

In the well-known children’s fable, ‘The Ugly Duckling’, when did the ugly duckling become a beautiful swan? The answer is that it always was a beautiful swan; it just didn’t recognise it, until it saw its own reflection. As we look at ourselves, many of us at best see a marred reflection of who we

I like the well-known story of an Indian brave who when facing a dilemma goes to the wise old Chief for advice. “It feels like there are two wild wolves fighting inside me,” he says. “One I know is good and wants to do what is right. The other is not good and wants to