A Few Things

The first quarter

We are nearly at the end of March – the first quarter of 2010. I am sure I am not the only one who thinks, feels, believes this year is flying by faster than ever. The Naked Scientist said on radio a few months back that one of the reasons we think time is “going faster” is probably because of things like email, mobile phones, e-newspapers, the internet and so on. No more waiting patiently for a letter or even a fax to arrive, no more ordering a book via your bookstore – now you just download it, everything is instant. If you don’t reply to an email or voice mail within minutes you a get message asking if you have received it…….. Now is the time that everything is immediate….

Happiness TED Talk by Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman is a psychology professor at Princeton University and a Nobel Prize winner. I “discovered” him when I first started looking into the wonderful world of Happiness.

This is a link to a TED talk he gave in February 2010 about Happiness http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html It’s really interesting, lasts for about 20 minutes and he explains some of the everyday confusions about happiness, our experience and the memory of our stories. In a nutshell he says that it is true that money does not bring you happiness but the lack of money does buy you misery. And one of the dominant bringers of happiness is being satisfied with the people you like and spending time with those people.

Get at least one hymn under your belt

I went to a memorial service on Saturday for our friend Leila who died suddenly last week. There were heaps of people at the church and the minister conducted a lovely service. But as usual, when it came time for the congregation to stand up and sing, there was an almost deathly hush with a few little chirps and croaks emerging from the pews. Thank goodness the organist had a nice voice and microphone.

Now here’s the thing: At just about every memorial service or funeral service I have been to there is one hymn that is usually sung – the very beautiful Psalm 23…. I am sure we all know it almost by heart now. So the challenge is: practice it in the shower, the car, and the wide open spaces. Get your voice oiled around this one hymn so the church can be filled with the sweet sound of singing voice – this particular hymn is easy to sing – no wildly high or low notes or trills…. And each verse is the same as the last. Give the person a good rousing send off.