Could it be

Today is Father's day.

Maybe fathers, mothers, parents should read and answer this poem?

COULD IT BE

Why are the children angry?

Why are the children mad?

Why are even good kids often seen as bad?

Why does their music drive us round the bend?

Why can't they be like us - when will it end?

We did the best we could - we brought them up like us.

Could it be because they've lost their voice

And when they speak we never hear,

And when they want to make a choice

We shout it down because of fear.

Could it be because they want to see

A different world than you and me?

With thoughts like these being so abundant

We fear that we may be redundant.

Maybe we should draw the bow

And let our children fly,

And let them find their path in flight,

who knows? They may get by.

Maybe we should listen, maybe we could learn.

We can only give them life - the rest they have to earn.

They must feel the pain of life

And feel it on their own.

We must let our children go

Once the seeds are sown.

Why are the children angry?

Why are the children mad?

What is all the fuss?

Could it be, could it be,

Could it be because of us.

~~Aidan Sharkey

Family Weekend

I'd like to start by sharing part of my son's email today...

"Well, who can believe that it's 10yrs since Mam passed away? Time certainly flies doesn't it? Thank God it's a great healer too though and I just know that she was looking down on us and smiling when we all got together on our trip to Holland. Just as she was looking down on us when we got together at our wedding last year..."

 

We indeed had a lovely long weekend and a fitting get together to commemorate Frances anniversary on the 5th. She's been gone for 10 years but her love remains!

 

Here's the family...

 

and some photos on a boat trip and tour around Haarlem...



our boatman





some ladies waving at us



 

The Dancers

Paddy and Tasha dancing through life together...

One year today since they got married in Taormina Sicily.



People think I'm great!

I recently talked with someone who said she hasn’t smoked for months
'Wow' I said 'that’s great!'
Then I got to mention it to her brother who just laughed and said that he has recently talked with her and she was definitely smoking something..

Old habit.. hard to break
Showing people you quit when in reality you’re just hiding another stick (or whatever).
Made me recall a poem I wrote a long time ago.

PEOPLE THINK I'M GREAT

I've been off the drink a year now.
People think I'm great.
They come to me and say,
'We think you're great,'

My alcoholic friends come to me and say
'How do you do it?
We couldn't do it.
We think you're great.'

My wife is a bit uncertain,
Looks at me closer than most
But, fair play to her,
She really thinks I'm great.

'It's not easy,' I say to them all
'But well worth the effort.'
And shuffle off their praise
and walk away,
Dying for a drink.

Foxes

My son sent me a link on an Irish wildlife photography he found in the papers.
He asked me to check out the gallery and thought I'd especially like the pictures of the red fox.
You can see for yourself a red fox's action caught on the lens.
Meanwhile here is a poem on Foxes I wrote:

FOXES

Foxes, furry, fast and red

Spend the daylight hours in bed,

But darkness is the foxes' call

And from their dens they start to crawl.

They stretch and yawn and scratch a lot

And hope this night they won't be shot

For foxes' furs are sought by men

So they are tense as they leave the den.

They sniff the air and taste the breeze

And if they hear a sound they freeze,

Then if the night presents no ill

They wander forth to seek their fill.

Rats and snails and mice and frogs

All taste good to these red dogs,

And nuts and fruit and berries too,

Things that they won't eat are few.

If they should find a sleeping bird

You may be sure, upon my word,

That bird will make a tasty treat

For foxes' love all poultry meat.

So keep your chickens well locked in

For they don't know that it's a sin,

They'll take their food from where they can

Owing nothing to the laws of man.

To see a fox flash through the wild

Should lift the heart of every child,

So spare a thought for this red dog

For dog spelt backwards won't spell frog..

~~Aidan Sharkey