Fighting and Festering....

Gosh that was a brilliant but tiring long weekend full of people and late nights and laughter and playing in the canyon with our new friends Henry the ridgeback and Sam the great dane puppy....will tell you all about it later on.
The funny thing is that Clare has been mad at somebody lately and sort of punishing them by being snippy and not that friendly and then a close friend pointed out something that I had never really thought of before. That all punishment is self punishment and I thought that was very true. There is no point sitting around being mad at somebody for whatever it is they did or didn't do, really all that festering, silent scorn, sulking and anger is only hurting one person. And that's you. So it is kind of pointless in the end. Far better to either (a) discuss it with them, let them know what it is that upset you, what your perception was and find a resolution or (b) shrug it off, get over it, change your perspective, forgive them, and forget about it or (c) pray for them for two weeks straight, pray that they get everything you would want for yourself, and I guarantee after 2 weeks you won't harbor any resentment toward them anymore, it's miraculous. Anything other than A B or C is futile and just makes you unhappy. But take the action and you will be totally free of the bad feeling before you know it. All three things effectively result in forgiveness and that really is the only way forward. "When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free."
So, the weekend WAS good. Friday night we had a curry and games night at the house. It was so much fun it was ridiculous. A great turn out and the scores were so close it was a nail biting finish. Everybody threw themselves into the fun. We had one team that was made up of Stephen Fry, Matthew Rhys, Clare, Paul, Buckley, JJ Feild and Emma Parker Bowles and the other of Sophie Winkelman, Alex, Nick Moran, Sean Maguire, Aml Amee, Ross King and his gorgeous fiancee Brianna Deutsch. It all got quite competitive and there were some accusations of cheating and skullduggery of that sort (hence the ridiculous mock serious faces in the photo) but in the end all we did was laugh and after it was all finished and team Hardcastle won by a point we were all friends again and spent the rest of the evening re-living it and enjoying it all again. It was a late night but a great night....and not a resentment in sight!!!