Recently I had some minor annoyance with… let’s not be specific. Nothing to do with Xanga, or the internet. Just old fashioned, trouble seeking, whispering gossip from a family I (unfortunately) know, whose pea brains apparently lack the capacity to appreciate the big joys of life, and instead go scraping through petty quarrels to find entertainment.   

“They behave as though we’re still in the jungle” as my old mother would have said. But if handed lemons, make lemonade, or so the saying goes. Therefore, a little poem suitable for little people, especially those who cannot learn or grow:

As jungly as our grandsires were, so did our parents grow

As jungly as our parents were, so grew my wife and I

As jungly as my wife and I, so did our children learn

As jungly as our children are, so will grandchildren be

To the jungle! To the jungle! To the jungle boom boom boom!

Link to my Amazon author’s page

D. F. Bailey’s style of writing is easy to read and unpretentious, and makes no exaggerated claims for the method he has developed after practicing various systems.

I personally have practiced meditation for many years, and though I have not necessarily used the same methods (there are many systems) I can state firmly that meditation has made a great and noticeable improvement to the quality of my life, to the point where I could say that I need and appreciate it as much as I do the blood that sustains me. While I don’t wish to take the attitude of a fanatic, I would go so far as to say that it is the most valuable of the many useful things that aren’t (unfortunately) taught at school.  

A great benefit of this book is that it is short and concise, and before describing his techniques Dr Bailey makes several essentials points, one being that meditation has nothing to do with religion in the sense that it is limited by, or invented by, or the property of this, that or the other religion. That we listen too much to the ramblings of our “monkey minds,” is another, and indeed we do. We need to schedule our time to fulfil our meditation needs before we let the busy day start to take its bite from us – again, this I’m fully in agreement with, from my own practical experience. 

He also makes many highly essential but often overlooked points, such as that we need to have a secluded place for our daily practice, and outdoors may not be the best place. Lastly, he gives many useful links to studies conducted on the benefits of meditation, which, apart from a greater sense of peace, may include improved physical health, and lessening of dependence on drugs and alcohol, etc., which is certainly something this world needs more of.

(This is a reproduction of my 7 March 1913 review on Amazon)

My own Amazon Author’s Page

New to Kindle, a novel of life and illicit love by V G Lee, acclaimed British writer and author, set not in a lurid cities such as Las Vegas or Paris, but in the quiet seaside town of Bittlesea Bay in East Sussex.

There, as Christmas gives way to the wretched English winter, Margaret longs for her globe-trotting partner Georgie, and vows to keep a diary for one year. At first it seems that it will be filled with nothing but notes on the number of layers of clothing needed to keep the cold at bay, but as Spring’s buds emerge from the snow, so does passion blossom.

Diary of a Provincial Lesbian will be free on Kindle until the end of Tuesday 19 of February 2013.

Just click the icon.

It can also be downloaded onto a “Kindle for PC” programe that can be downloaded to your laptop or PC from Amazon, at no cost.