Aidan Mc Nally's Blog: Random thoughts by Aidan. , page 6

NEVER QUIT ~ aspire to inspire

There are several reasons to never give up in our lives. Probably too many to list in an online post today. You can probably count through the first 50 already in your own head. Something inside of us called "instinct", the instinct to survive and keep going. Even when we do not want to, it kicks in and carries us over the hump.

I know this feeling and I write to you today to encourage you to always go with that gut instinct. Allow me ten minutes of your time to explain a little of where or how I found out, WHY?

I am just like you or the next person, I thought life was easy and fun, many times I have enjoyed things like awesome exotic holidays and that "travel" feeling has brought me plenty of joy. To say life has been very good to me is a fair way to describe how I have lived through my twenties and into my thirties. I have enjoyed travelling the world and lived a beautiful life in the warm California sun. So how could I know anything about that instinct to "carry on" you might ask.

In 2011 I was in my 35th year of life and living in Costa Rica. Yes an absolute paradise. I am originally from Ireland, a lovely place although there is plenty of wind and rain. I travelled to the United States when I was younger and spent a nice piece of my life living in Seattle and San Francisco, west coast for me. I moved on from there and settled in Costa Rica in 2011. You can probably get the idea of how I like the sun and the nice climates a little more. Well in fairness, part of being nice to ourselves is waking up each day and feeling, feeling alive. There is no better way to do that than being in a beautiful climate and in a beautiful country.

In 2011 I received a phone call on a Monday morning, it was a phone call that changed my life.

Have you ever had a phone call that changed your life?

The call was from my younger brother who lived in Sweden at the time, here is it how it went.

John; Aidan, call home please. (he was lightweight crying)

Me; John what's the matter man, just tell me what's up?

John; Please Aidan, just call and talk with mam. Please. (his sniffling and crackling voice)

Me; Look man, pull yourself together. Whatever it is just tell me what's going on. Is it Na~Na? My mother had been taking care of our Na~Na for a few years now.

John; Please call home and speak with mam.

Me; Look, whatever it is, ya need to understand I am on an Internet call with you and I am in Costa Rica. If the call drops I cannot call you back. Just tell me what is the problem. It is not going to be that bad.

John; Aidan just call mam and talk with her, please (he is weeping all of the time) just call her and talk to her as soon as you can.

Me; I need to know no man, just tell me. I am your big brother now tell me.

John; It's your son Aidan, Darra is dead, I am so sorry.

Me; Don't fuck with me right now John, this is not funny (much more panicked)

John; I am sorry please call home, he didn't wake up this morning (he begins balling crying) he didn't get up for school, he died in his sleep.

Me; Get off the phone man I have to make some calls.

That all took place while standing in the kitchen of my apartment in Costa Rica on Monday morning December 12th 2011.

I began crying and balling my way through finding some clothes and a travel bag and a plane ticket home. Yes some calls to my own mother, my ex who is Darra's mother and a few others. The emotional turmoil was like all the hurricanes that have ever been named were all exploding inside of my own feelings. Tears I never knew that I had. I was holding my lips together and almost like mumbling but it was nothing but raw hurt that was coming out, the taste of my own tears as they erupted every 3 to 4 minutes. That plane journey home to bury my 15 year old son was the most horrible flight of my life. My travels had come to an end. Life was over.

In 2013 I became a father again and I had the most beautiful little son Patrick. How great was this? A second chance at life. I had been grinding hard to exist in the world without Darra. I was an absentee father and my time with Darra was always when I would be at home in Ireland for holidays. My holidays were always about getting back to Ireland to see him and hang out with him. My life though was in Costa Rica and I had a new baby and a new relationship. Patrick brought to me a light of hope to continue on and to climb my way out of the dark hole I had found myself in, ever since the day of that phone call in 2011. Was it my instinctive gut that kept me going and set about the rebuilding of me as a man and more importantly as a father?

In 2014 on July 4th weekend myself and my new family were visiting a friend in his new home. They had purchased it approx 4months previously and we were to be their first visitors, we would watch and enjoy the world Cup and spend some time in an absolute paradise part of Costa Rica. We enjoyed an evening meal as the sun went down that Saturday evening and we watched Costa Rica play their final game of the world Cup. A relaxing evening and we all headed to bed.

At 5 am approx on July 6rh 2014 I awoke to hear bellows which sounded as if tying my dream state into the real world. Bellows like and animal had attacked or something so deep and yet desperate yelps of urgency. My eyes half closed I ran from the room to find out what was all the commotion and what was going on. I saw Patrick's mother out by the pool deck, just off the kitchen and she was in the pool. As I was rushing across the furniture I saw Patrick, lifeless. I pulled him from our host as she was helping Patrick's mom rescue him from the pool. He was unconscious and I began without thought to perform CPR. The man of the house was calling for an ambulance and I was breathing and pressing his little chest. A panic to the ambulance and off to the hospital. The rescue efforts ceased around 7.40 am, he was gone. Patrick had died from drowning.

For a man, me, just like any of you reading this right now, I had been dealt another vital blow to my life. My foundations and faith in the universe had been shaken when Darra had died and as I slowly rebuilt myself as daddy again I had been delivered an ultimate blow. Patrick was now another baby of mine that again I must view for the last time as they close the coffin lid.

So, what can I tell you about life since? How does one recover from these types of devastation? Where do we find the will to live and to carry on. Nobody can see on my face that I carry these burdensome traumas with me in my life. Actually quite the opposite they see a fine tall strong man who likes a joke here and there. Larger than life, some might say. I practice today and have since practiced ways in which to meditate and slow my life down. It is that with all my practicing and trying to help myself that I can write to you today and let you know that even at our worst in life, even at our most low moments that we do have instinct inside of us all and we have a will to live. For all the days I have needed or felt like I needed the world to open up and just swallow me whole. Instinct inside of myself has not let me quit. The gut instinct of survival has pushed me through the toughest I have ever encountered. These instincts exist and it is by allowing myself to be led by them when I needed it the most is how I can testify today to you that we all have strength beyond what we ever believe.

Sometimes we could never imagine any horrible things in life, I can tell you that when faced with them, it is like an auto pilot kicks in and carries us through. I do not know where the stregnrh ever came from. What I do know is that it has come when I needed it. So I write to tell you, explain to you that please do not worry, do not fret, do not waste time on being down over things. You can make it and you will make it. Should we decide to listen to our gut instincts when we feel at our most beaten, we can then begin to nurture the instinct inside of us that wants us to thrive and live. Live happy and enjoy the beauty the world has to offer us. Find peace and begin again. No matter how or where you find yourself today, I want to share with you that you do have the strength and you will find a way. Life is to be lived as much as we can. Don't pressure yourself and obviously don't allow others to pressure you either. There is a way and you will find it. Just like I did, not once but twice. To rise up out of darkness, misery or depression is possible. This is why I am writing this for you today.

Live for today and allow yourself the little tiny steps you need to survive, allow these small steps to be your path through even your toughest of days.

Aidan Mc Nally, author.

TWO sons TOO many, memoir.

17 & Life, Memoir.

Layman's Handbook, selfhelp.

Facebook @TWOsonsTOOmany
Twitter @TWOsonsTOOmany
Instagram @2sons2many
LinkedIn. Aidan Mc Nally
Website. amcnallyauthor.wordpress.com
Email. twosons.toomany@yahoo.com

By all means, feel free to copy and paste any of the links to find out more about my books. Share my post today with your friends. We never actually know who needs a pick me up or a word of encouragement, so share with them all. Thank you.

SelfPub Book "clicks" marketing & exposure

Every one of us who have self published a book would always like more readers. Of course, it becomes a fun way to enjoy the business end of writing. For some it is just a satisfaction that another person has read our hard work. For others it is about seeing commissions. Who doesn't like a few pennies here and there?

With the Internet and all the websites that are available to indie authors, to promote themselves or even advertise on. There are particular ways in which to succeed or fall short. A question that may arise for many is,
"how do I get more clicks on my book page?"

In a simple numbers game and playing the statistics end of things, more clicks over time can result in a percentage of readers who will download and maybe even pay for my book. Yes this makes sense in a world where consumers who are ready to click and buy as they browse.

So why choose your page?
Statistics will show you that there are several thousand other authors just like you who are all posting and advertising the same thing.
A book for readers to read.

Why choose yours over another?
It is an interesting question to ask yourself, once upon a time one may have considered that having written 400 pages and created the book was an awesome achievement & to be honest it absolutely is. Give yourself a pat on the back for that accomplishment alone.
Now the task of having a tweet where you advertise yourself or a Facebook group post that will encourage others to click and buy your work. The hard part that may not have been considered when toiling over the rewrites.
One must now write the ultimate headline or tag line to encourage potential readers to stop by and check you out.
100 thousand word count and months or possibly even years of writing and it all comes down to a few words. The most important words.
The words that will catch the new readers eye.
The words that will catch a potential new readers mind.
A little bit of a difference there, isn't there?

Having had sleepless nights at a keyboard while constructing the perfect book for the world to read and now you see or realise that it matters not the 100k words, nope. The next few words are the most important. A tweet with "x" amount of characters allowed. A tagline with 5 words. A 30 second elevator pitch type scenario. The most important words you will write for your new work (book) all comes down to 5 or 6 simple words.
Amazing isn't it?

How does one gain readership from like minded people?
How does one market themselves to new readers?
How does one compete in the indie author world, all the while not trying to be some corporate marketing machine?

These are all very relevant questions to ask yourself. What "click bait" can you put out there?

Again going back to the numbers game, if they click on it to view, some percentage of these may be potential readers and even within that may be some potential readers who will actually give you a review too. I can be quite honest with you about this part, I never considered readers when I was writing my own books. I was enjoying the writing and enjoying the process of looking back over a lot of happenings in my life. I was writing for me essentially. When I felt good about any piece I had written, I got a great comfort and joy from the process of writing.

Ah yes, although the book world is a business. Without the potential readers and "customers" how can one "make it" as a writer?

Choosing to use marketing tips and skills is a fair way to compete in the indie author world. I say this from my own learning over the past couple of years. I have found it quite amazing to be honest with you. It can be a bit of a slog and deter from all and any writing that one may wish to do. One could employ a marketing team and spend mega bucks on spreading the good word about your new book. One could also advertise in many mainstream publications, again with a massive cost attached.

The alternative,
Use your writing skill or lack of to conjur up the best marketing words to help describe yourself and your work.
Find the five to ten words to best describe all it is that you have put into your new work.
Design a simple campaign for yourself that involves, even though repetitive, the campaign can be on all of your social media platforms. If you are similar to me you will be of the opinion that to be invasive in your marketing is vulgar or just not polite. Yes I agree. How and ever, as every site on the web will tell you, "if they don't know you exist, then how do you expect them to find you?"

I am fully aware that all the hard work you have put in to actually writing your book has been a massive workload indeed. Then all of the time you spent deciding the title. You may havr even sought advice on how to have the most eye catching title. Then to find out, a tag line or twitter post could be the most important words you will actually write. Mind blowing isn't it.

Here are a couple of examples I might have used. See what you think,
"your mind has never imagined a life like this"
Link to book here. TWO sons TOO many.

"Decisions happen to us all, some earlier than others"
Link to book here. 17 & Life.

"The best journey you will ever take, a journey to self"
Link to book here. Layman's Handbook.

Do they make you want to click or know more?
I have found that these have been quite strong and believe me when I tell you I have dabbled with a few thousand other ones.

I guess to summarise,
People do want to know about your book.
Readers want to find you.
The best way is to experiment a few million times or so and keep on doing it.
You never gave up on writing your book, so don't give up on letting people know.

Here is a link to my website where I dabble with some other writing projects like poetry and some short stories. There are links to other blog posts too.

https://amcnallyauthor.wordpress.com/

Stay safe during the covid-19 times and keep on plugging away.

False accusations ~ How pathetic are they?

I have a question for you today, how much stress has the pandemic really caused?
"stress" if we were building a bridge or something, a bunch of engineers would sit around a meeting room and discuss the "stresses" & "strains" of what the loads are. In other words, what are the burdens. The weight loads being placed upon the structure.

Another instance could be a leg or post that holds something up, a roof perhaps or your patio roof for example. When you notice some cracks appearing in the post / leg you will understand that the supporting leg is beginning to crack under the "stress".
So the weight above has become too much (perhaps a clogged gutter has allowed water to build up and this could be causing the extra weight on the roof).
This crack would be the result of extra "stress" being placed upon the supporting leg.

It is clear and fair to say that "stress" or being under stress is related directly to the increasing of a weight load. The more weight one piles on top of something, then the more stress the support system is under.

The result of too much stress and strain and loads and weight are then quite normally ~ cracks.

Very many people tend to use the word "stress" quite loosely these days. How many of us actually stop and think about the conncetion between "stress" & weight / extra burden?

The current pandemic has placed a lot of people under financial burdens. This is a very conceivable cause of extra "stress" in any person's life.
The lockdowns and limited movements due to pandemic apparently have placed additional weight on people's lives also.
A kind of strange thing about the lockdowns causing stress. Strange, as I have noticed at least, has been how the pandemic lockdowns have given individuals more time to spend doing nothing. Well almost nothing.

Has the world become such an unusual place to live, that when asked by your government to do nothing, you become stressed?
Many people work all year long waiting to go on holidays and do absolutely nothing for 2 weeks and they have always said they enjoy it. Maybe because it is of their choosing and they feel they are in control of their choice, so it becomes time spent doing nothing "stress" free.
When a government recommends to stay at home and do nothing or even goes so far as to order a lockdown. Then somehow all of a sudden the time spent becomes "VERY STRESSFUL".
Weird isn't it?

When a person accuses someone of doing something wrong and they are not really sure or there exists some doubt yet they carry out their accusations with a sense of cocky confidence, what exatly is going on?
Is it possible that an accuser is highly addicted to "drama" and in order to keep the world in balance, some "drama" must exist?

The person who, though not certain, makes false accusations against someone may be fully living within their own reality. Therefore they do not see any malice or vendetta in their actions of making false accusations against a person.
I myself have been recently in receipt of such a situation of being falsely accused and to be honest it is an added burden for sure. Though it has not been my first ever time of having to put up with such nonsense, it did however make me think and wish to share with you.

My thoughts always tend to make attempt to see the other person's side of things to try and gain an understanding of how their view point might be. First off of course any accusations are annoying an can make the hair on the back of our neck stand up. Our guard goes up for sure. I am not too cool to admit that my own attitude went immediately to fight mode when I heard such nonsense (the accusations that is).
So what is it exactly that is going on?

Has the "stress" & "strain" of the pandemic become too much for the people of our society?

Does a person wish to inflict burdens and pressures onto another person and by doing so, does this help ease their own "stress"?

Is it possible that any person is finding life now, the "new norm" too difiuclt to handle and so they wish to create drama to bring back a sense of balance to their own world?

Sometimes people live for and live within drama all of the time. It is possible that the removal of dramatic events from daily life due to pandemic remedies of lockdowns that people must create new drama to bring back around a sense of normality to their lives.

It is a clear sign of stress & strain & burden as far as I can see.
I refer often to such drama as "nonsense" think about the word I am using to describe it, NON ~ SENSE. I use this as a description of such events as I do not find any sense to such behavior or how a person conducts themselves in this manner. And I have strained myself to try and understand. Of course adding to my own "stress", let alone the additional work load involved to have to now make clear the facts and eradicate such accusations.

Is there a direct link between mental health and false accusations?
Will a person act differently under pressures (loads/burdens /stresses) and create drama as a coping mechanism during these pandemic times?

I draw your attention to the Donakd trump voter fraud situation, is this a prime example of how mental health disorders can become blatantly obvious for all to see when an individual is under so much pressure (burden/stress/strain) that they will concoct and have people work tirelessly to pursue courses of legal actions to satisfy and maintain the delusional state of "reality" for the mentally unstable accuser?

There are many who will take a stand with such accusations, taking the position of "there is never any smoke without fire". Therefore feeding off of or in to the drama being created and perhaps satisfying their own thirst for drama.
There is not one trump supporter that would ever own up to being a "drama queen" anyway, so why would I draw up the comparison?
To shed a little light on my own thoughts and perhaps have you think about it for a moment too.

The cracks in our society brought about by too much strain and strees are beginning to show.
False accusations of people are nonsense and pathetic in my opinion and are only a clear signal that the pandemic has really taken a firm hold deep within society. How these stess fractures and cracks allow nonsense to seep out may very well become the new norm which in turn will place massive new burdens upon the mental health support structure which in turn then can begin to crack from the pressure also.

Of course if you have never found yourself accused of anything in error, you may have very little understanding of this entire blog post.
I do however thank you for reading all the way to here and hope you will share this, thinking aloud (allowed) blog post for your friends.

Stay safe, stay well & look out for each other and each others mental health and well-being through the Christmas and holiday times ahead.

Follow @TWOsonsTOOmany

Stages of GRIEF? Fckk that!

What are the stages of grief?
The professionals and by professionals I mean, psychologists and therapists and the book that teaches about such things as grief for example. There are said to be stages of grief in the theory book.
Like at some point someone may pass through some various stages in their own journey in or with grief.
The big cry for example.
I have heard it said that people who are living with grief or in grief or even grieving, that they will at some point in time have a very big and long cry. What I have heard said from both bereaved parents and therapists, that somewhere along the path of grief will come a time when a big cry will happen and that it might be scary or it might be welcomed. Either way it might just happen and to let it happen. When it does.
So I guess in a format or type of "stages" type of journey, the big cry could be classed as one of the stages of grief.
It is broad and quite non specific and to anyone who has begun a journey with grief, this idea of a nice even path with certain stages along the way, well I have to insert in here FUCK THAT!

Here are some stages for you and they can occur at any time and on any given day.
How about this for a stage of grief, how about the day where.....

I say "fuck you" to the world and all of you in it....
Yup that is a real stage in grief. We can look at it a little deeper and we can imagine that perhaps it comes from a deep anger and in resentment of the world as there is no logical reason as to why I should feel so much like shit because of missing my loved one.
The anger toward the world could also be because of how it is not possible for my mind to understand how other people just "don't understand".
The anger can be because it is so real and so difficult to explain that I cannot communicate my feelings properly.
So the anger is and my attitude are derived totally from a frustration of not being able to see where any other person can know this pain or understand this pain and I cannot explain it or communicate it.
Yup this is a real stage of grief.

Something that also can be quite difficult during any time in grief like this one is that there has never been any open discussion or class on the subject.
I have never sat in on a class where it was all explained to me and so for this reason, I have never been prepared for such deep emotional pain. When someone has no clue of how to manage this pain and when there is no quick fix to the pain, a real stage of grief can be the "FUCK YOU" to the entire world.

How about a stage in grief called "guilt", feeling guilty.
Oh that is a beauty alright.
Feeling guilty for what exactly? Guilty that they just died?
How about the times when I or anybody living in grief just straight catches themselves forgetting their loved one for a split second. Just a little momentary lapse and then an absolute mountain of guilt because we forgot about them for a millisecond.
Yup another "stage".
There are no 5 or 7 stages to this grief stuff. Probably why I used the "fuck that" in the title.
I can have a "guilt moment" approximately 400 times in one day.
Let us couple together with that about 100 fuck you moments throughout a day also. Do you still think we can just call these stages?

What a lovely label though, "the stages of grief". I would like to draw your attention to or shed some light on another doozy (is that even a word, doozy?)
The times when plain old "SAD" shows up.
Sad for no reason, yes of course we are sad because we have lost our loved one, to death. I am talking about a sad that has nothing to do with anything. A sad that could be easily termed or labelled as "depression" or for those that knew how we have been all of our lives could possibly label it as "manic depression".
A sadness that is just like the anger and the frustration, only not with any energy. The feelings of how there is no point or there are no reasons for anything. Nada.
Yup, can we just casually place a label on this?

How about another one?
The times when we feel like we are so grateful to have known our loved and for their time on this earth with us.
We can become grateful to all of the people in the world and every little thing in it because we want to show our appreciation to mother nature for allowing us to live and share loving moments with the person we have lost.
Another beautiful label, I am certain one exists for this too. Is this a stage of grief though? Having gratitude?

The above are just a few to mention and as an independent writer who has focused hard on delivering through my books some deeper explanations and some more reasoning for these things, I must always continue to promote and advertise my books.
Should you or someone you know be experiencing some of these tougher "mental health" or emotional health issues because of your own journey in living with or in grief, then of course I highly recommnend you check out my book titled Layman's Handbook, in life. A journey to SELF.
Why so?
I wrote this book to demonstrate to myself that the stages of grief are nothing but a load of nonsense. I wrote it to share how my journey has been and what I have learned in living with grief.
I also promote my books as part of my ongoing journey within and living with grief.

Now I am aware that I have only touched on three little issues above and that there are many more. I am also aware that any of you who are reading this right now and who know exactly what I am talking about as you may live with grief everyday. Then you will also know that there are days that are much more difficult than others. I write to you and for you to make a tiny tiny zero point zero, zero zero 1 percent effort in bringing about a "normal" to grief.

The topics I used as examples have a high stench of mental health issues and to imagine that any normal fun living individual can go from a happy jolly life to a daily battle with grief and such issues is something very real and very difficult for any individual to have to cope with or live through.
For all the rest of you around them, I ask you to try and imagine. Once upon a time that person was quite "fine" the next day they seemed to be all over the place. Mentally and emotional spent.
These are the pieces that many will not speak about because it does not exist in the world to have any deep and meaningful conversations around the subject of grief and those who live with it daily, most of the time they do not have the energy to invest into a conversation as they have an underlying feeling of who they are talking with has absolutely no understanding of how hard it is.
Figure that catch 22 out.

I also would like to take a moment to highlight how the little examples I used above can also happen all together or back to back and make for one hell of a shitty day for someone.
For example,
Sad and do not wish to get out bed, so angry that they feel like smashing the mirror as the wash their face in the morning. Turning their phone to silent so as not to receive any phone calls while they are getting dressed for work. Losing ten minutes just staring out in the garden at a little Robin and imagining that the beautiful little Robin is a sign from their deceased loved one and then circle right back to "fuck this world".
This can all happen before someone even sits down to take some cornflakes in the morning.
Before even a text has been sent or received and or before the world has had any chance to begin to raise its issues for the day.
Because of such feelings and confusion about the feelings, anyone living with grief is already stuck for words before the day has even started.
Then along comes the world and all of its "problems".

I am not saying that because a person is grieving that they need to be given allowances or to go easy on them as that can often lead to more awkward moments and more confusion surrounding feelings. I guess I am saying though, grief is one hell of a deep web and not easily understood, by the person in it or the professionals who deal with such grieving people.
To normalise grief would be a great step for all. To speak about grief would be a great topic of conversation so that it can no longer be such the hush hush topic.
To bring about some normal to it can help those living with grief and those not living in greif.
I would probably still have the feeling fo how nobody could possibly understand and still be crippled from time to time with feelings.

What I can say for certain though, is that no amount of time has helped any for my own journey. It all still hurts and there are many fuck you days. What I am certain about is that it is an enlightening journey and has been a very real journey. For this I am grateful, I have learned so much and I know so little.

To encourage you in your early stages of grief, I say to you. It sucks and it is very difficult. You may never understand any of it. Stay the course and you will find a whole new deeper side to yourself that you never knew existed. As for how hurtful it can be, there are many times where life can be so beautiful as a result of stretching your emotional self so far. It may sound strange right now, all I know is that it can become a better life again and it is worth every drop of emotional suffering you have experienced thus far.
The stretching to the limits of pain also has a flip side, the other side of that stretch is a beautiful feeling place too. In grief and with grief there is a beautiful place to be found.

Stages of grief, fuck that.

November 15 ~ The Internet

How has the pandemic been treating you? Well? I hope.
I mean I hope none of you have caught the virus and are all still alive and well. I understand that many still have their own continuing conditions and issues, just not any need to make anything any worse by catching the covid virus.

The Internet today and how we use it. What can it mean or what has been happening since lockdowns and pandemic have taken over the world. 1 thing is for sure, internet use has risen. People have less and less to do because of lockdown. More time on their hands called "boredom".
Things many never ever paid attention to are now becoming part of their lives, all because they browse the Internet more often.

I use the Internet predominantly to spread the great word of my writing and advertise the books that I have written. This is my methodology behind my Internet use.
(opportunity to advertise)
Twitter is @TWOsonsTOOmany
Facebook is @TWOsonsTOOmany
Instagram is @2sons2many

These are some of what I use the Internet for and of course to post links to my amazon author page and to bring some traffic to my website where I showcase some poems and short stories.

Now tell me you do not do the same thing as me?
I hit the Internet up and begin a few advertising posts and then within milliseconds I am engaging in other posts and retweeting other writers to offer to them support and help to spread their news of their writing too.
It does not take long before I am calling Donald trump a sore loser and of late I have noticed I have even expressed with some expletives a little distaste for some of our own home grown corrupt politicians. Man oh man, how easy it can happen. I am caught in, trapped or "sucked in" to some of other people's posts. Some I find funny, some I find completely out of whack. I guess they kind of stir something up in me.

There are even times that I cringe and bite my tongue, maybe bite my fingers would be a better way to describe it as it takes everything in my power not to respond to many posts that I scroll through.
So how does this happen?
The being sucked in stuff, how can I fall for it every time?
I have no clue to be honest. Am I satisfying some piece of my own self gratification of self importance and having a little say here and there soothes my ego /egos, alter and all that.
Am I a person who is too vociferous (actually was on a description of the meaning of my name "Aidan")
Basically that I cannot shut up might be a simpler way of putting it.

Most of my writing in my 4 books has been based totally about my own experiences. Where life has taken me on my own journey and how I have dealt with the issues that have arisen before me. I have taken to the Internet in advertising my writing as a way to reach others who may find life a little difficult. I wish to offer to people my own story as a way to show and tell that everything is possible and everything can happen.
The virtuous cycle of inspiration has been quite rewarding.

On that note, something of interest about a virtuous cycle.
I did not know how to explain what I was finding through being present on the internet and engaging with readers and other authors. I could not explain it properly.
I knew it was the opposite of a vicious cycle, yet I did not know what to call it. I have learned since that it is called a virtuous cycle. Everyone I asked automatically knew what a vicious cycle was and not many could tell me what was the opposite. The cycle I am referring to is the way in which my own story has brought about inspiration to someone who has read any of my books. When they have conveyed that to me, it brings about an inspiration to me to continue writing. The cycle therefore is, they are inspired by my story and life, I am inspired by their response. So the inspirational circle is quite the virtuous cycle indeed.

Getting back to the Internet and how it is so easy to get into conversations on posts and blurt out some reactions to posts is amazing. Not only because of pandemic and lockdowns, though I do believe that more and more of you are browsing and scrolling aimlessly now that the world has become the way it is.
I try to continue with my advertising and will continue and even though I wish to write an answer or respond to thousands of posts daily, I limit myself to just a few.
For my own mental health really.

I suppose it is fair to say that in the arena of our mental health and the internet, it is a good idea to keep in mind that the Internet and all the posts and the endless scrolling is all something that is "out there". The posts and tweets around the place are absolutely nothing to do with you directly in so much as they are NOT any part of who you are. The internet is a bit of a playground so to speak and when you are finished you go home or go back to your life.
Your life being what goes on inside of you. In your mind or in your emotional self.
The Internet can be a stimulus and stir up some emotions, yes this is for sure. The important piece to remember is that it is something you can turn off or go to a different page or walk away from really easily.

The internet has played its role in how there have been many who have given or received bullying and in some instances resulted in suicides.
This is a worry of mine. Not that I feel any pressure from what anyone would say directly to me. My worry is for those who have a hard time separating themselves from the posts and anything that goes on on the internet.

Look at us now, lockdown possibilities during the Christmas shopping period. Perhaps the internet and internet shopping can be a saving grace that we can use the internet for finding all the right things for Christmas and pay less attention to any of the more negative posts or the bs that gets blasted daily onto our phones, tablets and computers.

The Internet is great. There are great ways to listen to podcasts, music, watch movies, shop, find comedy and humour.
Though I resist all of the time to get political and take aim at politicians and those in support of them, I guess I will maintain the idea of how it is the Internet and best left at that. Leave it where it is, online.

I actually use all the gross content filters I can find so as to have a more enjoyable experience browsing around the internet, I do get a nicer set of posts and things pop up as a result of setting these filters. The gross and the nasty are just not for me. I do not wish to see em so I have the filters set this way.

Be careful of your mind & keep an eye on your mental health while you surf the web and browse the content of posts. Enjoy as much as you can of the content that uplifts you and inspires you, enjoy doing your shopping and get excited for Christmas.
Pandemic vaccines are coming and the virus may soon become a thing of the past. Enjoy your time online and if reading is your thing, I got 4 books for you. All are available on Amazon and can be found on my website or author page ~ Aidan Mc Nally on amazon or at WordPress.

TWO sons TOO many ~ memoir (emotional)

17 & Life ~ memoir (real life)

My grief the last 3 years ~ (poems and blogs)

Layman's Handbook, in life ~ Self-help (self-love self care)

Feel free to comment, share and retweet. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and an awesome Christmas (pandemic or not)

Outside of the box ~ unblocked

The box and thinking outside of it, what does this actually mean?

A topic of conversation I have had with many of my friends and with some even quite recently. Naturally, as with any topic, everything is open to interpretation.
How you see it and how I see it kind of thing.

The box :
We are born, we go to school, society helps us by investing in us with some social welfare type payments like free medical for children or free dental or assistance with school. We graduate, we go to college & we graduate and we enter into the workforce. All along the way tax payers have been helping to keep hospitals and policemen and emergency services available and open to us to help us on our journey.
As we enter the workforce we become a tax payer and now our part of paying back begins.
We pay taxes to help contribute back to the system that was available to us as we grew within the box.
Quite simple really.

So the model of the box is an imaginary idea of how life in the western world happens and develops. To "think outside the box" what could this mean?
Can we think something a little differently and not conform to the concept of the model or ideal of how the society works?
Well of course we can.
We are individuals after all.
So what happens when one falls outside of the "box"?
Example that I will use is myself. I did not graduate school and was or am what one could term a "high-school drop out". I fell right out of the box right there.
So how could I become a trained professional and contribute in life back into the box?

Furthermore as a young man I became a greater burden on society and taxpayers by becoming a prison inmate. Totally outside of the box.

Later on I became what could be labelled as an emigrant and I went off working and paying taxes into a foreign country. Oh boy, the box got smashed to bits by that time.

What could I be doing?
I am completely and definitely not in even the same region as the box of conformity.
So I must think for myself, I guess?
You tell me??????

Do we somehow attract like minded people and develop bonds with others who have began to live outside of the box and maybe even think for themselves a little, somewhere outside of the box?

The pandemic is high lighting some key factors of this indeed. Those who wish to obey the rules of lockdown and plod along the recommended and keep within the advisory themes during governmental lockdown statuses.
Then there are those who wish to rebel or do something different.

Many times I have heard people say things like "think outside of the box".
In my mind when I hear this I often mutter to myself "been living here a very long time, it is my default now".
So what does this Imaginary box mean to you?

Around the world of today reference can made to the great entrepreneurs of our time who do things for themselves and are always "thinking outside of the box".
There are also great numbers of people within societies that have a very pleasant time inside of the box too.

Here is a question for you though.
Can we live inside of the "box" and then think outside of it?
Is it possible?

Do we possess the ability to see things from another person's point of view?
For me my whole life has basically been inside and outside of the box.
I have felt and experienced many things both inside and outside of the "box". So, for this reason I can take time to hear another's point of view and make an attempt to apply both scenarios, inside and outside of, yes you guessed it, "the box".

I have found that when making these statements about a box of conformity to people that there are times when some may even get a little upset with me as there is a misunderstanding that living within the box seems boring or not a very exciting life. I never make direct accusations of this nature, it just seems to come about that some who have spent their entire life living within the guidelines seem to get annoyed for my mentioning it. A little defensive of their own position and yet scared or fearful of attempting to live outside of the "box".

I have no claim at all that either one or the other is a correct way to live. I believe first that if any person is happy, then that is the best place for them to be first and foremost. Whether they conform or they do not is secondary.

I wonder how many of you will openly hold your hand up by way of making a comment here and say "box" or "outside the box"?

I have found that a path to happiness and becoming content is a much more satisfying time and place to be.
In order to reach this it has required me to remain outside of the box and continue to think likewise. I feel more free which probably helps to begin on the road to contentment..
Then of course I can spend some time wondering if indeed I may have missed an opportunity along the aay.
Opportunities though are things that I must make for myself in this world outside of the box.
For those of you who live within the box, opportunities are provided to you. They just happen across your desk.

So,
How do I make outside the box appear more attractive to anyone and encourage anyone to think in such a way to find a path to contentment and happiness?
Perhaps it is too big an ask of myself. Perhaps there is no need to reach out to people and encourage anyone for a life outside of the box as I may have it all very wrong.
This is what comes about when one thinks outside of the box. One begins to think of how wrong many things could be, all the while anyone who has found themselves inside of the box may never even consider that anything is ever wrong. All happens the right way at the right time and life is perfect inside of the box.

What does "blocked" have to do with any of this?
I believe that when we are confined within a box such as the one mentioned above, we remain blocked in our emotional self and our path to a real happiness is by beginning to think outside of everything you have heard or seen or done.
A belief of mine that is when one is not thinking deeply for themselves they are not experiencing their own true full potential.. The potential has been somewhat cocooned for a while and this is where the blocked comes into it.
When one begins to think outside of the box they can begin to feel how they can become unblocked and a whole bunch of emotional depth begins to become a major reality in their own lives.
Does it mean that to think outside the box or live outside of the model that someone must be rebellious?
No, not at all.
To me it means that we could create a large or larger percentage of population thinking outside of the box and thinking for themselves which in turn can create even perhaps a much larger box or no box at all.
The only way that I see how we can learn and grow is to understand each other first.
If you live inside of the box you must venture outside and get to know yourself. When deeper into your own life you may find it is where you actually belong.

I am not talking about communes or hippie villages all over the map.
I am merely pointing out that when we humans begin to really delve into ourselves, the results can be astonishing and our lives can become enriched with contentment.
Who does not want a whole bunch of content feeling in their lives?

Think outside of the box and begin to become unblocked.

Free book "Layman's Handbook in life, A journey to SELF" to the first 10 people to tell me how many times I mentioned box in the post.

Get mad, get conversational and let me hear your view with your comments below.

I look forward to seeing how the elections will go next week where a large percentage of people who live inside of the box will possibly vote for someone who has always lived outside of the box. lol moments a plenty.
Share the post,
Comment on the post, let me hear your thoughts.

The shamrock never drowned ~ thanks corona

Here we are, star date October 18th 2020. So much going on around the world. Brexit looming with a "no deal", Trump & Biden will square off in a couple of weeks and corona is still kicking countries asses.
What on earth is really going on?

Nope this is not a conspiracy theory post.
A genuine question really, like seriously. What in holy creation is going on?
A clown in England with a bad hair do says they will change the script again on brexit. Are they angling for a war or something? Or just encouraging every person on the planet to follow along and say "nah we are not paying".
I believe the englishman or woman perhaps can follow suit and tell all the institutions they have been in contract with for loans etc and business, "yeah, not a good deal for me at this time. I think I will just walk away".

What about the United States? A presidential election where the outcome will be an older person a pensioner will walk away with the white House office on November 3rd. No matter who wins they will be an old aged pensioner. Pity there is no candidate who is young and has their finger on the pulse.
A real pity that it will be a president who is in the "vulnerable" category these days.

Ah yes the corona. Nope, not the Mexican cerveza, the disease, "the virus".
What is any nation supposed to be doing with this corona virus?
Here in Ireland the deal on the table is to lock the country down into severe lockdown status again and request of everyone to stay home and stay away from each other.
It is an idea revisited from back in March of this year where it went on for months.
Track record says "it didn't work".
Why try it again? At some point in time we are supposed to be learning as we go. The lockdown again is a reversal and a step backwards. How and ever how can a government do their job and look out for the safety of the citizens, when the citizens will not take on the advisory and look out for themselves?
It really seems the harsher the lockdown the more the people want to be out and about.

Let us for a moment pause on an idea of old Irish type stuff, "superstition".
Some times I think the Irish invented the stuff back some 4 or 5 thousand years ago. Yeah imagine, there were people in Ireland back then too.
The superstition that I see as fitting during these times is the terrible mistake taken by the government officials back in the lockdown times of 2020. The shamrock did not get a chance to be drowned.
What is the drowning of the shamrock?

On St Patrick's day, which is March 17th every year. People in Ireland wear shamrock on their collars. They would traditionally head off to church and have their shamrock blessed with holy water at church, all in honour of the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick.
The blessing of the shamrock and the dowsing it in holy water was or is kind of known as getting it wet. With holy water of course and then people go about their normal business on a Sunday type feeling day of the religious holiday in Ireland.
Being a day off for everybody, no matter what day of the week March 17th falls upon each year.
Ahh yes, the superstition though?

Also on March 17th and because it is a national holiday in the country, it is a day where many people of the nation would take to the public houses. What are these you ask? Pubs.
The pub is where the real wetting of the shamrock occurs. Irish people as a nation go out and spend all day drinking and celebrating this national holiday by getting completely "shit faced" drunk.
What for and all that? I really have no idea as I am a non drinker for the most part of my life.

How and ever it is the time when the shamrock gets well and truly drowned.
People would ask "oh how was St Patrick's day for you? Did you wet the shamrock?" A reply quite often would be "wet it? We drowned it".

The superstition.
The pubs and places where alcohol could be served were under lockdown and closures and St Patrick's day parades were cancelled.
Since then the Irish people have not been able to see off their loved ones with proper funerals and weddings and all and any celebrations have been to a minimum number of attendees and the good old Irish session is slowly becoming something of times gone by.
The pubs remain closed and lockdown is about to come back at it's most severe.
The mistake has been to not allow the shamrock be drowned in true traditional fashion. Here lies the superstitious curse.

To combat the corona virus and the lockdown/face mask issues. OPEN UP SOCIETY.
Request all the people of the country to do their piece by continuing the social distancing and the sanitising etc.
Allow society to return to somewhat normal and let the nation get plastered drunk. The shamrock has been deserving of it and the drowning must take place. Superstition along with traditional rituals call for it.
Drunk people and pubs and bars will not increase the rate of infection any more than it is already occurring.
To justify the lockdown recommendations, the health authority is digging into older archives of deaths and using inflated figures to make a more gloomier picture of the whole mess.

Our government need some backbone and be honest that the lockdown and every step of how the pandemic has been handled has been a mess.
Our government suck right now.
It does not rattle me to say this as I feel it to be quite true.
We all have our opinions.
In short.
Hold the English accountable for the brexit mess.
Pray that whoever gets elected in the United States will inspire a new young blood candidate to get motivated and become a great president for 2024.
Here in Ireland, let the people have their pubs back.
The people of Ireland have a deserving need to drown the shamrock. The year cannot end without proper shamrock drowning ceremonies.

Mike drop, I'm out.

How do we rebuild, reinvent or come back ~ After shock?

Rebuilding one's self, reinventing one's self or making a comeback after something life changing. Let us call the life changing event some form of major shock. A shock to the system.

For me the shocks came from a couple of different angles and there were more than one of them. This is what has given me the wonderful position of becoming an expert in the arena of making "comebacks, reinventing & rebuilding one's self".

I would like to pause on a point for a moment.

I have never ever wanted to have to rebuild myself.

I have never wanted to make any kind of comeback from anywhere & I have never ever wanted to reinvent myself in this life.

The point of pause is on the idea of how I do indeed wish these things were things I never had to do.
Ya know when they say "ignorance is bliss", well, I wish for the ignorance to be unknowing of a handful of experiences in life. I wish and dream of the bliss that I know many of you walk around in.

I ask myself things like am I jealous that you get to be in such a state of bliss?
I ask myself how envious can I be of a life of someone else's?

The answer usually comes back to a similar answer. An answer that I will share with you in a bit.

I write for you today in an appreciation of world mental health day 2020. I have observed and listened to many different people over the years and have heard of many such items that refer to mental health.
My own awareness of mental health came to me by default. Perhaps and it is fair to say my own analytical ways of analysing myself and situations brought me to an awareness by default anyway.
So I share with you some ideas or notions. You can refer to them as my own opinions if you like.
They are several though I will only touch on a couple here in today's blog post.

* Can we rebuild ourselves after a traumatic experience?
The simple answer is YES

The more complicated answer is, there are many tools and techniques that we need to hold our hand or be our crutch and sometimes for a very long time. The simplest and most basic I can mention is that when there is a willingness there is a way. One can struggle to find a willingness inside of themselves and so we may need to go to an absolute basic. An animal instinct of ours, something we may never even consider exists in our lives. The animal instinct inside of us is something we do not tap in to too much and sometimes we are not even sure it exists.
This instinct is an instinct inside of ourselves that tells us to "survive".
A very primal instinct that will not allow us to give up. When we find ourselves in a position where we feel like we cannot go on and we cannot live or we cannot go forward any more, it is at this time in our lives that we can allow a willingness to survive to kick in. We allow our life be run by our most basic instinct. Somewhere inside in the animal that we are is a driving force that says, survive!

We do not need to be consciously telling ourselves "I must survive", it is something deep inside of us that when we throw our hands down as if we are beaten and we allow nature and the "spiritual" of the world take over, it is then that we awaken with an instinctive driving force to survive.
Where there is a will there is a way.

Our willingness to give in and admit defeat, our willingness to understand we do not control anything.
Our willingness to live life on the terms that life wishes to dish out to us. These are basic bottom rung stuff that can help bring us to a point of rebuilding.
The point of surviving where we are no longer in control.
We perform our most simplest of activity, the exercise of breathing. When we just breathe. The only exercise I must consciously be aware of is that I remind myself to breathe and in doing so I allow my entire body work as it is supposed to in the biological sense of using oxygen to work my body etc etc.

We can find a great starting point of rebuilding and reinventing ourselves and begin the mighty comeback by having a willingness to simply breathe. Allow control to pass to our instinctive nature and continue to breathe. This is a starting point and today at any time is a perfect starting point.

*Why do we feel like we cannot go on?
The simple answer,
The hurt involved in traumatic experiences is something beyond our relams of comprehension.
The pain can be so deep that we have never imagined ourselves to have such depth. A place of raw pain in our feelings that is somewhere we never knew existed and so it is called traumatic, shocking, devastating. Because we had no idea such a place of deep hurt existed we have no clue how to deal with it.

The complicated answer.
Once trauma occurs, we tend to have a trip switch inside of us. A trip switch type safety mechanism that will make an effort to shut us down. Shut us down in such a way that we cannot feel anything. The trauma can be so devastating that a panic button is pressed inside of ourselves and from there all alarms bells go off inside too. These alarm bells are our entire system attempting to protect us from any additional shock or hurt. A safety mechanism so to speak.
When the safety trip switch inside of ourselves trips, we may spend a huge amount of time in our minds trying to piece together what is real and what is not. We may find that our thoughts begin to rush and race as our body has closed off our feeling area. We can become numb in our emotional self. Our head can continue to confuse us and with such experiences we are drained of energy by how our body is responding to the shock. This can be where our brain begins to convince us that everything is too hard, too difficult, not worth it and many other more severe thoughts can fill the entire mind. The end result can be that we cannot find any simple solution or easy answer to point us in a direction of continuing on.

We are drained of energy and have a head full of what we believe to be rational reasoning to stay stuck, not go on. We are stuck and have no desire or any clear vision of how we can cope.
I am going to return to the meditation type breathing.

When one finds one's self in such a place, it is important to forget about all that we want.
Many thoughts will cloud the mind of how we want it all to go away, we want it all to be different. Things like "I want it all to be just like it was before" may cross your mind.
The breathing that I mention is again as a reminder that in such moments as these it is important to look to what we need and not what we want.
In order to survive we need to breathe.


Meditation does not have to be an organised class or time of the evening where we set aside an hour to chill out and reflect on our day. Nor does it have to be something we prepare for. To meditate can be to simply breathe and allow our entire mind focus on how our breathing is working. Focus on the nose and mouth as we breathe. Remember breathing is the basic of basics of what we need in this life.

As we focus on air moving in to our lungs and we begin to concentrate on how our body is moving muscles to continue breathing, we are meditating. In such a moment we can begin to feel the alarm bells slow down, our mind can clear for milliseconds and we can begin to release the choke hold on our emotions.

We can then gain a tiny insight into how we are so exhausted and how we have this built up feeling of not being able to cope. By clearing our mind and allowing some emotions to release from us we can slowly return the breaker switch back to a position of we can cope. Our energy can slowly be restored


The above examples are a little insight into what or how some of our most basic ingredients as a human can be so beneficial to us when we decide we will allow them.
Our animal instinct can kick in and we MUST SURVIVE.
Our most simplistic part of existing is that WE BREATHE.

Ah yes, to get back to whether or not I am envious or jealous of any other and their blissful state of mind. I, knowing that I have experienced deep shock and trauma and knowing that another has not.
The answer is NO.

The depth and enormity of how I have felt in such traumatic experiences in life, yes they have been of great pain and sadness.
The flip side of this is that I have stretched my emotional self to a place where I now also have a new level to where nice and happy things occur on the opposite end too.
The stretching of my emotional self into depths of despair have allowed me to also enjoy the opposite end of this emotional depth where happy and nice occur also.
I have gained a deeper level of feeling, though brought about by diving deeper than I have ever imagined, to feel nice in such a deep way is absolutely beautiful too.
I actually wish for everyone to enjoy and experience such depth of feeling without ever having to experience the negative end of the spectrum at all.

I discuss many ways in how we can help ourselves in the "Layman's Handbook, in life"
The book I wrote all through 2019 and released it on 10/10/2019.
The book now turns 1 and has a book birthday on world mental health day 10/10/20

I wish you a beautiful journey into meditation and into yourself while you read my book.
Subtitled "Simple tools to change how we live. A journey to SELF"

Easily found on amazon in paperback and ebook.

I am very grateful to you for sharing this post today and I wish for you the greatest for the remainder of the year.
Share, comment, tell your friends.

What you think? What I think? ~ Who really cares?

I began my writing "career" with this whole great new idea of mine. I thought. How about if I share with the world and all the people in it, some of my experiences. I even went so far as to go into a little detail about some of the fun stuff and some of the travels. Seemed like the correct way to share and give some insight as to how I had come about to write a book about my life.
Like they will all get it, right?

My main goal was to write for myself 1st and foremost though. Let's just say I needed it at the time. Yup, like the desert needs water.
The goal I am mentioning was to inspire people to begin to think for themselves.

I really have always believed that just because I may find something simple or easy or find something easy to figure out, then so should everybody.
There did not seem any sense in me writing about my life and telling anyone how it is or how to be. Not at all, "au contraire rodders".
My goal has always been to encourage you to think for yourself.

I began writing to shed some light on to some touchy subjects like grief and death, I suppose really to use some of the occurances in my own life as a way to open the door to your own mind and allow you to read about some stuff I had "went through", "experienced" and then this would be a good way for you to begin to think about where I was in my travels and some of the things that came up for me in my life. My goal, my hope that you would begin to gain some perspective into your own life and perhaps begin to value yourself just a little bit more than you do.
I guess it is true to say, I believe that we all can use a little extra self love every so often. Can never have too much of that stuff.

My opinion of how you are, what you are or who you are. All totally irrelevant.
And then by the same token any person's opinion of who or what I am falls into the same category of who gives a hoot?

Why bring this up?

Of course the bloody corona virus saga. Life as we now know it, the "new norm".
Yup, it has dragged on for some time now indeed. The point about it and the title of today's blog post is to ensure you that right here during these times, wait for it.
Nobody gives a foooooook about numbers of cares about locations. Nobody wants to know what is the proper procedure for the president of the untied States to follow when he has contracted a "deadly virus".
Nobody really wants to stop and think about taking care of each other by staying at home and wearing masks etc etc.

So?
I write.
I write to you and I write for me. I write this blog post to offer all of my books as distraction from the virus and life right now in 2020.
I wish to offer to you enough distraction from all the media blasting on the same civerage of governments and all that they are doing wrong to combat the virus.
Distraction form the daily corona virus news which seems to just go on and on and on. Sheesh! Enough already.

Yes distraction is what I offer to you in my books. Some, where you can begin to delve into my life and when finished reading, go OMG! & WTF!
All very real also.

Distraction enough, just enough to bring about a thought and an emotion of your own.
Distraction enough to bring about tiny little changes into your own life.
Not because I say so or because I have done so. Changes because you can be moved by my own story and it only makes sense after you get to know more about me and my life that you will forget your own troubles for a little while. Distraction. At its finest right there.

My opinion of whether or not my own government officials are outright blatant thugs and thieves. Who cares.
My opinion on whether or not BLM or covid 19 updates matter or not are not the issue either. Why? Because the human race is becoming more and more callous. Perhaps they (yes, you) have always been callous and it has taken the virus to being it out of you. Who knows?

My most recent book that I wrote through all of last year has been primarily about giving some tidbits of tools to use to help you declutter and get your own life focused. I guess there has never been a better opportunity than now for me to share with you all about "Layman's Handbook by Aidan Mc Nally".

YES, this is a blog post here I advertise myself and my writing, incase you have not figured that out yet.

NO, It is not that I believe your opinion or what you think matters as much as perhaps you do.

Covid 19 has shown us that as society's around the world together, your opinion or my opinion or what we think is second to what the virus is doing and what governments are doing to try and bring to an end.

Here in Ireland where I grew up, there has always been this element of who knows best. The people of Ireland, the Irish, have always been so opinionated. It almost seems sometimes that the Irish must be the smartest bunch ever to walk the earth. The use of the word "should" is used massively. Every person an expert on what someone else should do and what the government should do etc etc.
The Irish all so smart and each individual living so perfectly that it is only all the other fools around them that are doing it wrong.

A question about us the Irish.
How come with all the brainiacs of the country, how come the corona virus has not been kicked out, stamped out from Ireland?

All the geniuses of Ireland and not many can seem to wear a mask that actually covers their nose and mouth.
Figure heads and the elite breaking lockdown rules without any consequences.
People who are fed up with the idea of staying at home, not only go out. They decide to have protest rallies and marches against the lockdown restrictions and do the complete opposite of what has been asked of them by forming larger groups and coming together with people and not wearing masks.

All the brainiacs of Ireland who think the virus will not get them or that they do not have to abide by the rules.
Ahh yes, the excuse could be that the government is advising us wrongly and so why go along with what is recommended.

Well if everybody went along with the rules / guidelines which were set in place in March 2020, perhaps we would not be in the current situation.

There is a word we use in Ireland for people who appear to not act sensibly.
Gobshite
The word is gobshite and when more than 1 it simply becomes gobshites.

Where are all your clever tricks for how to do everything right?

The entire world has outlined and clearly explained that the virus is real.
Though the excuse to act in a way that can be considered not too sensibly, "oh sure the government have it all wrong and they lie and steal and cheat anyway. Why listen to them?"

Like I mentioned above, come and do some reading for some distraction.
All these books can be found on amazon.

TWO sons TOO many ~ memoir

17 & Life ~ memoir

My grief, the last 3 years ~ poems & blog compilation

Layman's Handbook, a journey to self ~ self love.

Look em up, have a read and then let's discuss.
Leave a review, if you would be so kind. It is what helps writers like myself gain more traction.
If you have already read any of my books, I do of course hope you will leave a review of what you thought or how you felt.

Here is to beginning to find ways to live around the virus and enjoy October and the winter ahead.

Please share or comment on the post.
Thanks a bunch.
Happy reading #TWOsonsTOOmany #LaymansHandbook

March thru September ~ 6 months Check on a friend.

Just like the title reads, March the 3rd month of the year, September the 9th. Simple math says that is 6 months.
Though the virus has been around for a little time before March of 2020 & when we include all of March snd all of September, then we are looking at more than just 6 months.

The mass hysteria and the widespread deaths have slowed down, yes this is true. I or should I say we are to believe that in the almost 12 months that the virus has been around there have been no scientific breakthroughs to find a vaccine. This obviously raises more than just eyebrows.

Let's not dwell on the virus though.
How have your last six months been?
How have you been doing through the lockdown and quarantine?
We could be all upbeat and super DE duper with how we have recreated the wheel and life is wonderful, thank you covid for the time needed to make everything fantastic. I have seen enough of this kind of nonsense on TV that it is now becoming like the sideshow of side shows.

Real people have had real changes occur in their lives over these past 6 months. From financial stability to ending of business life and then all the time people have had to think themselves into worse situations than they were in beforehand. The mental health status of society has been put under a ton of strain. The backlash, fall out or lasting effects we may never identify for quite some time to come.

Real people have been severely impacted by covid 19 and to remain upbeat and positive has been quite hard for many. I feel it is important to consider yourself and consider others in this time of uncertainty. How have you been and how are you doing?
I write this post this evening for all out there who think or feel that nobody understands your pain. For all who struggle on a daily basis and are sick to the teeth of seeing such great new positive lives showcased on TV during the corona saga.
I write for you this evening that maybe your friend might be reading this right now and consider you. I wish to reach out to you and put some words of encouragement to you that it will be okay.
I write to you to encourage you to continue and even though it seems like nobody cares, there are many people who do.
They may seem like they are all so into themselves and their own worries during the covid times that you are never even thought of. Well you are.

I have an understanding that life can be quite difficult.
I understand that sometimes thoughts in your head will not go quiet for long enough to allow you to think.
I understand that the feelings of raw hurt and pain are almost as if they will completely consume you out of existance.
I understand that it is difficult to communicate the emotion to others and a lot of the time you don't want to talk to anyone, anyway.
I understand that nobody can really understand.

I have written books about my life, shared with the world my own traumatic experiences and I have also shared the secrets that I found to be a way out of the dark place we can find ourselves in.
I also understand that my books cannot do shit for you when you are suffering in silence. I know that my words can only touch 5 percent of the pain that you feel.

I write this post to encourage all who read it to reach out and check on a friend. Ask someone how are they feeling these days. Ask a friend do they want to hang out for an hour and just sit together. It does not have to be a chat or a conversation. Just reach out to a friend and sit in silence somewhere and share a little time together.
To spend time with someone can help.
To chat with a friend can help.
To know that someone else shows that they care can help.
There is no shame or no need for pride when it comes to feeling down and or "feeling crap".


This past 6 months have been very difficult on the majority of the world's population. People, everyday people have gotten a glimpse of what your day to day world is always like.
Lonely perhaps?
Isolated perhaps?
Sick and tired of being sick and tired perhaps?

Reach out and ask a friend to spend an hour with you.
Reach out and ask a friend would they like to spend an hour with you.

These are recipes and formulas on how we, the world population can turn the corner and be better for each other.

I thank you for your readership and I thank you all who have supported my writing with a share on social media or a download or purchase of any of my books.
I appreciate all of you who will look out for your one or two friends who need a little of your time right now.
I know that each and every one of us is very caught up in our own mess with covid and the struggles of of our own life.
Reach out to and friend and offer a little support. Reach out to a friend and ask for some support.
Chatting and talking with each other costs us nothing.
There is plenty of love in this world and all we have to do is use our talk and chat to find out how this world is a beautiful place full of beautiful people.


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@TWOsonsTOOmany