More About and From Dad | Thoughts and Writings

The original 

I've been looking through some more of my father's writings and came across 20 or so pages of a piece of  'work in progress'. He hadn't decided on a title - A Book of Thoughts being one option and For Those in Peril another. Although not a church-goer (of any denomination) my parents both had a strong faith and in this writing my dad engaged with his beliefs and other issues that he felt strongly about; an auto/biographical endeavour then.

He wrote down these thoughts towards the end of the 1970s at the latest, very possibly earlier and it's important, I think, to read the extract below with that in mind. Having said that there's a lot that's relevant to living in the world today.

***

So many sights to be seen, so many things to be done. 
In this world of ours.
To live a life of uninspired existence is an insult to one's very being and a slap in the face of God. 

Who can walk through the birth of an English morning, without the mist in the hollows, the gentle light touching the land, and the awakening song of the birds bringing a touch of tranquillity to the soul? 
Who can drift up the Bramputra (sic) at the eve of night, with the air thick with the heat of day, the vivid-green creepers of the jungle trailing in the water, and the day-sounds dying and the night-sounds not yet awake, without wonder at this planet of contrasts?
Only a zombie!

Who can stand on the brink of a ravine, with the sandstone gash like a mortal wound in the face of the earth, and the mountains rising green and brown and grey and white until the sky is almost hidden by it all, without grandeur and insignificance fighting for supremacy? 
Only a zombie!

Or look upon the smile of a baby without gentleness touching the heart? 
Or stand at the edge of the sea, and seeing the horizon, feel solitude?
Or cry when sorrow bites deep, or happiness sweeps everything else away? 
Or fail to live a full life with joy, experiencing every moment as well as every day?
Only a man who is not yet awake,
A zombie!

And later . . .

To be awake - 
Is not to open the eyes,
Or to come alive to the day after night,
Or to move from dream to reality.
For reality is not that which is around you, 
But is that which is within.

To be awake -
Perchance to Dream,
Of wondrous things,
And glorious deeds, 
. . .

To be awake -
But not to dream,
But to BE. 

And later . . .

Those in peril are the members of the human race. 
Every single being who lives and breathes in the future.
For they can be destroyed.
By their own hand. 
Man (sic) holds the key to obliterate his very existence, 
And to destroy the planet upon which he lives.
He can wipe the results of his own scientific advancement,
His own folly? 
Of course!

Thanks so much for reading. Good wishes for 2016.

Gayle