Originally broadcast on CHED radio Sunday August 12th, 1964

At least once every two years, I thumb through the old family photograph album.  This precious volume has been in the family for fifty years and it was passed on by my mother to me.  there is one picture in this album that always gives me pause for thought.  It's a photograph taken at my grandfathers modest farm in Innisfail.  In the picture are twenty seven brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and cousins, all in one place at the same time.  The picture was taken in the early thirties when cars were slow and not too dependable and roads were gravelled, and could be counted on to be dusty and dirty.  And yet, somehow, because we all cared, we managed to get together three or four times a years, for a sort of a family reunion.  Some of the old-timers in the picture are gone but youngsters have come along to fill in the gaps.  And yet, today when cars can travel swiftly and roads are smooth and straight; when the Bay of Fundy is only four hours from Vancouver Island; we never manage to get together.  Each of us claims to be too busy to "get down there for the weekend".  And so weeks slip into months and months into years, and the family grows farther and farther apart.

Originally broadcast on CHED Radio, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada June 26,1964

Let me tell you how my day went.  I didn't sleep well last night.  My bed was lumpy.  It hasn't been properly made for the last while.  The radio told me I was twenty minutes behind schedule.  I forgot th wind the clock last night.  I went to the drawer for a clean handkerchief.  There was none. I selected the last pair of socks from my drawer but there was a hole in one toe.  I had to wear the same shirt I wore yesterday because the soiled ones had not been sent out to the laundry.  I went to the kitchen to fix a little breakfast.  Bacon and eggs.  (How long has it been since I ate something that wasn't fried?)  The frying pan was dirty and sitting in the sink with last nights dinner dishes.  The Ivy plant on the window ledge looked rather sick.  I had forgotten to water it. I looked out the windows and noticed that the flower beds were in much the same state.  They looked as neglected as they were.  I thought again about the inner man and decided a little light breakfast food would do.  I poured out a bowl of corn flakes and went for the milk.  I had forgotten to put out the bottles.  I planned to try and catch a bite at coffee time.  My suit looked a little wrinkled.  I hadn't remembered to send it to the cleaners.  At the end of the day I went home to the empty drawers, the dirty frying pan and dishes, the empty milk jug, the dying ivy and the limp flower beds and I thought to myself, life just isn't worth living when the little woman takes a week off to visit Aunt Martha.

Originally broadcast on CHED Radio, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada January 22,1964

The late John Barrymore uttered a great deal of nonsense in his lifetime.  He lived high and hard and to many his life would appear to be an abominable waste.  He did however say one thing that I shall never forget.  Barrymore said "Happiness usually comes into a door you never knew you left open"!  My goodness isn't that true?  All of us are inclined to hunt and chase happiness.  We think we find it in pretentious homes, in the latest model cars, and cocktail and dinner parties, and all the many gadgets with which we clutter up our lives. Yet who among us cannot reflect on the real happy times.  They are so few yet so precious.  The moment we gaze upon our first born.  The quiet moments beside the fireside when the youngsters have been tucked in.  The gentle snow falling outside on a crisp Christmas eve.  Long hours beside still waters.  Gentle words and held hands by candlelight in some small warm cafe.  The smell of fresh bread.  The feeling of crisp sheets.  The look of checked tablecloths.  The taste of warm coffee on a cold morning.  The tender kiss of a child.  The sound of those three wonderful words, "I love you".  These are the times to enjoy and remember.   These are the moments that enrich our hurried lives. Yes, happiness does come in through a door we didn't even know we left open.