SOMETIMES in life, things happen that make you stop and think for a moment. After all, life is so precious, sometimes so fleeting and it is one where the push-pull battle of love versus hatred can break us into a thousand pieces.

After all, none of us are immune to having the black dog on the shoulder as a pet and even if it doesn’t affect you, you’ll know someone for whom it does. If you don’t, then you clearly aren’t looking hard enough.

You look on social media and there lies a cesspit of anger and hate, particularly when it comes to politics. It is supercharged by an algorithm which rewards negativity, prizes division in the name of ‘engagement’ and is occasionally interluded with pictures of your friend’s cat, the odd post about a family wedding and a request from a stranger in your local Facebook group asking about the bus timetable for Christmas Day or when Asdas is open. There are also many members of the ‘Anonymous’ family on there too.

Day after day, hour after hour, we stare at our phones, get into arguments with strangers over the latest statements of a political class that only cares for our vote and get whipped up into such an angry frenzy that the ghost of Joseph Goebbels laments the fact the 1930’s couldn’t have brought him a ‘Fuhrerbook’ as part of his propaganda toybox that we forget about the simple things, of life around us.

There is so much beauty in the world around us and it’s not just about the stunning visuals you see on a Doc Martin episode.

It could be a group of strangers becoming friends over the sharing of a love for music, which is basically how our NCB Radio team came together.

It could be the look of unconditional love emanating from the gaze of a child, or a pet cat or dog, representing the innocence of something so untempered and unpurified by intolerance and evil.

It could be the every day stories you never hear about, of a neighbour helping the elderly couple who live next door.

It could be the enjoyment of the beautiful place we call home, whether it might be a visit to the Bodmin Beacon, to Widemouth Bay, the wilderness of Davidstow and the vast expanse of Bodmin Moor or even something so simple as a visit to the seagulls and ducks at Priory Park.

It could just be the moment you take a step back when spending a day with your loved ones and think of how lucky you are and spare a thought for those you’ve loved and lost.

The reason we write this is sometimes in life things happen that turn your life upside down and knocks you into perspective. All the time we’re getting at each other over things we can’t change or control or spend in futile arguments with those with a different opinion is time just wasted.

Because the day will come where those moments just become memories never to be re-lived.