DAY 9 of my (rather patchy – did I promise consecutive days? Well did I?) Gratitude project and I’m ashamed to say that I’m having to think hard about what I’m thankful for.
Maybe it’s the grey weather, or the overwhelming pile of work that needs to be done, but here I am in a first world country, in my lovely (if 100% mortgaged) home. There are green fields and trees a few steps away and I have the kind of neighbourhood where even the teenagers nod and smile and say good morning. I’m typing this at the dining room table by patio doors which look onto a garden and a pond – my own little patch of Heaven on earth. There’s food in the fridge, tea on tap and central heating. I don’t live my life in fear for my safety, or under coercion to do anything I don’t want to do. I’m healthy, loved, I have things to look forward to. None of my loved ones are in immediate peril (though Beth confessed via Skype last night that, owing to her loss of peripheral vision caused by a series of concussions, she actually finds herself skiing a little too close to the edge for her instructor’s comfort… but as I say, no immediate peril…)
And in writing the sentences above, I realise, dear reader, that TODAY I AM THANKFUL FOR THE LIFE I HAVE.
It’s easy to allow petty anxieties and the sheer drudgery of the day to working day to let us lose sight of what we do have, isn’t it? I think I’ve just taught myself a lesson – next time I “can’t think of anything to be thankful for” I’ll write me a list.
I’ll leave it to the incomparable Nina Simone to sum up. I’m off to have a therapeutic sway…
