‘Five things I never realised I was grateful for before’ 

That was what I needed to write about. And it was probably the most challenging subject I’ve encountered so far – at least for me personally. After days of procrastinating, I finally realised that I had to sit and do it, and be ruthlessly honest and truthful. Otherwise it would be a mere affectation, just words on a screen with no depth and no true meaning.

So here are my top five:

• Eyes to see – my children’s laughing faces, the swatch of colour as a mop brush sweeps across watercolour paper, the words on a page, my husband’s amused grin, swaying palm branches atop coconut trees, fluffy clouds scudding across a bright azure sky, frothy cerulean waves lapping golden sand…
• Ears to hear – melody and lyric in perfect harmony, children laughing and squealing as they play, and the blessed silence when they are asleep, beloved voices across several miles but startlingly clear over the phone, a baby’s cries…
• Friendships – that have grown stronger despite distance and lockdowns, friends whom I can call at any time and am absolutely sure they’ll pick up, a community to lean on when the going gets extremely tough, camaraderie and companionship that reminds me I’m not alone in this, where I can be absolutely, gut-wrenchingly honest and know that I am accepted not condemned…
• Tears – to weep for all the loss and pain, to be able to express grief and sorrow, to find relief in the blessed release of tears, to feel the heavy rock lift from my heart as the tears course down my cheeks, to lament tangibly, and find succour in the lamenting, to realise that tears can be comforting…
• Hope – amidst the death and disease all around, to finally understand a measure of what Jesus accomplished on the cross—‘death, where is thy sting; grave, where is thy victory’ *—they are no longer mere words but a clarion call resounding through the Bible, igniting dying hope, breathing life into dry bones, stiffening weary limbs, setting our faces as flint as we run the race that is set before us. Not wishful thinking but an audacious conviction; not cowardly avoidance but a valiant confidence; hope is a steadfast assurance that this is merely a journey and death is just a doorway to life!

And for that I’m truly grateful.

* I Corinthians 15:55 (The Bible)

Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash