Gratitude

Strange as it might seem, there are advantages to insomnia!

Today is D-Day and in four hours time, I will be leaving Rome for England on the next stage of my journey in life. The packing is done. (The washing was in the machine before 05.00.)

Inevitably, with the busy-ness, the first casualty has been sleep, at least, this morning, with a mental list of jobs still to be done before departure.

Knowing that 03.00 was much too early to be bustling around a silent house, I switched on the radio and heard a beautiful programme about gratitude. People were brought face-to-face with someone to whom they wanted to say thank-you.

What was striking was that the benefactors had not thought that they had done anything special and were both pleased, but also surprised, to know that they had changed the life of another person: one Good Samaritan was a teacher, another an orthopaedic surgeon and a third, a busy Mum who found a missing dog.

Yesterday, during a similar bout of wakefulness, another radio programme interviewed people with terminal illnesses, talking about how they had come to terms with their condition, what they had learned, and the advice they wanted to leave for those who are not coming to the end of their time on earth. Interestingly, there was one theme: be grateful. Appreciate every moment of life, every sunrise and sunset. Notice all the little things for which there was never time to look and see their loveliness.

At the end of the day, no matter who were are, ‘thank-you’ or its equivalent in whatever might be a person’s language, is such a small word, but is there anything that can hold the same vastness of meaning? I don’t think so.

It would be wonderful if the whole of life could be one great act of thanks to the One who loved us into life in the first place.

God bless,
Sr. Janet