Day Twenty Four - Be thankful

With the advent of the first full lockdown back in March, I changed my prayer habit. I realised that if I started praying about the current situation at bedtime, I was in for a sleepless night. So I concentrated purely on thanksgiving – and I discovered quite a few items to be thankful for.

On a very personal level, I am exceedingly thankful that I will (d.v. as Thora Hird used to say) celebrate my 65th birthday in two days’ time. When I was diagnosed, aged 57, with myeloma – cancer of the bone marrow – living for another eight years was a statistical impossibility. So, alongside my usual personal thanks for medical intervention, drug research and nursing care, I have added the battle against Covid-19.

Without modern technology many of us would be isolated in ordinary times but, during our current unprecedented situation, inventions such as Skype, WhatsApp and even the plain old telephone have come into their own. I have been able to read a bedtime story to my three-year old grandson, who lives almost two hundred miles away – for which I am exceedingly thankful! My older grandson has been able to continue consulting me about homework and has just taken his Grade 3 music theory paper – online.

How often do we consider that watching television is a waste of time? This year it has frequently been added to my list of things to be grateful for. I normally loathe “celebrity” culture but two recent programmes might have changed my mind – something else to feel blessed about. Gary Lineker travelled to Italy to investigate what his grandfather did during WWII. He met a chap who, like Gary’s granddad, had served as a nursing orderly. Gary and William Earl sat outside an Italian café, chatting and we learned that William is now 104 years old! Do we remember to be thankful, other than once a year in November, to those who have fought for our freedom?

I like to watch Sandi Toksvig on TV; it reminds me of seeing her in a live concert last year. She hosted a wonderful programme called “The Write Offs” about several adults who were illiterate. Do we give thanks to God for the fact that we can read and write? The stories told by the dyslexics were emotional and their successes made my eyes fill with tears. How often do we give thanks for the ability not only to feel emotion but also for tears? Yet there are medical conditions which make it impossible for sufferers to shed tears.

Heavenly Father, in these troubling times, enable us to find extra situations and times to give thanks to you. We thank you for creating each one of us unique – that what one of us finds merely amusing will have another rolling around hooting. We thank you for the little things that make our days brighter while never forgetting the most important things: your mercy and love and the incarnation of Jesus. Amen.

Elaine Kinchin