A simple thanks..! | Daily News

A simple thanks..!

A few years ago I looked at the papers one morning and saw pics of men and women huddled together, weeping, sobbing, shaking with uncontrollable sorrow; mothers and fathers looking at each other with eyes aghast, shaking their heads in denial, “How could this happen?” they cry out in grief, “How could a plane crash take away our dear one from us?” they scream silently, bodies racked in spasms of grief.

I shudder but go quiet within; even as I weep with them there is a feeling of deep thankfulness; it was just a day before that my own child flew to Europe on an Air-France flight as part of a student exchange program; I look at pictures of those grieving relatives and my heart cries out in thankfulness that my child reached safe!

How easy to forget being thankful for all we take for granted:

We are irritated our child hasn’t done well in school, right? But give thanks he or she isn’t hanging from the end of a rope like what’s happening to many kids. We are unhappy with our job, with the distance we have to travel to work, but see yon face of him who’s been sacked, who gets into car which he hasn’t paid for, enters a house whose loan is so huge, the lift shudders as it takes him up to his flat in the skies, which is already flying away. Give thanks for your secure job.

We look at our ordinary spouses and ogle hunks on the sports page or semi-nude mates many publications provide for our lustful selves, forgetting that such fellows and beauties have egos to be filled and wants to be satiated, till they finally walk away. “Thank you for your adoration, but we need to find other worshippers!”

I look at the pictures of grief again and my heart cries out in thanks:

Thank you for the scorching sun that even as I get burnt and complain I know I can walk and run outside, not an invalid somewhere!

Thank you for the rains that are upon us that even as I sigh and open the umbrella, know I have a head to protect and not one under a surgeon’s knife!

Thank you for traffic jams, for as I look at other cars blocking my way, I know I’m in the midst of people and not locked away in jail or detention centre in some country that will not tolerate my plain, blunt, candid views!

Thank you for all the things I keep complaining about, that even as I complain, I hope for change, something those grieving relatives can’t ever hope for!

Let’s not wait for sorrow to realize how we take much for granted, instead start appreciating and giving God thanks for simple things you and I haven’t been giving thanks for till now, especially those annoying, irritating little stuff that tell us we have a reason to be thankful..!

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