A perfect Freesia from my garden…

Even where the weeds keep growing, there is still beauty to be found. It is there regardless of that which is unwanted, a nuisance, a chore to be attended to, something unruly and overbearing that would hide such glory that exists.

There are times when everything seems to be going wrong and nothing going right. One way to get really down in the mouth is to focus on the negative, to see the glass as half empty rather than half full - or even completely empty (ignoring the tap where one can fill the glass again).

As a small child onwards I was told to count my blessings, and as far back as I can remember, I found myself poised on the edge of a hard choice. If I had to rummage around and come up with blessings - that is, really come up with them and not complain that there are not any to count - then I was forced to forgo the gloomy satisfaction of a good wallow in the injustices of this world. A good wallow would have me continue to believe in my misery, hang on to it, even magnify it. Looking for the good, the positives, the things for which I could be grateful, and how much more fortunate I was than others (and there were always others far worse off than I ever was) had me loose hold of that which pained me. A tough exercise at times, but a very healthy one.

Did you notice the words among the leaves with the roses two posts back? They were: “You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.” In this imperfect world there will always be things that go wrong, that do not happen according to one’s liking, but we still have choices regarding our reactions to those things. You make the choice yourself. Nobody else makes it for you. You can choose to wallow in misery, or you can choose to throw the switch completely and go the other way. If you are not used to doing that, it may take a little help from a friend and then a bit of practice, but it is certainly possible. Feeling states are preceded by thoughts which are often embedded in attitudes. Deal with the attitudes, change the thoughts, and soon one’s outlook changes in that new direction. Is that hard? Yes, sometimes it is. But it is not impossible.

It was a long time ago now, but one day I came to be sitting in a hospital waiting room with the weight of the whole world on my shoulders, being far from well. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a young women going through the process of being discharged from hospital. All was going well for her. Then she stopped and looked towards where I was sitting. I did not know her, but she came over to me and did something most unexpected. I must have looked as ill as I was because she spoke very gently and said “I was very ill when I was admitted and now I am well. I pray the same will be for you too.” And she kissed me on the top of my head. Yes, I was very ill, but that kiss became the seed of hope that I dearly needed that day. It was a surprising thing that happened but it meant so much to me right then. It told me to hang on to hope, to hold out for the best, the good, the positives and to believe that such things can and do happen.

Now I know that these things are there all the time for us - if only we will look for them, open our eyes to see them, believe in the Source of them, truly appreciate and enjoy them, be grateful for them, and in our gratitude thank God for His provision of them. It can be the hardest thing to do sometimes, but seeking out that which is good and thanking God even in the midst of one’s pain is the way towards overcoming those things that are imperfect in this world. Our God is the provider and unlike the shifting shadows, He does not change; they continue to be there for us - all of the time.