A sense of being enormously grateful is very much on my mind this week. It’s a feeling that I often connect with, but even more so in this week as our country mourns the death of a young hero, Phillip Hughes.
Like many people in my community of Macksville, NSW I know of his family if only to recognise them in passing on the street. Unlike many people in my community I’m not a massive sport fan but the weird thing is that right now that doesn’t matter. The loss to the community goes way beyond wins and losses on the sporting field, it’s also about the loss of a role model to so many young country boys after him, it’s about the loss of a son to his parents, a brother and so on.
I feel for his family and those close to him and while the media has hyped the feeling in the town somewhat it is certainly true that there is something just a bit unusual in the air, a sense of loss.
This week is also the week that the life of a local Elder will be celebrated, a beautiful, kind and unassuming woman. A woman who made me feel so comfortable in her presence. I feel an enormous sense of loss for her family, to our community, to our world.
Something this really makes me ask myself is why it takes such dire incidents to remind me just how little the niggling problems mean in life? And for that matter how easy it is to get sucked into feeling angry or disappointed just because somebody didn’t follow my ‘rule books’ about how life should be to the letter.
This week I’ve decided to pay particular attention to what I have – not what I’m missing out on. This week I’ve decided to embrace the bigger picture and not bother sweating the small stuff. This week I’ve decided to be just a little bit kinder to myself, to my family and to those around me.
This week I give gratitude that I have the opportunity to notice niggling problems and I choose to bypass them and focus my thoughts on the families who have lost someone in the past weeks. And gratitude to the gifts that both of these people brought to the world.
May your heart lift as you embrace the things that you are grateful for in your life and also, I hope you can spare a thought for those who have lost.
