Things To Be Thankful For: 2017

Sunday 30 July 2017

Somewhere to live,

Oh the blessing of somewhere to live. Be it house, a bungalow or an apartment, with a kitchen, a toilet and a living room. A place to call one's own. To spend time with one's spouse, or child or friend, or in peaceful solitude to read a book, or sing, or to play music.

Gracias

In his book entitled “Gracias,” Henri Nouwen talks about his experience in Peru and Bolivia, he writes: "The title of this (book) summarizes what I found, learned, and heard. The word that I kept hearing, wherever I went, was: Gracias! It sounded like the refrain from a long ballad of events. Gracias a usted, gracias a Dios, muchas gracias––thank you, thanks be to God, many thanks! I saw thousands of poor and hungry children, I met many young men and women without money, a job, or a decent place to live. I spent long hours with sick, elderly people, and I witnessed more misery and pain than ever before in my life. But, in the midst of it all, that word lifted me again and again to a new realm of seeing and hearing: 'Gracias! Thanks!”

"In many of the families I visited nothing was certain, nothing predictable, nothing totally safe. Maybe there would be food tomorrow, maybe there would be work tomorrow, maybe there would be peace tomorrow. Maybe, maybe not. But whatever is given––money, food, work, a handshake, a smile, a good word, or an embrace––is a reason to rejoice and say gracias. What I claim as a right, my friends in Bolivia and Peru received as a gift; what is obvious to me was a joyful surprise to them; what I take for granted, they celebrate in thanksgiving; what for me goes by unnoticed became for them a new occasion to say thanks.”

"And slowly I learned. I learned what I must have forgotten somewhere in my busy, well-planned, and very "useful" life. I learned that everything that is, is freely given by the God of love. All is grace. Light and water, shelter and food, work and free time, children, parents and grandparents, birth and death––it is all given to us. Why? So that we can say gracias, thanks: thanks to God, thanks to each other, thanks to all and everyone.”