Amen to all

hursday 28th January, 2021

The weather forecast last week said all would be well until this Thursday. It would then rain solidly for four days. Well, to my horror I woke to rain and it has rained all day and is now raining in to the night also. I have walked for a mere ten minutes, simply to fetch some cheese from the local shop. I feel deprived as walking has become a daily routine which I do not enjoy but which makes me feel better physically and mentally. I also enjoy taking my grabber to pick up litter and allow me to curse litter bugs. In the ten minutes I walked I got soaked so unless it stops within the next three hours I shall have to miss my 'daily constitutional' as my Papa called it.

Yet how amazing things can be. Last night after a fairly difficult day there was a heavy banging on the front door. Donning my mask I was cursing and questioning under my breath: ' who the hell turns up at this time of night in the middle of a stay away pandemic?' I imagined the police, a neighbour with a dying husband ( not unlikely as a friend's brother in law had a brain haemorrhage last evening ), a car accident on the road or the inland revenue or a drugs raid! How fertile the mad mind can be.

Well, it was a voice retreating up the path shouting that there was a package at the door! Amazon....for me! He must have been an angel in disguise for it was a 180g bar of my favourite chocolate and a book. I devoured the chocolate over the next fifteen minutes and studied the book. 'In love with the world' by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. The blurb noted 'What a monk can teach you about living by nearly dying'. Thank God for the friend who sent it...may many blessings be upon her and her family.

What is more 'thank God for the rain'. I have been able to read much today. I am unable to concentrate for long periods of time but I have spent hours reading it. I will have to read it again so as to take in the mammoth lessons and observations of the work.

How fortuitous is it all. ( And when I weighed myself this morning regretting the possible consequences of the divine chocolate eating I had not put on any weight!! )

You must read the book. The introduction has the following final sentence: " This book shows a way of living life with a grace that blesses all it touches'.

Amen to that and Amen to life and Amen to friends and Amen to chocolate.