Having anathematised Microsoft to the abode of the damned a couple of posts back, today we redress that balance as I freely admit to being totally in love with one small, sweet, inconsequential little feature of Windows; changing wallpaper. Go to control panel, select personalization, desktop background, slide show, and how often you want the picture to change, and it will transform your desktop background into a kaleidoscope of memories (depending on what photos you have stored on your box of course). I love every time I go to the computer and seeing “oh I remember that…”, “look there’s so and so…”, “hasn’t Joni grown…”. The other day I arrived to a picture of the Nazca lines seen from the air, and once I’d recovered from remembering how that was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, I got to thinking “flipping heck, I’ve flown over the Nazca lines, what a ridiculously privileged existence have I been blessed with”.
Gratitude is a good discipline, I think we find what we’re looking for, whether that be reasons to criticise or reasons to be thankful. I know if I can find just ten things to thank God for each day, in less than three years they will have added up to ten thousand. I also know that I’m not disciplined enough to keep counting them in any formal sense for a whole three years, but I am trying to be more consciously aware of God’s daily blessings around me (starting with wall-paper by Windows, and the Nazca lines).
Today I am giving thanks…
… For my daily early-morning dog-walk along the lane, sharing the peace with our plethora of local wild-life, guinea pigs, woodpeckers, caranchos and chimangos (two varieties of birds of prey), and the beautiful tijeretas which have once again safely migrated back from who-knows-where to spend the summer here;
… For the two kilos of potatoes that I have dug out of our garden, (even more so since the original seed potatoes came free), and the successful garlic experiment, not to mention the sweet-corn and butternut squash plants that are just starting to push through. And I positively purr when Joni says “the things we grow in our garden taste much nicer….”
… For my English conversation students, because I enjoy work, and because they pay for our kids’ swimming lessons. I also give thanks when they go on holiday and I have a free hour. Work is a blessing, and rest from it is another one!
… For Maxi, the small autistic child who I have just started working with. May that be a fruitful relationship for all concerned.
… And more than anything else for the blessings of watching my own kids growing and learning every day, each in their own…
inimitable…
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