What We have.

Looking towards Edinburgh.

Is it not strange that we so often take for granted the things that are not far from our own front doors. So often the only things we can see are the things that we do not like. How easy it is to complain about what the local council is not doing and should be. 

Yesterday I heard a lady complaining about the amount of litter there seemed to be in the village. it is true that because of the school holidays there has indeed been a slight rise in the amount of empty crisp packets and sweet papers laying around. But instead of complaining why not put the effort into lifting it and placing it in a litter bin?

It seems so easy. It is a fact that the more we see wrong with thing the bigger the list becomes. 

I remember a lesson well learned from a friend who had overcome a terrible problem he was having with alcohol. He told me of the moment he changed his life. 

He was doing his usual performing of over consumption. He missed his last bus and train home and had nowhere to go. It was a miserable night. 

He passed a hostel and thought he might get a bed there. He did in fact do just that. 

He described it. A large room full of mattresses on the floor. The terrible smell of unwashed clothes and bodies and worse. 

But he was so far gone he did not care he lay down and went to sleep.

Early the next morning he awoke to the dire scene. He was disgusted with himself. He looked at the man on the mattress next to him and said, "This is terrible. I don't suppose you can get much lower than this?"

"Just another six feet," said the man.

For Further this was the turn around and the climb back to a much better life. 

I remember talking to two prisoners in prison where I was chaplain, Was was as miserable as can be about the conditions of the prison. The other thought it was a bed of clover compared to the prison he had been transferred from. 

Life is very much about how we see it. The picture above was taken just the other day not far from where I live. People all around were complaining of the clouds and the possible rain. All I could see was the beauty of the atmosphere. 

I often think, that it is not what I do not have that is important rather it is what I have that matters.

Happiness is not something out there to be sought it lies within us waiting to be discovered. 

Have a wonderful day and for those of us in the uk make the most of the extra hour you have today.