On this new and glorious day against the backdrop of an onslaught of COVID-19 cases, I rise to give thanks and to count my blessings.
I also thank God for this blessing of insight, knowledge, perspective; things which I did not go out seeking but which were gifted to me by the Most High. I have been privy to things which I would not have otherwise known without God’s provision, because He put me in place to dream dreams, to hear conversations and even quotes such as the fact that man is more preoccupied with having than with being. I heard it in the movie Lucy from the actor Morgan Freeman, and it was most insightful in its simplicity.
Gaining such insights is one of the reasons why God may have placed me in this current state of solitude, so that my mind may be open and free from distractions and so that information gained by hearing, reading, dreaming and even random thoughts would not be clouded but would be received with a level of profundity hitherto not experienced by me.
I do not consider myself to be wise. On the contrary, I consider myself to fit the description given by my cousin Granville at my wedding: A simple fellow. I came along in an innocuous part of this island, born amid cane fields and not in any City hospital or plush place where lawns and concrete abounded. I was born at home, and was raised for a time amid the cane fields, and then was brought to “town” as an eight-year-old traumatised by my grandmother’s death.
Anyway, lest I digress further, I awoke this morning feeling some negativity over an incident that occurred over the weekend and that stopped me from spending the full amount of time I wanted to spend with Zari. But God turned around those negative thoughts to show me that things will come along in life to spoil your happiness; temporarily and maybe even for a long time. However, along with those mishaps and those negative dynamics there are blessings worth counting.
I need to count those blessings not only this day but every day. This is why I am putting these ruminations on record so that when other things come up – as they will – this perspective will remain. To leave this perspective without recording it, I felt, would have been to do myself an injustice in terms of where I go from here in life. And when people speak of landmarks in life, they usually imagine things substantial which can be seen or measured physically – things like material achievements – but that is not what this is about.
This morning, I am thankful to God for showing me that those mentioned achievements and resources are but tools. God has put minerals, food and other materials in the earth but they are there for us human beings and animals to use for our physical nourishment, and on a wider scale for our physical care and comfort, shelter, clothing and enhancement. The fuel which drives vehicles, planes, ships and machines daily comes from the earth and was given by God to enhance our lives; and having made those foundational things, God gave Man the wisdom to take us from the industrial age to this post-modern era of microchip and wireless technology.
These things given by God have been exchanged from time immemorial for other goods and services, but over the centuries we have used them not only to enhance lives but to disadvantage others, thereby giving one group of people superiority over another, and to evaluate others based mainly on material assets and physical resources.
Look at the typical family in any western society. Should one assess it based on its net worth or the fact that they are blessed to actually be a family, existing in an environment characterised by love and togetherness? Based on this sole example, I would not trade any of my children for any of the millions of dollars I have thought about and wished for in all my 58 years. Having the millions along with my children would be ideal, but first and foremost I want my children and grandchildren to be well, to excel and succeed. Similarly, I cherish having my mother in her 80s, and would not exchange her for any of those longed-for millions. I want to have my family and my loved ones as is, with their faults and all. I want to have the millions too, but simply as a tool to enhance our lives.
We make so much fuss – I am guilty of it as well – about having, not realising that being is the principal thing, and once you are, you will have. Once you can be, you will have because you then see life in its true perspective. This, in fact, is the truest perspective I have perhaps ever had in my life.
Yes, achievements are good and give you that sense of accomplishment and take you forward via the goals you set yourself, especially if you overcome some perceived hurdle in life, but at this time the gifts which God has given to me – good health, the ability to think and reason, to articulate – are tremendous blessings of unimaginable value. Even the placing of this word into my psyche, and impressing upon my heart the urgency of sharing this word, is a blessing I could not have imagined!
“Count Your Blessings”: I have been hearing those words in song and conversation for years but I never fully understood the depth of them and their true meaning; the blessings of being alive, to hear the things I hear, to read the things I read, to be able to make sense of them precisely because God has given me the ability to do so.
Therefore, help me, dear God, not to dismiss or diminish love, family, friends and blessings for what are essentially…mere things.
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