As I sit and write this, there is clear blue skies, the birds are singing, and a squirrel has just been sitting on the windowsill outside the open window of my office. I don’t know who got the bigger fright when we noticed each other! With all this fantastic weather we have been having recently, it is hard not to reflect on what a beautiful part of the country we live in. Not quite as beautiful as Scotland, but pretty close.
I have been reading on the BBC news, of the atrocious situation that the people of North Korea are in. The country shut it boarders in 2020 in an attempt to keep Covid out, this has caused dire consequences as a result. There are reports of people dying in the streets from hunger, as the country cannot produce enough food for its people. We also hear daily on the news about the people in Ukraine and refugees from all around the world who are fleeing violence.
Warsan Shire, a Somali-British writer and poet wrote the following line in a poem a few years ago “You have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.” Pause and reread that quote! How does that fit with your own feelings about refugees? Do we remember that Jesus was Himself a child refugee? How would we have wanted the people of Egypt to treat our Lord and the Holy family?
While nowhere and nothing is perfect in life, the lives we live in this country are, in the grand scheme of things somewhat privileged. What can we do differently? I want to suggest that the first thing we might want to do, is to challenge our attitudes. You see, our attitude changes our behaviours. If we always have an attitude of negativity, our behaviours become negative. However, the opposite is true. If we have an attitude of Joy and compassion, then our behaviours will reflect this.
So let us focus on the blessings that we have in life, let us have an “attitude of gratitude” and let that attitude manifest itself in our behaviours.
Revd Gregor