Reflective mood

I was looking at my gratitude list today thinking to myself "I haven't updated that since the weekend". I then notice that I'd put on there over the weekend "New DAB radio for the kitchen". So yes I'm grateful for that as it has replaced the very old and knackered cassette/CD/radio boom box we'd had for years with something that sounds much better and much smaller and won't mean all that fiddling about trying to tune into Radio Kent on snow days to find out if the school is shut just go to the menu and press a button and Radio Kent is there. Plus I get to listen to Kerrang or Planet Rock while I'm cooking :-)

But I digress; I was disappointed that I'd put that on there actually, it's a small and materialistic thing, nice yes but in the grand scheme of stuff not that relevant. So I took a few minutes to contemplate about what I am truly grateful for. If the DAB radio wasn't there my life would be unaffected. So I got to thinking...

The World - pretty amazing isn't it? Our Planet that we are lucky enough to live on. By a real quirk of luck here we are on the outer reaches of our galaxy and there is a star that is the right size and age to have a Goldilocks zone and that we are alive in the period before our sun gets too old to sustain that. Then look at the Earth and how it all is and inter-reacts, soil, water, weather etc. Still I suppose that I wouldn't be here thinking this stuff if it wasn't like so a moot point but whatever still one to be grateful for.

Family - I'm very blessed to have kids. Further blessed that they are great fun to be with and generally both people I have admiration for in different ways. Then there are my sister and brother, again I have a family in which we have good relationships - recently a man in our town was killed and his brothers are to face trial for his murder all over some money in their mothers will. I don't live in a family like that and I'm very grateful.

The kids thought made me think that I wouldn't have my kids without my wife. We been together since 1981, she was a mere 16 and me 18 when we met at school. So at the end of this month we'll have been together for 29 years and in July married for 25 years. Some people never get lucky enough to meet someone that they could be with like that, and we've been through some times together, notably she stuck with me through the bad days of drinking where frankly nobody would have blamed her if she'd have walked out or kicked me out, both my parents deaths, the children arriving and bringing them up, jobs coming and going for both of us over the years, the loss of her brother so young and grandparents into homes and then to the end, her Dad's suffering with cancer. My marriage is something I'm extremely grateful for.

Hmm - the DAB radio is nice but its place on my gratitude list is back into perspective today a bit.

Comments

  1. Ken Skinner3 February 2010 at 13:18

    For a split second I thought you were going to fall into the logic trap that most people seem to when talking about the probability of life on Earth.

    Probability of it happening on any planet = astronomically (cough) small.

    Probability of it happening on Earth? Given that it already did, it's a moot point, as you said.

    The fact that we're sat here alone (so far) is a testament to how unlikely it was to happen.

    I wonder how those still on this rock as the sun goes supernova will feel about the whole thing :-)

    I do like the idea of a grateful list, though. Focus and positive reinforcement is always a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mondo3 February 2010 at 13:57

    How's your DAB reception - mine was dreadful apart from Gold stations, Birdsong and Traffic. I'd be grateful for a decent reception.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Liz Hinds3 February 2010 at 15:08

    Oh, yes, I love my DAB! We bought a new combined thingy at the weekend with a hard disc and can play usbs as well. If I ever find out how to work it, it'll be on my gratitude list.

    Nothing wrong with that as long as it's in the right place in the grand scheme of things.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cynnie4 February 2010 at 15:16

    omg ! I step away for a second and you become a rock star!!!
    you are fabulous mister :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. DILLIGAF4 February 2010 at 17:57

    Absolute Radio keep goin on about DAB radio's.

    They're givin' em away!!!!

    I'd have one for free...;-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Suburbia4 February 2010 at 23:08

    I always enjoy reading your gratitude list, it inspires me to be positive :)

    ReplyDelete

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