sunset – Aspirational Adventures

All photographed by myself Wednesday 19th June 2024 at Llangogllen International Pavilion

Blessings come from unexpected places and, I don’t know about you, but I need to keep being reminded of that.

Yesterday hubby and I went to see del Amitri and Simple Minds in concert for his 56th birthday; reliving our teen/mid-twenties angst!

First blessing was being able to stand mid-way in the arena but against the walkway/firebreak type area, so we had a perfect view of the stage even if these photos don’t do it justice.

Then when we left and drove home we were we blessed by the horizon [we headed north home] always having an orange streak to it where the sun wasn’t setting. The photos are taken from the venue at about 10.45. I wish I’d taken some on our sea front when we got home but we were exhausted and wanting to check the dog was ok – which he was.

But not only having that lovely sunset we were also followed by the gorgeous full moon. Those photos, again taken at the venue, do not do it justice to how the moon kept peeking out behind the clouds and then disappearing again. It was awesome.

So perfect spot to watch the bands of our youth, amazing almost longest day sky and a beautiful full moon. Blessed and blessed and blessed.

Flip side – I had to get up about 2am because the pain in my legs and feet was unbearable from standing up for 5 hours, dancing for 3 of those 5.

I have a choice – I can remember that night for the lack of sleep and the pain in my legs and the reminder that I’m not 25 any more, or I can remember the great music, great spot, sunset and moon. Which do I choose?

It seems like a no-contest to me but too often we slide into the negative rather than the positive totally missing the blessing and the joy. Even on average days or even rubbish days there is always a blessing lurking in there – like when we had a serious of unfortunate deaths but we’d bought our puppy just before it all happened and he just kept us laughing through our tears. Or even just on the ordinary when the sun peaks through the clouds – as RS Thomas reminds us The Bright Field – there is always blessing to be found.

So yesterday was awesome. Today is ordinary. But in each there is a blessing to be found if we look for it.

How to be grateful when life isn’t being fair

Photo looking across a wooden fence through trees that are just starting to turn autumnal towards a waterfall. Taken by Diane Woodrow — Swallow Falls, Conwy, taken by myself on Sunday 10th October

I’ve been having a quiet rant to God on behalf of a friend. I’m not sure if she’s ranting too but I am. Last week her youngest daughter gave birth to her first child in her early 40’s after years of trying; miscarriages, IVF, etc. But then at the start of this week my friend’s dad died suddenly. It isn’t fair, I am shouting into the heavens. Why can’t her and her family enjoy the awesomeness of this miracle baby just for a few months without having to deal with grief? Why???

The season in GodspaceLight is gratitude, and I know I’ve also written about gratitude on here in various guises, but my thought for today is “how can I/we be genuinely grateful when life is being unfair? “

But then as I walked the dog in the park this morning I experience the second awesome sunrise of this week and also had a heron fly from the pond almost directly in front of me. It got me thinking – I only get to see the sunrises on my dog walks now because the days are getting shorter, daylight hours are getting less. And I can marvel at how there are amazing colours in the sky for a good 20-30 mins before the sun rises officially. Even if I get up in the summer really early the sun doesn’t do that same thing of filling the sky with colour and light earlier than it pops its head up. If it wasn’t for that shortening of daylight hours I wouldn’t get to see this. So a place to be grateful when the dark is getting more?

Also what I felt when all this was going on around me is that yes life isn’t fair but there are good things going on in the unfairness. It reminds me of the fact that the trip to Paris to launch my daughter into university was marred because my father-in-law died that same weekend, so when I look at the picture of her grinning over a very very frothy cappuccino I think of his death too. Life throwing one of its unfair curve balls.

So all I can say about how to be grateful when life is being unfair is to accept and grieve in the unfair bits, the death bits, the darkness, but also be grateful in the sunrises, the births, the trips to Paris.

Both are allowed. Both are ok. It is not ‘either or’ but ‘both and’.

A few years ago I supported another friend though the first year after her husband’s suicide and we cried lots but we also laughed lots. We were able to be ‘both and’. Even now when we meet we do both – laughing and crying – more often than not in a public place

So I will hug my friend as she grieves and laugh with her as she delights in her new granddaughter. Together we can accept that life isn’t fair and that there are sunrises and there are sunsets. Somethings are beautiful and some things are tragic. That we do not live in a world where only good happens and somethings we have to deal with both things at once. But we can do it!

And for that whole humanness of who we are I will be grateful