The harm of a grumbling spirit.😌

‘A dirty day’, complained grumpy Jim, on my way to Holy Mass this morning, reminding me of an excruciating event that occurred tragically over twenty years ago.

We sat around the kitchen table praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Holy Rosary. An elderly lady, sobbing quietly, repeated over and over, ‘This is a terrible day’. She wasn’t referring to the weather, the sun shone brightly on that terrible June day that is forever etched in my memory. The previous night, that dear lady’s grandson Trevor took his own life, God rest his gentle soul.

Yes indeed, once again rain is pouring down in our little town. Heavy mist covers the mountains, grey is the dominant colour. But it is not a ‘terrible day’ or even a ‘dirty day’, I wanted to tell Jim. We are alive and well. We should be on our knees thanking God for His manifold Graces and Blessings. We deserve nothing, we are entitled to nothing, all is gift.

Returning home, Nuala looking very dejected greeted me with: ‘Are you enjoying our beautiful weather?. I suggested she look upwards and thank God for the gift of rain, the greatest ‘youth enhancing’  moisturiser of all. She burst out laughing and replied: ‘It would have to be miraculous to do that for me’.

‘To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring’. (George Santayana)

‘If we cannot see beauty on sunless days when the sky is grey and cold - we’ll never see much when the sky is blue and the earth all green and gold....If we cannot see God in the daily round as we hurry here and there - it’s doubtful whether we’ll ever really find Him anywhere’. (Patience Strong)