Tuesday 17 May 2011

The Common Cold

God bless those who suffer from the common cold
Nature has entered into them
Has led them aside and gently lain them low
To contemplate life from the wayside.....

So says Michael Leunig, Australian poet, cartoonist, social commentator, and revealer of truth, in the Prayer Tree (Harper Collins, 1990)  The cold that I suffer from today is a gift, reminding me to "consider human frailty... to receive the deep and dreamy messages of fever...", as Leunig goes on to say.  How readily I give thanks for the things I like and resent the things I do not.  If I expect from life only happiness given on my terms, then I will be disappointed - have been so disappointed.  But if I see life as a journey, as an experience of learning and growing, and all of life as a gift, then I can only dance, can only trace the shining with my fingertips, can only follow the steps in this twirl of joy as one who is loved.