The Simple Things

There's a song my dad used to play in the car when I was growing up. It's called 'Simple things' by Joe Crocker. And he always used to tell me how important it is to appreciate the simple things in life.. I'm starting to learn what he mean't..

At the moment my nan isn't well. She's got a terminal lung disease and her condition has got raplidly worse over the past few months. She lives with my mum and I so we have to deal with the situation on a daily basis.. which we do.. (I mean everybody has hard stuff they gotta face/deal with at some point in their lives right? please don't get me wrong here and think I'm looking for a pity party, I'm just explaining the facts)..

My nan can't do anything. She's more or less housebound.. constantly contained between the four walls of either her living room or her bedroom..barely eating, constantly hooked up to an oxygen machine (before anyone thinks I'm getting too melancholy/morbid there is a difficult, but I believe important lesson I'm learning from this )

The other night after me and my mum put her to bed, it really hit me how awful it would be to be in her situation. How much would I miss the everyday things?
That night when I went to bed I couldn't help but think about what it would be like to be in my nan's situation. To have all the simple things be taken away from me..

I imagined not being able to run up the mountain behind my house.. to not feel my heart thumping.. feeling air saturate my lungs.. I imagined not being able to go walking up Breacon..
The other day me and my dad went bikeriding in Afan Argoed and we probebly spend a total of £4 having a snack and a drink at the cafe when we got to the end and my dad turned and said to me 'your nanna would give anything to have been able to do this today.' Two bikes, about 4 quid, a sunny day, and that was all we needed to have a great day.. simple.

The next evening I was over my boyfriend's house..we were cwtched up, eating pizza and watching a film.. and as simple as that scene is, I thought.. imagine never being able to have this again.. When you start thinking like that suddenly the most mediocre, everyday things can seem wonderful.. laughing with someone so much your eyes water.. feeling the relaxing effect of someone stroking your hair...
The other day, I was walking home from work and the heavens opened... I don't think I'd ever seen rain like that in this country before.. it was so incredibly heavy rain and I instantly got soaked right through, but continued to walk down the streets whilst others cowered under shop shelters.. they looked at me like I was crazy but I didn't care... The feel of the warm rain falling over me was invigorating, refreshing. Whereas I would usually have been totally gutted that I'd forgotten my umbrella, I found myself actually appreciating the rain! ( and that's saying something in Wales because we see it a lot)

Last night me and my mum went to a mountain to see the stars and in the hope of seeing some shooting ones.. again.. simple.. just the two of us, and a car with some fuel in.. all that was needed to go out and appreciate God's amazing creation.. to stare in wonder at the balls of fire shooting across the sky..

Sometimes I think we can become so used to the simple things that we take them for granted and can sorta become desensitized to them.. allowing other things to go to the forefront of our minds.. how much money we have, for example.. or what we look like/ how popular we are, what car we drive etc. Whereas some of these things are of some importance, its easy to get our priorities all wrong.

It sounds really cliche but recently the well known saying of life being a 'gift' has really hit home to me.. none of us are garuanteed tomorrow.. God has benevolently breathed life into us.. given us the wonderful senses to hear, touch, taste, smell and see.. he's given us the capacity to love and to be loved.. and to create things.. to laugh... to feel things.. when you really think about it.. it's amazing..

And so recently I've found that I've been appreciating the normal, everyday things like seeing a beautiful view, feeling the sun on my face, breathing in fresh air or spending time with my family. I even appreciate the taste and smell of things...

I've imagined not being able to hear.. imagined not being able to listen to the pieces of music that move me, that somehow seem to touch the soul or uplift your spirit. Imagined not being able to hear a cool beat that I could dance to, not to hear laughter or the voices of the people I love..

Sometimes when life sucks and everything's is going wrong, or the situation you're in is difficult/lonley or hopeless.. we have these simple things to fall back on.. its difficult but sometimes then it's important to value the simple things.. even if its as simple as being able to run up a mountain, being able to hear a beautiful piece of music, go for a bikeride, walk along the beach, taste the delicious taste of our favourite food, or just to breathe in fresh air...

My nan can now only do two of the six things I've mentioned there.. and there's many more simple things she can't do anymore.. I wonder if she really appreciated the other things she could do when she was actually able to do them...

I know its made me appreciate them, and recently I've found myself thanking God for a simple thing everyday..

"Appreciation of life itself, becoming suddenly aware of the miracle of being alive, on this planet, can turn what we call ordinary life into a miracle. We come awake to such a realization when we recognize our connection to a spiritual dimension." Dan Wakefield

“We do not care of what we have, but we cry when it is lost.” Russian Proverb

"Life holds so many simple blessings, each day bringing its own individual wonder." John McLeod

'This World Moves So Fast...Sometimes You Got To Slow Down, Down, Down.....To Find Out What Its All About' - lyrics from 'The Simple Things' by Joe Crocker