In gratitude

In amongst all the pissing and whinging, it's occasionally easy to lose sight of the fact that I'm actually very lucky.

Life is full of petty frustrations. Frustrations? Bullshit to be more exact. Petty? Pretty much! I pay what seems like a lot of tax and get to listen to news that I'm expected to pay more and earn less. But that means that I have a job, and that fact alone can be easy to underappreciate. Every day, similar or different, presents another opportunity to wrestle with yourself and your interaction with the world.

I'm getting older, but everybody does. I'm old enough to know that I know very little but still young enough in mind to be excited by that prospect! I've seen a bit (a bit more than I would have liked at times) but I know there's more to see. Thanks to living in a modern, post-industrialised country with access to the resources that provides, I am better placed to find out about and discover those things than any previous generation.

I've been presented with, found and created opportunities. Some I've taken with success; some I've taken and failed, and others I have turned down. All have taught me something - about the world and people at large and about myself.

So, to family and friends; fellows and foe; the fearless and the fragile; the feral and the fettered; the festive and the funereal -

Thank you.

I am the sum of the parts you have given me, although my faults are all my own. Here's to challenges; past, present and those yet to come.

BM

[This episode was brought to you in association with the letter "F"]

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