20th March 2012

What a special day it is! And that statement provokes the obvious response querying what makes it different from any other day. Let me think then… well it’s Tuesday, so that means it’s the day I have to remember to put my bins out for tomorrow’s early morning collection. No, that doesn’t make it particularly special. Yes I’ve got it, I did my weekly shop at Sainsbury’s and had the lowest bill for some time. That’s good, or would be if I hadn’t visited the place three times in the last eight days! Ok that’s not very special either; truth be told a little boring. As was cleaning out the cat litter alongside a long list of other domestic chores… most of them ignored today by the way. All very normal so far and no sign of anything worth labelling as special. 

Well then what about my trip to Loughborough? Yes visiting my daughter and pre-school grandson is always very special. My son-in-law stopped by for a quick lunch break as well. Great stuff. But my daughter is really quite nervous at the moment, as she’s been in training for the Loughborough Half-Marathon all year and is currently nursing a knee injury. It's on Sunday! She was roped in to this challenge by her work colleagues at Baca, a charity focussed upon the vulnerable involved in forced migration. Currently they work supporting ‘Unaccompanied Asylum Seeker Children’, I understand it to be mostly young males aged between 16-18. They’re trying to raise a few thousand pounds to begin a parallel work with those involved in Human Trafficking… I expect these to be young women needing a lot of help. Anyway I think what she’s doing is very special! More info on her My Donate page: http://www.facebook.com/l/MAQGWuSK-AQHAEywXZ21WZKykwAWyM5lzr_DJ1_siGul3XA/https%3A%2F%2Fmydonate.bt.com%2Ffundraisers%2Fmelaniepage1

I haven’t mentioned my live at home son yet. He’s taken this week off as a holiday from work. So he came to Loughborough with me. That was nice. And we’re talking of day trips around the country, visiting maybe an aero museum and, if I can persuade him, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. London could work if we can get inspired with an agenda of mutual interest. We’ll see what happens, neither of us need to make firm plans. We just get up and go where we fancy on the day.  So yes, having my son as companion is also very special.

This morning we also visited Jane’s mum. She’s 97 and not been doing at all well. She’s been very depressed and quite distressed just recently with a health problem. A hospital visit yesterday suggests it’s only a minor problem which can be sorted out without much fuss. So that’s good. Despite being very unhappy I was able to cheer her up with a few words of encouragement and basically left her not just smiling but actually laughing out loud. So that was special as well.

All in all it’s not been a bad day, though on the face of it quite ordinary it’s had it’s special moments. Sometimes I think it’s more important how we see life than what we actually do. One thing is for sure, Tuesday the 20^th March 2012 is a unique date in the history of the world. There’ll never be another. And it’s a whole day of my life so I needed to make the most of it. Whether it be a plain day or an exciting one is irrelevant. I’m just grateful that I could live to do my best with it.

Oh yes, my long haired rather odd photo! There was a day about 4 years ago when Jane and I visited Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire, and as is quite common there’s a box of dressing up clothes for the kids to have fun with. Anyway what else do you do when it’s a school day so no kids to embarrass and with no one looking? I seem to remember Jane’s psychotherapy text books call it Past Life Regression! I just call it ‘special’.

 Psalm 118:24 ‘This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.’ (NLT)