Believe in better

The slowly rising light was beginning to drift across the dirty skylights in the roof of my workplace this morning.

As it picked off each ridge on its journey West the colour went from black to gold and on to pink. That was the moment my heart needed to be outside (not of my body because that would cause serious complications to the rest of my day) but out in the morning air.

I don’t remember a time that the sky hasn’t fascinated me; day or night the vast expanse has drawn me upwards from myself. As a child I remember lying with my friend on the grass on warm evenings gazing at the myriads of planets out there.

Only a few weeks ago we sat around a campfire on a beautiful beach and enjoyed the stars slowly becoming visible as the sun sank and the fire dimmed to a warm glow. For the first time we saw meteors burn in phosphorescent green as they tried in vain to enter our atmosphere.

Every time that we are informed by the chirpy weather people of “a good night to see the Northern lights” it is either cloudy or I forget and the lure of sleep is more appealing. I have successfully reached forty three summers without having seem them, in spite of their regular appearance in my vicinity.

Such is the case with so much of life, most of my fellow town dwellers have never seen the herd of deer that live peacefully less than a mile from my door. It takes eyes to see, we all have eyes but we are not all looking. We are focussed on our immediate tasks or our self important current destination as we zip on past that which is there to be seen.

This past week was one of dull existence in many ways. The grind of up-work-eat-sleep repeat was not aided by the underlying viral battle going on within. Existing day to day was enough for this bundle of cells to cope with, but who says that this is essentially wrong?

I will tell you who, the voice within that listens to the advertisers on TV and Internet, those privileged bloggers and vloggers who are funded by their sponsors to sally around the globe “experiencing life.” They are not the normal let me tell you, we who work jobs and raise our kids while juggling a hundred financial balls are the majority.

Cut yourself a bit of slack.

The title for today comes from a satellite TV advert, they do ‘believe in better,’ sadly from my experience they don’t deliver it very often but at least somebody there believes.

For some today (as with me on many days) the rising sun only brings the dread of yet another day, can I encourage you to believe it will not always be so.

We cannot always live days of sunshine and lollipops, it sounds nice but it is not possible. Everyone is up one day and down another, it is in the nature of who we are.

The sunrise today inspired me, the messages of hope yesterday in church reminded me, the friends that shared our coffee enlarged our day and taking a moment this morning to ‘see’ the sky and enjoy it turned a tired Monday into a hopeful one.