Wednesday's words

Wednesday’s Words

Welcome to the first of Wednesday’s words. The aim is to live positively in the present while being mindful of the past and hopeful for the future. My plan is to work through each letter for the next 26 Wednesdays. Our first word is AMAZING. It is a powerful word and has the advantage of having the first and last letters of the alphabet too! So how can this word “Amazing” impact on us?

What amazed you when you were young? Was is it a trick? Was it a visit? Was it a person? An achievement? What was it?

What amazes you now? Is it the time you have had this year to stop your routine and for once stay at home in an undreamed of way? The lack of commute and daily fight with traffic? Is it working from home or online more?  Perhaps the way everything on a small scale suddenly spreads worldwide? How social media plays a positive or negative role in our lives? The way Sir Captain Tom has raised so many millions and is encouraging us all to raise more? Or the ways our NHS heroes work so hard to keep us alive? Perhaps it is the way world scientists are working towards a safe and effective vaccine at an incredible rate? Perhaps our amazement is about the behaviour of politicians or people you know? Perhaps how amazing is Sir David Attenborough’s achievement and message to all of us?

What of the future? What do you think will amaze next year? What will amaze you regarding Relationships? Family? Friends? Will you be amazed if everything goes back to how it was before this pandemic? Will you be amazed if everything doesn’t?

For me this year has been amazing in many ways. On a personal note it started with the loss of my father and enabled me to revisit bereavement from a different perspective. I was amazed at how roles were reversed as a child comforting my mother and in turn comforted by my own children. Amazed at how as a family shared grief strengthened our family bonds. 

It has been an amazing year in the opportunities to link up as neighbours and how the community has grown in support of each other. Neighbours going beyond simple daily greetings to providing real services for each other in terms of shopping and keeping in touch. This year has amazed me in that a virus has turned our world upside down and modified our behaviour so that wearing a mask is now the norm and new words such as social distancing, track, trace and isolate are now common parlance.

One definition of amazing is that “amazing means causing great surprise or wonder “.  

So I wonder what is next. This year has been amazing in the tragic loss of so many lives but amazing in the dedication of many to help the vulnerable. It has been amazing in the support given financially to some while also tragically turning the world of so many others upside down with loss of loved ones, jobs and relationships. In each of us we have the chance to be amazing in so many ways. So how can we be amazing in our daily lives?

Could this be our greatest challenge to recognise we are AMAZING and like our heroes act in this way? Today is the 11 November 2020 and if we think of how amazing were those who fought and lost their lives for our freedom today can we be humble and like them strive to do our best in our daily lives? 

May you stay positive, safe and well.

Christine