It is 2021 now, and as I am about to head off on Maternity Leave, I rediscovered this piece I wrote nearly a year ago. Back when I COULD run, as opposed to “just about walk” the 30 minute loop around the estate! I still remember the day I wrote it. I was high on life, the joy of spring, and burning with gratitude for my health, the beauty of simple pleasures, and the promise of brighter days to come. We’ve been through the mill since then, but there is still so much to be grateful for in life. I hope this memory of mine will bring back  some of your own happy memories, of bygone or recent days, and simple joys.

One month into Covid-19 lockdown No.1, Ireland…

I have never been as grateful to be able to go for a run outside. Normally, there’s a slight sense of reluctance… a dragging of feet from somewhere deep within… and my mind needs to take control and force my lazy-ass body out the door, because “it’s good for me”, “you’ll enjoy the sense of achievement afterwards”. But not today. Today I skipped out the door and into the spring sun with an overflowing sense of gratitude. Wow. “How lucky am I?!” screamed from within my soul as I (overzealously it turned out) began my run on the hottest day of the year to date. 16 degrees, blue skies, a real palpable sense of summer in the air. Summer?!

I rounded the corner of my estate and headed for Bushy Park. Today I was upping my biweekly run to 6km (I’m no pro here as you can see) and I had a whole new route plotted out in my mind. The first 2km was fantastic. The music playlist from Spotify “Get home happy” (I would recommend) gave me the necessary pep in my step and as I trotted passed the open pitches and down the slope towards trees, I felt a burst of happiness. Irish people out and about in the park (at a distance), with their families, in the sun. We have been on varying degrees of social distancing/isolation/“lockdown” now for about a month. However, thankfully our government acted quickly, introducing measures when cases were still low, learning from the less fortunate examples from abroad. We are still allowed out. To shop and to exercise only… but this latter point is key. We can run, we can walk, we CAN.

Now, I’m not sure how things are going to pan out exactly, or how or where or when this pandemic will end…

But, let’s just take it one day at a time.

And make the most of what we do have.

And learn to love the little things again!

“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”

– Cynthia Ozick

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“Gratitude will shift you to a higher frequency, and you will attract much better things.”

– Rhonda Byrne

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”

– Willie Nelson

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”

– Buddha

“Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you.”

– Eileen Caddy

“There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.”

— Ralph H. Blum

Written by Sara Hosford, SoolNua

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