So much we take for granted - or I have tended to - when we are fit and healthy, or at least averagely so.

After a month or so when sleep has been evasive, when there there was even a week of drug-assisted endeavour (of varied efficacy it must be said) I enjoyed the simple pleasure of waking up refreshed after a reasonable length of natural sleep.  Had it not been for a torrential downpour at about 4 a.m. I suspect it would have been longer and deeper.  I am always amazed at the ability of the human body to cope with temporary sleep deprivation or even quite radical shifts is sleep patterns but longer term this is not sustainable: it is vital to our well-being simply to get our natural rest.  So I am grateful for the simple gift of decent sleep.  May it continue!

How often have I, in public prayers spoken of taken-for-grantedness of the abundance of food we enjoy in this nation, lamented the waste and extravagance and prayed for hungry people in other lands.  After a month when everything I ate tasted of cardboard (or how I imagine cardboard to taste anyway) and when it has taken triumph of intellect over desire to eat enough, or even to eat at all at times, it was a real gift to wake up hungry and want my breakfast; a greater gift to want both porridge and toast.  I am blessed to have well stocked cupboards, to have shops on my doorstep brim full of lovely food, but I am gifted with ability to prepare and eat it... how many people have no choices, no facilities, no extra to enjoy?

Having found yesterday tiring, despite being very good and taking life incredibly easy, it is especially good to feel refreshed, yet there is a sense of apprehension that my energy levels will rapidly evaporate.  How long have I taken it for granted that I will be able race around doing all manner of stuff?  This is not some pious breast-beating, just the discovery of a new way of being, a way that will need some careful negotiation around OPEs.  For someone who is generally a rule-follower, despite being fiercely independent, the requirement to take things easy, not to over-stretch is one I take seriously... even if those around are less convinced... Maybe there is a gift of something or other here?  Perhaps all of us learning something about mutual accountability and trust... but whilst 'simple' those aren't so easy to achieve.

So, today we have two sermonettes, I may sit down during some of the hymns and I have delegated the intercessions... sharing responsibility, being real and being flexible, these are gifts too.