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Count Your Blessings: Day 41

(Or if you choose to exclude Sundays from your liturgical count then it's Day 35)

Adults

Children born into poverty are almost twice as likely to die before the age of 5 than those from wealthier families.

Give 5p for every birthday you have celebrated.

There was a time when I'd have read this and simply multiplied my age by five and given the money.  There may even have been a fleeting hint of disgruntlement at being 'punished' for living longer.  But then there was a time when I thought that fifty was somehow significant in a negative way, that it signalled the end of 'youth' and moved me officially into "young old age".  And then there was the moment when I questioned the likelihood of seeing 48, though it was only around three months away, and fifty seemed a near impossible dream.  I recently said to someone that my thinking about age had undergone a paradigm shift once the taken-for-granted-ness of another birthday had been shattered.  It's not that I expect anything bad to happen, just the knowledge that life is fragile.  Yesterday I read the news that Bernadette Nolan is now nearing the end of her life, as secondary breast cancer has spread throughout her body... her diagnosis, a few months earlier than mine, was not the same, and I don't draw too many comparisons, but is serves as a reminder of how precious life is, and how easily it is lost.

Were I to die tomorrow, I would have lived longer, and enjoyed more of the earth's riches and wonder than the majority of people in the world's poorest nations - that's the thought I take from today's challenge.

I will give 5p for every birthday to 47 - and 10p for each one since, because they are, and always will be, a bonus.

47 x 5p = £2.35

3 x 10p = 30p

Total = £2.65

 

My pledge

Today - £2.65

Total - £42.70, seven prayers, some thoughts and one e-petition signed

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