My dearly departed mother used to tell me, “Anyone can be happy, Billy, when everything in the garden is rosy!” She was bang on. All fair-weather gardeners may get to look at the flowers and eat the vegetables, but the fact that they grow at all has absolutely nothing to do with their horticultural contribution, and everything to do with nature.
The unwelcome situation that the British nation finds itself in today is something that nobody can smile about, but please, don’t give up smiling altogether. It is a senseless exercise (and some might argue a reckless one) to abandon hope and relinquish one’s capacity to remain rational and calm in the storm, for to do so is merely to invite further calamity. Like the good gardener who will not abandon their allotment during inclement weather, like the shepherd who refuses to search for stray flock or the farmer who fights to bring in the crop, we remain the captains of our own ship and the masters of our own fate; however perilous the seas we sail!
So, let me state here and now, nobody is cancelling my Christmas. Christ will still come into my life, whatever the weather. We may be in a place that we would rather not be this Christmas Day, but life is very much a lottery for all of us; ‘You’ve got to be in it to win it!’ So do not relinquish your right to be happy this Christmas in whatever way you can be. In the final analysis, even the most pessimistic among you have to admit that however unsatisfactory a situation every person finds themselves in today, it is still better than not being alive. So, stiffen your resolve, stand up straight, pick up that spade and start digging yourselves out of that hole of desperation where no life can thrive.
The song for my morning post today is ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’. This festive song was recorded by Welsh singer-songwriter Shakin’ Stevens in November 1985 and was the Christmas Number 1 song for that year. Ever since it has been included in many top-selling Christmas collections and received frequent airplay every Christmas. We wish you all a Merry Christmas.
Love and peace Bill and Sheila xxx