I've spent the last three hours or so cleaning up after a particularly enjoyable dinner with friends. And the cleaning up has made me profoundly grateful for a number of things....
It started out that I was thankful we have water to wash the dishes (two dishwasher loads and about 5 sinkloads of pots, pans, glasses and the like) in Johannesburg, reflecting on the challenges that Capetonians have been experiencing and are likely to continue experiencing as their rainy season comes to an end and their dams are still close to empty.
I remembered a book I read as a child by a woman named Corrie ten Boom, who had been imprisoned with her mother in one of the German concentration camps during the Second World War - and her mother used to always tell her to be grateful for the little things. One day while praying she thanked God for the fleas in their barracks, and Corrie lost it. She asked her mother how she could possibly thank God for those fleas?!? Her mother replied something like, "It keeps the guards from coming in to where we sleep." That story has stuck with me ever since.
I then started to reflect how lucky we are to have good friends who didn't know each other before yesterday, but who clicked well with each other and created fun and interesting conversation.
How lucky we are to have a fireplace, which gave us warmth and a cozy place to have those interesting conversations.
And how lucky we are to have a house (or at least a mortgage which allows us to live in the house while the bank gradually squeezes every last drop it can out of us).
And for me to have such a wonderful life partner in @tim-beck, and that we were able to share our trip to France and Amsterdam with his daughter Emma. I hope to do something similar with his son Wesley one of these years.
Bonus: he makes a wicked Tim curry. That was last night's dinner - a lamb curry that just got the noses sniffling enough from the heat of the spices on a cool winter's evening.
And lucky to have found out about Steemit last year from one of Tim's colleagues who I'm now happy to count as a friend, and to have made friends with wonderful people like @mother2chicks through the platform, and now to start getting to know other amazing South African Steemians through @teamsouthafrica and our Discord channel.
I have a lot to be grateful for!
I'm very glad that cleanliness made you feel grateful. I do not like to clean up :))
Let's just say I enjoy the result, not necessarily the process! And I really don't like mess.🤣🤣
I do not like either cleanliness or mess :)) The result of cleaning is always nice: D
You are so cool, @amedeo :-)
So well put. If only we had fairies to do it all for us. But we don't 😊😊
Please check out my last article to see what fairies does for me the cleaning, :D Thanks for your compliment
Sweet post! Those fairies looked pretty human to me 😉
Thank you! :)) Yes, it is very true. She is very real :))
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:D
nice girl!!!
great blog
Thank you, @roykie17 😊😊
Nice post
black shadow..
great..
😊😊
Well, thanks for sharing.
I come from Indonesia, I am very happy and interisting about your share.
If you have time you can visit my blog, I have new post about Indonesian steemit community friendship.
Maybe you like it.
😊😊
I agree, learn to appreciate and thank for every little things. It makes you happy as well.
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Great story!! Hope you always happy
Thank you, @qye. I wish you the same! 😊😊
Two things that i wanna say
Thank you, @rooneey - Tim looks even cuter in person 😊😎
Very nice post reminding us of how fortunate we are and the blessings we have.
Thank you, @team101 😊😊
Yes, we should be grateful for all those little things.
Nice and interesting post to read.
Keep on posting.
Thank you for your kind words, @raku.😊😊
You are very welcome ☺
Kisah yang sangat menginspirasi @killigirl
Memang #life itu butuh seorang yang selalu mengingatkan kita, apalagi yang namanya #family. Itu sungguh kita perlukan.
Keluarga adalah tempat dimana kita bebas melakukan sesuatu dengan bebas, bebas dalam arti semua mau mendengarkan semua pendapat dan saran kita, semua kemauan kita bisa kita curhatkan ke mereka.
Kita butuh itu semua.
Thank you for your lovely comment, @madcool. I've tried to translate it online - please let me know if this comes close:
A very inspiring story @ killigirl
Indeed #life it takes someone who always reminds us, let alone the name #family. That's really what we need.
Family is a place where we are free to do something freely, freely in the sense that all will listen to all our opinions and suggestions, all our will we can vent to them.
We need it all.
I think I got the overall meaning 😊😊
Hahaha..
You rigth...
Glad to meet you
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Glad to hear you are replete after your meal, it's the best feeling isn't it.
Its just coming to the end of summer here in the UK and my thoughts have been slowly turning to fires in the winter in our log burner. I'm thankful for the seasons and the wonderful feelings they give us.
Indeed, @scalextrix! No better place than the UK to appreciate a nice warm fire. Lovely hearing from you again. Thanks for popping in. 😊😊
Ditto, I didnt see you around recently @kiligirl
We went on holiday to Paris++ and I was under the mistaken impression I'd get the evenings to make short posts 🤣🤣. I've made three about our trip so far since getting back on Monday night, and there are still many posts clamouring for space on Steemit. If you look back to Wednesday on my blog, you'll see the first of them nestling amongst the resteems.
I'm still trying to catch up on reading other Steemians' posts! Looking forward to seeing what you've been up to while I was offline. 😊😊
Ah the story of the fleas is very cute. Makes one think.
🎶Always look on the bright siiide of life! 🎶👏🏻
It sure made me think! And love that tune 😉😉
I read your whole post i really liked it i appreciate your hard work keep it up
Thanks so much, @codinggeeks. I really appreciate your kind words. Thanks for stopping in! 😊😊
That’s a solution to be thankful even to a flea… reading your lines I thought to myself how unthankful I am at times… I will try to use your hint of truly gratitude)))
Three hours of doing dishes can do that to a person 🤣🤣. If this post inspired you in some way, then that's one more thing to be thankful for 😊
yes it's true, we don't know the value of the things until we lose it. But we are lucky to get this moments which spend it with the friends. Don t have better than friendship and family too.
Spot on, @creativewoman. Thanks for stopping in 😊😊
Wow that World War 2 story is so inspirational. So many little things we belittle and forget but in the grand scheme of things there are things that assist and help us in our daily lives and we don't even realise.
I can't believe the number of things that happen in my life that I take for granted. The greater blessing I have ever received is finding Steemit.
Steemit has helped me massively and has kept a roof over my head. I don't know if you have heard but rent and houses cost waaaaay too much in the U.K. And just having a place to live is a hassle. Steem has made that easier and maybe one day when I get more support on my blogs I can completely cover things like rent from Steemit.
I don't know if that day will ever come but I should be grateful for finding this site now before it has grown into the millions of users @kiligirl 😁
Hi @arckrai, you put into words how I've been feeling. Steemit has been instrumental in my being able to feel positive about being retrenched at an age when it's not easy to find another job.
Here in South Africa we do hear about the insane rentals and house prices in the UK, but it becomes more real when we actually know someone who's struggling with the challenges.
I'm so glad Steemit has been able to help you. And I really appreciate you always stopping in for a chat. I hope that getting into Steemit early helps both of us change our situations for the better.
All the very best for you 😊😊
You're absolutely wonderful! It's so beautiful to see someone expressing joy and being grateful for the littlest things. That's so awesome thank you for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed this post, @kristyyd. Thanks for the kind words and especially for stopping by. 😊😊
My pleasure I'm also following :) love the content
Thank you so much, @kristyyd! 😊😊
GOOD DAY~~~ good luck !
Thank you, @dinar 😊😊
Hey @kiligirl! This is a really nice post! :)
We forget to be grateful for the smallest thing in life while pursuing things. And most importantly it is this practice of gratitude that brings us happiness :).
Thank you much for sharing it! :D
Thank you so much, @ks10! 😊😊
Sometimes my dear friend Kiligirl I don't know if you mean things literally or not. Laughing at Tim Curry! "Rocky Horror Picture Show"?! If so it took me a second to catch on to that one. By the way one of my all time favorite cult movies ! How cold is it in Johannesburg right now? Since we are at opposite extremes I truly have no idea. A fireplace with good company , great food and conversation is a real gift. Back to being sassy ole Ellie Mae. Thanks so much for the shout out. I am blessed to have you for a friend. 🐓🐓
Hee hee, Ellie Mae, I think you're the only one who got the Tim curry reference. Tim loves to make curry, so we call it a Tim curry indeed with a winking reference to that awesome 70s classic film. We went to a live performance of the RHPS in Joburg last year which was pretty impressive.
So glad you're back to you! 🐓🐓
As for the temperature here, we have to start by saying that Joburg has arguably the best climate in the world. However, the houses aren't built that well (poorly insulated and drafty) so they tend to retain the cold in winter. In winter, which we're just coming out of, the temperature goes down to single digits (Celsius) at night (so down to the 30s in °F) and up to 15°C (59°F) or so during the day. Right now it's spring, so the trees are budding and starting to flower and the temperature is climbing nicely (down to a low of 10°C/50°F last night, and we're expecting highs around 25°C/77°F today with clear sunny skies). We have distinct dry and rainy seasons; it's dry in winter so we'll go for months without any rain. The rains start again as early as September and end around April. By rains, think the occasional downpour, not constant rain. Cape Town in the Western Cape (by the ocean) has a different climate and they get winter rains as a matter of course.
Glad you saw I mentioned you 😊😊
This is a great way of thinking - we need to learn to be more aware of all the things that we take for granted
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