Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 6:04 AM

There are not many people who use that word as an end to a sentence, or a conversation. It is a very special word that I have adopted in my later years, to give thanks to those who affect me in my journey through life’s challenges and rewards. But what does the word “blessings” mean? Is it just a figure of speech, a metaphor with some deeper meaning? Or maybe it is just a way to be polite, to part ways in good standing? Whatever the reasons, wishing someone blessings is a good thing.

For me, blessings is sitting on the verandah of the Holiday Hotel in San Pedro at 1:00 in the morning, looking up at a sky blanketed with stars, and pointing out the different constellations. Getting up at 5:00 in the morning to walk on the beach or on a trail in the woods or hills or mountains. Blessings is looking at your children or grandchildren and seeing the love in their eyes. It is being healthy and content and carefree, something so rare nowadays, to be carefree. It is spending time with friends and acquaintances and being yourself. It is about being aware of, grateful for, the smallest gifts you get, or see, in nature all around you.

Blessings is going fishing. It is playing cricket or football or tennis, just for the enjoyment, not the competition. It is listening to the trees talk to one another and to you, as you walk by them. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson claims that plants, trees, are as important as pets. That both are alive, and while your pet has a heart and a tree does not, you have to respect the plant for living sometimes for centuries, without a heart. Talk about survival. Wat a ting!

I will never give up on us humans acknowledging the sense of our surroundings. The blessings that are nature are right there, staring us in the face. The beauty and majesty and awe and force of nature are everywhere. You see a squall developing on the horizon on a beautiful summer day, gathering force as it heads towards you, to spoil your picnic or your beach party. It is one of the most beautiful sights, yet we curse Mother Nature for interrupting our soirée. The glorious sunrise or the setting sun, blessings, blessings.

I can understand why our ancient ancestors worshipped and paid tribute to the sky, the stars, earth, the sea, the forests, the wind, the rain, the mountains and rivers and streams. I’m sure they couldn’t believe how blessed they were, in spite of the dangers that existed in that beauty, that bounty, that blessed earth.

I haven’t forgotten our greatest blessing on this beautiful planet of ours. Woman, short or tall, fat or maaga, pretty or ugly—excuse me, there are no ugly women; men, yes, but no ugly woman. I believe, with no proof at all, that none of the billions of other planets that exist have women on them. That planet earth was blessed with this “fair creature of an hour”, “to warn to comfort and command”, quoting the poets, Keats and Wordsworth.

Let us count our blessings and wish each other all the blessings that we can handle. And still more.

I am absolutely high, and I am absolutely right!

Glen