Gravel road strewn with delight

 

It’s been more than 1045 days since a State of Disaster was declared in South Africa.  The world is still not harmonious.  Covid’s still with us and the abusers of power have not taken their foot off the pedal one little bit. I made this statement at 207 days and it remains true.

While the landscape may be different our politicians are predictable in the shit they serve. Only the number of days seems to change. Sitting here in the comfort of my home, I have just realized that more than a year has passed since my last note. It’s been a great year with challenges I never imagined. So to provide some context - I spent the last 18 months working with an amazing collection of people to beat lymphoma. This has entailed a year of various chemo cocktails, a bone marrow transplant and five months in hospital. I have been out of hospital since July 2021 and all is going well. A short visit for pneumonia and dehydration is hardly memorable now. Ah, yes, I stupidly fell and broke my hip back in August 21 but that’s a minor setback given a roaringly successful hip replacement in August last year.

Casting my mind back over the last few years is interesting. In my personal life an overall theme would be gratitude and kindness. The kindness and support from friends and family is immeasurable. The support from my first wife (and current girlfriend) is galactically stupendous.  After more than 34 years together nogal! I am also eternally grateful to all the doctors, nurses and hospital staff who have walked with me on this journey. Their kindness, compassion, commitment, and professionalism has been beyond any call of duty. While time in hospi ain’t aspirational, I assure you, the people at Constantiaberg are amazing. I do know that on occasion modern medical practice and care kept me alive and that makes me happy. So that’s done n dusted, I am as healthy as a horse now.

So why am I choosing today to bash out this note? Well, I’ve had a fantastic day, that’s why. It’s a beautiful day in Cape Town and Laura and I took a spontaneous drive around our coastline via Cape Point. We were headed for the Scone Shack but that was closed. Scarborough isn’t far away so we set off to the Village Hub for a coffee. As luck would have it, loadshedding struck and we were shepherded to the next-door establishment as they have a generator. Holy fuckerofsky, while the coffee was good, the pastis de nata was mind blowing. Delicious lemony custard cupped in a wonderful puff pastry. Appetite tantalized we headed off to Jakes in Noordhoek. The reward was a sirloin with chips and pepper sauce never to be forgotten. The view almost outdid the meal and the meadow ahead had quite sufficient greens for any rabbit. This has to be the best value for money on the Peninsula today - 99 Souf Efrican Rond. A beautiful thing! Now we’re home n happy. Now I know I are not very clever but that my friends was a day to remember. I are a lucky fellow, exploding with gratitude for what I got.

Thank makes one think. What is the difference between gratitude and thankfulness. An article I found using GoogleyTube rang true for me.

“Where thankfulness is an emotion, gratitude is an attitude of appreciation under any circumstance. Gratitude involves being thankful, but it is more than that. Gratitude means expressing thankfulness and being appreciative of life daily even when nothing exciting happens.

This rings so true for me.  What do you think? It’s kind of like thankful is more transactional while gratitude feels deeper or more fundamental. Anyway, today, now, I feel grateful.