At church today I was teaching Relief Society about faith. Standing before a group of about 30 sisters and talking about the earthquake in an oasis of clam and positivity was uplifting. We are all so grateful our families are safe and though all of us have suffered some damage, some of the sisters are visiting our ward because their chapel is closed until it can be repaired and some still are living with family because their houses are very damaged, there is a feeling of learning from the experience and counting our blessings for the simplest of things or maybe the commonest of things.
The blessing I count are;
- sunshine and clear skies;
- running water and continuous power;
- a car to get me where I need to go and roads that for the most part are safe - though I didn't like going over the Sabys Road bridge today as it looks like a rickety, third world, one lane, flimsy thing of a bridge but fantastic to take my usual route to church.
- people, my friends - local ones who are sane and safe, those further a field who are supportive and understanding (and send care packages!);
- a warm bed and a roof over my head - as shaky as my house seems at times, it is a good, solid building and I adore my polar fleece sheets - had I had to leave my house, the thing I would have missed the most would be my bed.
- food in the cupboard - even though there are shortages in the supermarkets, everyone has been very reasonable about taking only enough. A Christchurch friend lost her temper on the Friday after the earthquake when she had to go to a work function even though her house was cracked and she had to take her two boys with her. She was the only Christchurch fool to go and all other people at the function where from outside the Earthquake Zone (a grand name for what was Canterbury). Talking with an organiser, my friend asked if she could take an extra couple of bottles of water. The organiser asked why, and my friend looked at her with disbelief and said "because they are rationing water at the supermarket". This organiser woman had no idea, she said "oh, you must have been in the quake, all this talk about aftershocks is overrated, I've been here since yesterday and I've not felt one". My friend sucked in her breath and said "yes I was and we have food shortages in Christchurch". To which this woman laughed. Having recounted this it doesn't seem so bad, just thoughtless but the above combined with having a cracked house, children that need to be in the same room as you at all times, worries about what is going to happen next or if there will be enough food*, it was infuriating and insulting and ignorant. Unfortunately this isn't the only occurrence of this type of thing. Anyway I'm grateful that all this earthquake stuff will end, some time or other;
- laptops to blog from bed;
- entertainment that is not about earthquakes;
- ordinary conversation about something other than earthquakes;
- conversations about the past two weeks;
- lambs that suck well;
- a job that is rewarding, validating and fun;
- people, I love the people I meet and get to know - how blessed am I that I meet so many people who are different to me and interesting and do amazing things;
- warm fires and not having a heat pump - evil, over rated things that they are;
- peppermint chocolate;
- fresh tap water;
- people, that I care about who let me care about them.
- my testimony and the consistency and completeness of the Gospel.
There are so many blessings to count, more than I can ever list. And I am thankful for every blessing, seen and unseen.
Oh yeah, Richie McCaw, he's being a good supportive Cantabrian - actually I'm not sure is a Cantabrian but he is a Lincoln boy.
P.S. That weird Dr Suess National Bank was being filmed one morning on my way to work so watch out for the scene where the guy is on the back of a ute. That's my road to work. V exciting.
* 200 million dollars worth of food was destroyed in the supermarket distributions centres on Sat 4 Sept. That's the South Island's supply of food for some weeks. The West Coast has shortages too.
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