Were the Victorians on to something?

One of the things I learnt during the pandemic was that every cloud had a silver lining. When I couldn't visit my DD for Christmas as it was too far to go for 1 day, the upside was that I didn't have to get my car serviced until the MOT was due in February or drive 400 miles without an overnight break. Spending Christmas alone for the first time ever was sad, but I was grateful for being able to have a zoom call with DD and DS and DiL who were living in different countries.
When our winter fuel allowance was taken away I tried to be grateful that I wasn't quite poor enough to claim pension credit and therefore still get it. It can be hard sometimes, but there is usually a positive in most things - we just have to look harder. Counting one's blessings has to be learnt but it certainly brings contentment.

My blessing is that I am still here! Perhaps not a blessing for others

I do think we have become a nation of moaners and down talking.

My gran lived through 2 world wars, a major influenza epidemic and the great depression, widowed twice with 5 children to feed, had a stroke at 79 and went blind,

She never felt entitled or sat around waiting for someone else to solve her problems, and could still be cheerful and life and soul of the party, getting married to her 3rd husband at 75.

I consider myself blessed

Goodluck Sallywally with your shoulder op.

All the best for tomorrow and wishing you a speedy recovery

I am so very grateful that I am finally, god willing having my shoulder replacement tomorrow morning after months of pain and disability. Thank goodness for our NHS which is free at the point of service. I feel for our ancestors for whom such marvels of surgery anaesthetics and antibiotics were just a dream. We are so lucky. The NHS with all its problems with under funding is always there for us.

ginny

I have a small notebook and each evening I write down at least one thing that I have done or has happened that I am grateful for.
It is amazing how a small thing can make you feel so good.

What a good idea! I do try to count my blessings, a lovely home, enough money coming in not to have to worry all thanks to my late husband's hard work and thoughtfulness. Reasonable health and above all close family living nearby, I still find it difficult to do this some days.

Also a boy in my school said his sister tied worms in a knot

Talking about worms 🔔. Man was asleep in a park snoring with his mouth open and a bird flew over and dropped a worm in his mouth 😨

I like this quotation from long ago, reminding us to be grateful for what we have:
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
― Epicurus

I certainly count my blessings but won’t list them as I don’t want to tempt fate or the gods.
As I age, the small things in life bring me great joy, the thought of a tasty evening meal, another book by a favoured author or another episode of a period drama. The details of life are more cherished now, rather than the broad brush of previous years.

We all know a few miserable “being so cheerful keeps me going” types. These I can’t understand, particularly when socialising. They should stay home and mutter to their tellies.
It somehow feels a duty to be cheerful when out and about, unless overwhelmed with something.

I certainly don’t want to return to Victorian times for obvious reasons, but they certainly got their architecture right. My heart bleeds for the loss of so many fine buildings (thank heavens St.Pancras survived!)

All my life it has been fashionable to denigrate tje Victorians and the Edwardians, but in my opinion both were on to some things that we have chosen to forget.

They did what they perceived to be their duty and did not complain about it. They believed in the value of good manners and showing consideration for others. They also believed that sex belonged in the privacy of their bedrooms and was not the end-all of adult life.

All highly unpopular notions today, but some of them must have made life pleasanter than today's manners do.

I always think it is so sad when people are disappointed with their lives, there is always something to be happy about if you make the effort.

A quote I love from Brendan Kennelly “ Once you wake up in the morning & stick your old leg out, you should be grateful x

I’m also very grateful for my life, family and friends and do count my blessings often. Especially if I watch the news!

Its been medically proven that wrapping up warm, especially around nose and mouth helps prevent colds, flu etc. The nose when cold is more receptable to cold germs. Hence the old saying wrap up warm or you will catch cold

We can always and should count our blessings in the developed world - I'd not liked to have lived in Victorian Times where the poor were denied most of the things freely available to us today.
The next step is sharing our good fortune with those with few blessings available to them.

Just had a very small but welcome blessing. Having a blackbird follow me around the garden while I was doing some gardening. He had a mouthful of worms but still had a reccy where I'd been digging.

Thanks for this excellent post! Since becoming an "old woman" (72) and being in a calm place after ten years of retirement, I count my blessings every single day. Having been a paediatric nurse for so many years, my daily morning and evening prayer is "Thank you that my children and grandchildren are HEALTHY and happy". Nothing else is really important.

I remember that hymn,too. We sang it at the old Methodist church in London when I was young. Thanks for the memory
Magenta8

Yes I do count my blessings and that includes not wanting to have lived in Victorian times unless I was in a well to do family. There was widespread disease, poor living conditions and lack of sanitation. No NHS and no welfare system but then there was always the workhouse!

Thank you, Magenta8.. I learned to sing that in my first year at school, a tiny one-classroom village school in Leicestershire. I hadn't thought about it for years and years but now I'm smiling because I can hear the tune in my head and a couple of dozen squeaky voices singing off key. 🤗

I count my blessings every day. Loving adult children, lovely grandchildren who contact and/or visit regularly, and recently, my first great-grandchild. I have a lovely flat overlooking an interesting and busy view. I don’t need to worry about money.
I have cancer, but apparently it is slow growing and I could go on for years (I am almost 80) and I get very few symptoms.
I have hobbies that I love and the days go too fast.
All good then, but I would give it all up in a heartbeat if I could just have my wonderful husband back.

This is my favourite hymn, it was written by Lizette Woodworth Rees and published in 1909 (slightly too late to be Victorian)

1 Glad that I live am I
That the sky is blue
Glad for the country lanes
And the fall of dew

2 After the sun the rain
After the rain the sun
This is the way of life
Since it all begun (or Til the work be done)
All that we need to do
Be we low or high
Is to see that we grow
Nearer the sky

I do count my blessings. Four children and six grandchildren are probably enough blessings but I have so much more. I'm looking out onto one of the hills of North Wales and surrounded by lovely countryside. I have good neighbours and absorbing hobbies. Lots to be grateful for.

I’ve had a lovely life and I have a really good family and friends. The Victorians valued family and kinship perhaps more than many do these days, going on my grandparents and their families. Their entertainment was better in some ways, too. No tvs, gathering round the piano for a singalong. Worse if you were poor perhaps and worse for medical care if you got sick.I can’t say there was less pollution, though, because of the Industrial Revolution and smoke belching out fumes.