Dear LPG,

Lockdown was always going to be hard with varying degrees of effect as it chipped away at the state of our lives as we knew them before it started.  I think that most readers will agree when I say that the year we have just been through has given ample opportunity to look at our lives from the most negative standpoint imaginable.

If you are lucky enough to have others in your bubble or you spent time talking to those friends you have not been allowed to see for so long, and they didn’t talk to themselves before all this started, I bet that we are all doing a lot more audible thinking by now.   I think that nearly every reader will have heard, or overheard someone they know offer the phrase, “I don’t have any luck”.  A telephone friend put it another way during a recent conversation, “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all!” was his take on the situation.  

But have you really thought about it?  I personally can’t agree with that statement because, in spite of all that we are going through at the moment, I consider myself to have been gifted with a lot of luck. I was born healthy with no physical deformities that made me different to others.

People often don’t think about that when they compare themselves with others who they consider to be luckier than they are.  Possibly they mistake luck with being rich and, after years of trying to win the money they crave, feel hard done by when comparing themselves to someone who achieved their ‘luck’ in that way. 

I am not lucky with winning things, but I truly think that I am lucky in so many other ways. I, and a lot of the people who are likely to read this message, are lucky to be living to a relatively ripe old age while we are still able to embrace a lot of the things that we enjoy doing. We have to remember that there are many younger individuals who cannot do or will never have some of the things that we do.

I think that losing a relatively healthy young niece recently and very suddenly has spurred me to this way of thinking.  I know that I am not the only person to have experienced the feeling of loss but if nothing else, as you come to terms with such an experience, please try to use some of the resulting energy to celebrate that loss while you appreciate what you have.

I suddenly feel the need to remember that, at my age, I am lucky to be alive.  Thank God. 

Rudy