A Message of Hope from Edward Grinnan: Small Blessings

Hi, it’s Edward again from Guideposts, checking in with you.

Today Gracie and I are hiking a trail called the Three Mile Hill Trail. That means if we go up and down and then up and down again back to the car, that’ll be a six-mile hike. Math was never my strong point, but I think three plus three is six.

Like a lot of you, I’m trying to keep up with the news about this pandemic, trying to keep informed but not being freaked out, and I was about to turn off the TV today when an interview came on with a nurse from the emergency room at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Beaumont was the hospital, my neighborhood hospital growing up, where I was taken as a boy to that emergency room when I was hit by a car while riding my bike. So it has a lot of meaning to me, so I listened to what she had to say and I heard her description of what the staff is going through and it was really, really disturbing.

At the end of the interview, she said that she was thankful that her children were safe, her three young children, and her husband and her immediate family. And then she paused for a minute, and then she said, “I have a lot to be grateful for…today.” And that “today” struck a chord with me.

You know, it’s easy to be thankful for our ongoing overarching blessings in life, but sometimes I don’t stop and look at the blessings that come day by day. Like today, I’m grateful for the work I was able to do with Guideposts.