Views from the couch II: What is your gift today?

I have been a fan of local Australian musician Wendy Rule for a very long time. I have had the joy of hearing her sing live several times. Her voice is so evocative and the material about which she sings so interesting. I don't think you have to subscribe to her spiritual views to get something from this lovely, lovely music. This song, "Creatures of a Day", is from one of the first CDs of hers that I ever heard: World Between Worlds. It still remains a favourite of mine for quiet, sometimes melancholy moods.

Yesterday, beset by back pain, I put on her Meditations on the Four Elements CD and just tried to relax. Listening, I realised at the end of each track, she asked of the four elements (earth, air, fire and water): "What is your gift today?" And I thought, what a wonderful way to look at the world around me. What gift is the air giving me today? It's bringing a breeze through the kitchen window or giving me a moment of enjoyable distraction as it picks up some leaves and sets them down again. The earth gives the gift of bringing our veggie patch just a little closer to harvest, the water encourages my parched petunias in the front yard to keep going, fire heats our dinner. Everything gives something, including ourselves. What is your gift today?