Ordinary heaven, ordinary hell

But I followed that up  by walking into the house and saying “But perhaps the world has ended, and this is the afterlife.”  We looked around the kitchen (quite agreeable, more or less tidy) and out at the garden (quite attractive, more or less tidy) and agreed that if this was the afterlife, it wasn’t bad at all.

It is so easy to take for granted the good things we have and dwell on the bad. And it is just as easy to do the opposite, treat other people’s troubles as transitory or exaggerated. We cannot suffer for others, but we can suspend judgement when we see a rough sleeper in front of one of our boarded-up department stores.  And we can walk  into our comfortable homes, look around and see them as an ordinary sort of heaven, and ponder what we can do to relieve someone else from an ordinary version of hell.

This time of year, the time of spring and rebirth, the time of death and resurrection is perfect for bringing the joy and compassion that lies dormant  in our hearts back to life.

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