In a world where the internet makes us focus on all the negative issues in life, I had noticed that I have written a few rants, but no raves. I like balance in everything and hate that I have no positive raves, so here is a rave that I find extremely impressive.
I live in a Northern Rural Village in the UK and it has had its trials and tribulations over the decades.It is very poor because everything is closed, they shut down the coal mines, the steel works, then they moved loads of manufacturing abroad, we live in what could almost be seen as a Ghost village/town. Nothing new if you know one rural village in the north of the UK, then you know them all.
I was not born in the village that I live in, and I feel that is what helps me to appreciate what the people who were born here take for granted. The villagers have their little spats of arguments and I learned a long time ago, do not get involved with anyone's disputes, as the week after they will be moaning about you instead.
The village has had an awful year and very young families have lost hard working young men to tragic accidents, and a young woman also, all of who were decent and hard working and all had very very young children. What I experienced next was tear jerking and humbling to say the least. At one funeral you could not see up the road for the amount of people who attended these funerals in the local chapel.
That in itself is nothing unusual, even in our times for a young person that has died before their time, but what happened next was the tear jerking part. Women went and made sure the partners had company and someone to talk to, even in the early hours of the morning and helped with the children, and other villagers did sponsored events to raise money to make sure the children of these unfortunate people had enough money to buy these children a decent present for Christmas and for a holiday, after the trauma that some of the children experienced, as they found their father.
Death it seems makes these villages pull together, but with such ferocity that it is breathe taking. So whilst I will be thinking of all the people who are unfortunate this Christmas, for numerous reasons, I will also make sure that I take pride in how strong our village and others behave, and how lucky I am to have what I have.
Merry Christmas and Blessed Winter solstice to all.