The diary of a grateful girl

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From the Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin

Recently, my wife and I, along with our two sons, attended Stratford Festival’s terrific production, “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

It had a profound effect on me and I was a long time decompressing from its heartfelt and tragic message afterward.

Many themes came across to me as I took in the details of the play.

One of those was the close attention the young Anne paid to details that you and I might consider trivial and insignificant.

Since her family was in hiding from the Nazis she was not allowed to go outside at all for the entire time they were in the annex, which was a little over two years.

Anne’s only links to the sights and smells of the outside world were the reports the family received from her dad’s assistant, Miep, and the small upstairs window in the tiny, cramped attic of the annex.

When Miep would visit and bring food rations Anne would pepper her with questions about how blue the sky was or the feel of the breeze on her face.

She wanted to know what was happening outside of her lonely life in the annex.

She spoke of the chestnut tree growing outside the upstairs window and described how much she looked forward to seeing its spring blossoms.

She reminisced about playground fun with a childhood friend, savouring its distant memory and longing to have the chance to rekindle that joy again.

Anne’s attitude toward the oft-forgotten little things, captured in her diary, made me bristle with regret for how I have taken much for granted.

Is that something you are guilty of doing, too?

Life is precious – and short – so we should be grateful for all of its blessings that the Lord brings along for us.

Let this day be a reminder to each of us that it is a gift from God, something to be enjoyed and not regarded carelessly.

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