Appreciations!

The Shire
1:35pm
15th Jan, 2012.

I am writing again with emotions churning in my heart and a large lump in my throat.
Now, I haven't written anything in a while, and maybe it's because my thoughts have not been clear or my emotions have been in a constant state of flux. Nevertheless, today, I was in church, (Boko be damned!), and I heard the little voice, and it said, "Appreciations!"
In everything I have written for a very long time, I have tried my utmost to be objective, un-biased, and not let my work be subject to any religion, ethnic code or whatnot. I have tried to represent all I can, while talking about Human Nature and upholding Morality(a little). But today, I may shift a little, today I would subscribe to religion, scream I am a Christian and say, Appreciations!
We live our lives, our very day-to-day existence in a world compounded at all ends with different forms of danger. The ability to survive a minute is testament to resilience. At every single moment, we are so engrossed in the need to survive that we forget to sit back, remember and thank GOD for the small mercies.
It's the third week of the year, time is flying on winged steeds, and already we have experienced enough troubles to last an eon. Hairs have added gray, faces have added lines and my previously smooth face has a very prickly stubble. And upon our hearts are burdens, heavy and great. But there are still the small mercies.
There are many nations which have experienced less than a quarter of what we have seen this year and become embroiled in bloody war and revolution. I admit that I stay in relatively calm Benin city and most of the violence has occured in places far from me, and the accounts that I have heard are probably watered-down stories with almost no significance, but still, Appreciations!
I solemnly sympathize with those who have lost family and friends since the beginning of this violence. I would not claim to understand, but I can empathize a little as I have lost close family members too, but never in such an eruption of avoidable violence. I can imagine the heart-wrenching pain and grief in your hearts. I can imagine the anger directed at those perpetrators of evil and at no one in particular. I can imagine the urge to strike back at faceless evil and Death itself. I can imagine hurt and pain and sadness. Tears well up in my eyes even as I write, but nevertheless, Appreciations!
The man would say, it is only in retrospect that we would know if things could have been worse or better whether by one way or another, I would not claim any understanding of these things, just, Appreciations!
Now, I subscribe to Christianity. I believe in GOD, Creator of Heavens and the Earth, Father of All, and I know that all things that happen are decreed by him. I know that whatever may occur, and at whatever time, has been foreseen of him and happens for his purpose. I cannot claim to know the purpose for which we have seen these evil times, neither can I say what the future holds, but I know that in all this chaos, is purpose, and reason.
Hearts of Kings, and the Gears by which the affairs of this world are controlled lie in the hand of GOD and despite their 'unreasonability', He has His reasons. So for the simple mercies of the breath of life, the scent of dew in the morning, the feel of the sun on our face or the light caress of wind on our skin, the fact that the country still stands and with the knowledge that all would be clear at fruition, I thank the LORD.
Someone said, the crisis of the nation has brought together the Christian and Muslim family, especially those in the North, speaking in one voice and uniting. I wonder, in a strange illustration of "Calamity creating the strangest of bedfellows", would hurt and pain be the panacea for our nation? The thoughts trouble me, my mind races and tries to find answers and reason, but in it all, I am certain of order, and purpose, all for our good, by the name of Jesus Christ.
Appreciations!

P.S: I wrote this on Sunday, before the Presidential broadcast or the labour announcement.
P.S.S: Appreciation doesn't really have a plural term, does it??