Let’s count our blessings

It’s been a long time since I sang and taught this song ‘’Count your blessings, name them one by one’’. I recall the last time was in 1957 in the course of the independence celebration. I was a spritely 24-year-old teacher, bursting with anti-imperialist patriotic enthusiasm. This was one of the songs we sang as we marched purposefully along. Read the words.

‘’When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed

When you are discouraged thinking all is lost

Count your many blessings, name them one by one

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

Between 1957 and 2015 is a long stretch; so is 24 years and 81 years. So how and why did ‘’Count your Blessings’’ hit my thoughts as I was watching the Independence Day parade at the Blackstar Square the other day?

Was it because of the innovative magnificence of the parade? Was it the spectacular display of the helicopter operations? Was it the splendour of the policewomen motor riders? Was it the enviable wisdom in minimising the stresses and burdens the schoolchildren used to endure? Was it the colourful inclusion of the vibrant masqueraders and their vintage countryside digs? Was it the punchy display of the Special Forces demonstrating their determination and readiness to ‘’uphold and defend the good name of Ghana’’? Was it the variegated splendor of the dresses and attires of the invited guests, many actually making a positive statement of the honour, the pride and dignity of dressing the African way? Or was it the providential fantastic weather of that day?

I don’t know for sure. But whatever it was, there was the shining cause  for every patriot to see and count their blessings and thank the Omnipotent , Omnipresent and Omniscient Creator of the endless Universe for His manifold blessing.

And the aftermath of the parade itself was worthy of monitoring and determining whether indeed we ought to count our blessings or mope in despair.

As usual, the beaches were full of happy smiling people, many of them young and vibrant. The sea was full of black heads bobbing up and down, and of course cheerful faces. There is this secret about the sea. I have never seen anybody bathing in the sea and not manifesting smiles, joy and happiness. You cannot frown in the sea. The shared sea has a wonderful way of bonding people, young and old, male and female, black or white.

My old man used to say that the sea did not only cleanse our physical bodies. It also had a purifying, sanctifying spiritual effect. Sure, for all those on the beaches their blessing was open for them to see and count.

The drinking bars and street-level joints were crowded too; some with belly-boom-boom music. Empty bottles were being cleared and replaced.  And young chaps in various degrees of trendy body-hugging dresses were doing their happy thing. There was joy all over. And I wondered whether they recognised the blessings free-flowing around them, and were ready to count them! Sure they had blessings to count and name.

Passing by a couple of blue kiosks, you would hardly miss their own blue kiosk culture and their hilarious banter about ‘’Akpeteshi too good’’, and that whether you quaff your whisky or brandy or gin, the end product of boozing is the same. All booze be booze. I recognised their blessing there. They had something to count. They were happy enjoying their world.

In the restaurants and nightclubs, well-fed and prosperous-looking ladies and gentlemen, some with rounded cheeks and civilised pot bellies did their own things too. Their whiskies were branded, their wines were choice and vintage; the shrimps and lobsters and perfumed rice all imported. Everything about them could be expressed and spelt in one jolly phrase: Good life.

In that serene environment, they leisurely discussed everything going wrong in the country. They expounded corruption. They dissected lavish lifestyles. They condemned the absence of patriotism; they berated moral depravity, on and on. Of course it was not difficult to see that they were big and influential people; politicians, professionals, doctors, accountants, bankers, engineers, lecturers, academicians and businessmen.

Evidently life was good for them and they clearly had many, many blessings to count.

What featured prominently in their conversations was this. They blamed everything and anything going wrong with the nation on other people. They obviously regarded themselves as distinct and separated from all others. They sure ought to count their blessings and name them one by one, that at least they could enjoy their wealth peacefully. If they can’t, it is probably because if you become too preoccupied with fishing for trouble, wishing evil and praying and yearning for gloom and doom, there is  no way you can see the blessings all around you. Of course if you can’t see the blessings, there is no way you are going to be able to count them.

Actually if religion has not lost its shine and taste because it has been commercialised and packaged towards mundane, earthly, materialistic corruptible objectives, then our men of God would be inspired to jolt our minds and conscience to the blessings all around so we can count them and give thanks to the Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent architect of creation.

Sadly, many cannot count and see their own blessing. That their gullible, exploited, deceived and fooled flock have not gone the ‘’Jesus way’’, grabbed sticks and stones and chased them from their profane edifices, mansions and wealth. But no matter; they too must count their blessings and pray they continue to be harmonising influence and not agents of division and confrontation.

On sober reflection, I can declare that there is far too much to be thankful for. So we must see and count our blessings.

We have been spared the bloody conflicts that have destroyed other countries. We are not fleeing across the borders with just the clothes on our backs. We have not been gathered in school blocks with a blanket per family and served rations in leaves and broken plates. That is massive blessing, and we should count it.

Of course if we waste our energies negatively in schemes of chronic pessimism and perpetually blind cynicism, how can we experience the flow and swirl of blessings being scattered full and free? The ancients said that failure to count your blessing is tantamount to contempt of the Cosmic. That contempt finds poisonous expression in ingratitude to the Almighty, the Creator. The Ancients said that ingratitude is the evil that blocks the free flow of blessings from the Divine. Maybe that can be one cause for our mounting problems. We have become ‘’too known’’, too petty, too fussy, too mean.  We need to liberate and redeem ourselves.

‘’So amid the conflict whether great or small

Do not be disheartened, God is over all

Count your many blessings angels will attend

Help and comfort give to your journey’s end.’’

So God bless our homeland Ghana and open our eyes to see and count His blessings.

Source: graphic.com.gh