Mum & I were talking about shoes the other day, and she mentioned a conversation she’d had recently with her friend. Mrs D was raised in an Eastern European country and as a small child never had shoes. They were simply a luxury the family couldn’t afford, even for the adults. Through the winter months Mrs D as a child used to work out with the goats and cows with her siblings, their feet would freeze. When they saw a goat begin to change it’s stance to urinate, they would rush over to stand in the warm spot to heat up their feet.

The remarkable thing about Mrs D is that as she was telling the story it was with a sense of fondness and was happily reminiscencing about the hard times. Imagine a life so simple that the opportunity to warm your feet in goats urine gave a little joy. Perhaps that’s what we’re missing, not goats urine precisely, but the simplicity of life and the ability to truly appreciate when things improve, even ever so slightly!