Sheep, Blessings & MND
How often do you count sheep?
This article was inspired by discussions with two longtime friends about blessings in our lives and my need to use a sheep’s fleece to cushion a partially paralysed arm at night!
Instead of counting sheep, counting your blessings is actually a good way of getting to sleep! But just like sheep, blessings have the habit of not staying still! Depending on what you think of as your blessings, each night is likely to present you with additions to the ‘flock’ needing counting.
The composer Irving Berlin was encouraged by his doctor to count his blessings rather than sheep as a cure for his insomnia, never one to miss an opportunity he turned his insomnia musings into a song he used in the 1954 film White Christmas. (First verse below)
When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
His doctor is likely to have borrowed the phrase ‘count your blessings’ from the hymn composed in 1897 by Johnson Oatman, Jr. (second verse below)
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.
MND sufferers have very broken sleep, this gives us plenty of opportunity to count our blessings, which despite our disease remain many. Positivity (and faith) allows you see ‘every day as a blessing’ and to see your life as a glass’ half full’. The refrain to the hymn encourages us all:
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God has done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God has done
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Sleep well!
Allen Creedy
Newcastle
August 2024
—-
Berlin’s lyrics are at:
https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/12152592/Irving+Berlin/Count+Your+Blessings+Instead+of+Sheep
Oatman’s lyrics are at:
https://www.azchristianlyrics.com/johnson-oatman/count-your-blessings/
Lovely x