London Baby! You’re one in a million!

Having travelled from the relatively quiet rural solitude of West Wales to the big lights of London, I was struck yet again by the sheer number of people here. When I came at Christmas time, I was taking my first trip to London in over 15 years. I was your typical wide eyed tourist (which my friends on Facebook will be first to testify to. Did you see that one of me in the hat with Paddington bear?!) and photographed almost everything that moved.

Today I’m back. It’s just as big, just as busy, just as noisy. However, what struck me this time was the individuals. Ask Google how many folks live in London and your answer will vary according to which area it chooses to define as ‘London’ but we’re talking millions. Several million in fact.

Living in a city of nearly 8 million people, I imagine it would be easy to feel pretty insignificant. I live in a town of thousands and it doesn’t take much for me to feel irrelevant Compared to the size of the universe, none of us look terribly big but take heart from the fact that whilst you may be one small cog in this wheel we call life, without you, the world would be a much duller place.

There is no one else quite like you

Unless you have very unkind parents, entering your name into your favourite search engine is going to tell you that lots of people are you. There are 67 lovely Eleanor Edwards’ on Facebook alone However, not one of them burns pasta the way I do. None of them has the exact same broken left arm and until I hear otherwise, I would like to take credit for being the only Eleanor Edwards to have climbed Mount Snowdon barefoot. But those are just physical attributes and activities. Were you to take into account the real me, the stuff that goes on inside my head, then I know you’d be into really unique territory. What about you? What makes you special, just the way you are?

You were born with a plan and a purpose

It might not feel like it sometimes but there is a reason why you are living where you are living right now. The folks you come into contact with on a daily basis are not a part of your world by accident. No one else can do what you do with quite the same finesse that you do it.

If I gave you a sealed envelope containing a concise but very specific outline of every aspect of your future, would you open it and read? We love the idea of being in control and when things happen to upset the status quo it can be unsettling or downright terrifying. But if we knew everything about our lives, where would the sense of adventure be?

Would starting out on a new relationship be as exciting if you knew if advance that you were going to separate after four dates? Or that business idea you’ve been pondering over? If you knew it would be a huge success, would you get the same sense of achievement? But despite the fact that you do not know for sure where you will be next year, know today that you will not arrive there by accident.

You are loved

If you knew just how utterly loved and adored you are, that would make you feel very special and completely significant would it? Waking up every morning secure in the knowledge that you are cherished would banish all thoughts of irrelevance. Well know this, you are loved, more than you can know, more than you can understand, more than you can feel. But how loved you think you are or are not does not change the love that you are offered. You are loved.