The American singer-songwriter Johnny Nash, who had a worldwide hit with I Can See Clearly Now, died recently. “Most of us remember our grandparents as old folk,” George said. It was the strangest compliment Jess had ever been paid.

Around the same time, Gary wrote in to tell me about a conversation he’d had with a friend a long time ago about what it would be like to write a classic hit.

“Imagine,” he said to David, “writing something that would lift people’s spirits that much. Imagine having that sort of impact on people’s lives.”

Dave thought about it, then said, “You do have that sort of impact – on your wife’s life, on your parents’, on your friends’, your workmates’, even the people you meet on the street.”

That thought has stayed with him for 25 years!

The point Dave and Gary are helping me make here is that everyone – each and every one of us – matter to more people than we could imagine.

Do you see that? Can you see it clearly now?

He had been feeling nostalgic and missing his gran who has been gone for almost 30 years. So he had taken her old Bible down from the shelf and noticed a couple of dog-eared pages.

Actually, they were the only dog-eared pages. And they covered The Song Of Solomon. Often taken as an analogy of the love between God and humanity, it is written as a passionate, sensual love letter between a man and a woman.

Georges eyebrows might have raised a millimetre or two when he spotted his Gran’s favourite verses but he took comfort in finding them. “Gran wasn’t always my gran,” he told me. “It is nice to think that as her body aged her heart stayed young – and in love!”

May it be so for all of us, and may we learn to look beyond the years to the love that lives within.

“You write the best thank you notes,” her friend insisted. “Seriously! You have a real talent for making people feel appreciated.”

She took the compliment as graciously as she could but she was thinking of her mother who always made sure she wrote a thank you note for every birthday and Christmas gift. Young Jess had, of course, complained and been pretty hopeless at it.

“They’re always going to be hard work until you learn to put your heart into it,” her mother said. Going by her friend’s compliment it looks like she succeeded in that some time ago and others were getting the benefit of it.

After she told me the story and I looked at her.

“Go on,” I prompted. “You know you want to.”

Jess turned her eyes heavenward and said, “Thanks, mum. From the heart.”

Our landscape is a picture, Euphoric to behold, Trees festooned in colours, Of orange, red and gold. Walking in the crisp, fresh air, Soon the mood uplifts, As we embrace the magic, Of nature’s bounteous gifts.