14 January

Born in 1904 – Cecil Beaton, English photographer and painter.

Above: Tyneside Shipyards, 1943

Also, born in 1875 – Albert Schweitzer, French-German deacon and physician.

The greatest thing is to give thanks for everything. He who has learned this knows what it means to live. He has penetrated the whole mystery of life: giving thanks for everything…We offer up thanksgiving this day for the sunshine, but also for the hard rain that satisfies the thirst of the earth, for the driving wind that carries the pollen from one plant to another, for the cold that preserved the seed in the earth, for the storms of spring that washed the land of snow and ice. Thus you give thanks to God not only for the happy and sunny events which ripen your life’s fruit. Much that is sad and hard is also mixed in with life’s blessings. And for that you must thank God, because it, too, has contributed to your spiritual growth. If life is such a burden that you feel crushed beneath it, then search out how you can thank God nonetheless. For sometimes we are blind to God’s plan for us and receive our sight only when we try to thank him.

—from a 1904 sermon, “Gratitude—The Secret of Life”