Woken up today to a storm raging in the Peaks, it is still dark and raining is dashing off the windows.  Lovely hubby has gone off to drive his bus, and I am home alone.  I am thinking today about the jobs people do and the value put on them, in both monetary value and in practical value. Some people do jobs that are almost invisible.  To those of us who drive our own cars, at best buses are a bit of an annoyance, especially in traffic when they keep stopping and starting. For the passengers aboard they are often drafty, running late or expensive, a necessary service to get you where you need to be.  Bus drivers see life, that is for sure.  They go the whole journey, backwards and forwards, picking up passengers without discrimination. Day in day out up and down the roads, they see the older person struggling to get to their seat, the young parents with prams and parcels, the people off to work, half asleep with iPhone plugged in. Some passengers have personal hygiene issues, some are sad and depressed, some are lonely and ride the bus for company. Where we live we also get the tourists, the hikers and walkers, with muddy boots, rucksacks, flasks and maps.  Country buses provide the ideal transport to start that country stroll.  The bus drivers see all of this, but I don’t know how many people see them.  My eldest son also does an invisible job.  Without him and his team, and teams like them across the country, when you go to the supermarket to shop there would be no food on the shelves.  Every night a team of grocery knights work through the night, emptying wagons, sorting produce and placing out for shoppers to choose.  The world of the night shift worker truly is a back to front world.  Sleeping when everyone else awakes, the body clock is altered and family life is made difficult. Yet where would we be without easy access to fresh food and drink do we actually ever think about how it gets there and at what cost to health and wellbeing.  My job can be both invisible and visible, I think what I do will be more noticeable once it is lost.  The people who are most visible in our society are often not the most useful.  I am thinking of the famous, the celebrity, the people who have the opportunity to do great good, and waste it.  We recently went to see Adam Hills live at the Buxton Opera House and he does a great story about the Dalai Lama, and when he once shared a stage with him, if you get the chance check him out his is fab, Adam Hills I mean, although I am fairly sure the Dalai Lama is probably fab too.  Anyway Adam Hills said that the DL said to him something like, ‘ you have a voice, use it’ .   Far too many people who have a voice and are not invisible choose not to use it.  I was thinking of this today catching up on Christmas TV and seeing Russell Brand on with Alan Carr, he uses his voice and he was absolutely perfect in his response to the ditzy girls who are Little Mix.  I hope we see more of the visible using their voice for the good and hope that we all try harder to notice the invisible who day by day improve everyone’s lives