At this time of the year, what better than to stop and reflect upon what we have to be thankful for. I mean REALLY stop and think about it.
We, as human beings, take so many things for granted. Our health, for example. When we feel good we think nothing about sickness or injury, but once we do get sick, it's as if the whole world closes in on you. Or if you have a job and everything is just peachy, no one expects disaster to leap out of the shadows - until it happens.
My mother recently suffered a stroke (thank the good Lord she is fine and is expected to make a 110% recovery), but it got me to thinking about my health and how much I have taken it for granted. I have about 60 excess pounds, I smoke, and I drink too much (sounds like the typical American if you ask me). It's time to quit smoking, lose weight, and cut down on the alcohol. I suppose exercise would be a "good" thing too...
We always wait until it's too late to be thankful for what we've got.
We should be thankful for the food on our plates that we eat every day. We should be thankful that we don't have to go out and hunt down and kill, and disembowel, and cook out food. We should be thankful that we only have to go to the corner supermarket. We should be thankful that we don't have to fight with rats to dig through garbage cans for a meal or have to eat dry dog food to survive.
We should be thankful for the roof over our heads. If you live in a crummy apartment and it sucks to be there, you should be thankful that you aren't sleeping outside in the cold under some noisy bridge with only a soggy-wet cardboard box for protection night after night.
We should be thankful that we don't have a bloody war raging freely through our streets. We should be thankful for our families, and our friends, and our neighbors, and our coworkers.
I know.
I've been there.
I've been homeless, I've had to eat dry dog food to survive. I've had to dig through restaurant garbage cans for a meal. I've slept outdoors on many cold and rainy nights. I've had people look at me in disgust.
I am thankful that things have gotten better for me (hey, I even have a computer now).
But every once in a while, I see someone who is down on their luck and is in the same situation that I was in... and I remember.
I remember the hunger, I remember the disappointment, I remember the shame, I remember the embarassment, I remember the cold nights, I remember the pain...
And I look around at what I now have - and I am thankful.
