Moment of Gratitude
I am so happy today. It’s one of those rare moments when I’m alone in this beautiful house, I am getting a lot of work done, I’m firing on all cylinders and I know that I get to see my son and my husband soon. I actually found myself saying “Thank you, thank you so much” out loud a few minutes ago.
Some of this gratitude has to do with an article I read earlier this week. I had to pause a few times to let the tears clear from my eyes. It really woke me up: CNN: I was told to kill, to rape children.
It’s not an article for the faint of heart, especially for mothers. That this is happening in our world, on our planet, just amazes me. Here we are in our paradise, “having” to run to the grocery store to select from our luxurious selection of incredible, fresh food and having our biggest concern be that we haven’t had a haircut in 7 months. The article made me want to run out and save the world (again). All of those children, their parents, that land…the constant fear…how is that possible? And I get upset when someone cuts me off on the highway. What a privileged life we live.
So this morning as I was sitting in my beautiful house, eating breakfast with my healthy son and watching my smart husband sweat over the latest news on interest rates, I decided that today I would be grateful for this life. And a funny thing happened, the day just seemed to get better and better.
Now, I don’t mean to sound all happy-go-lucky. I know we have to deal with the life we live here. It reminds me of an interview with Oprah I heard once. She really framed this up well as she was being interviewed about a new school for girls in Africa that she had founded and supported. She went through her experiences there, and how grateful these girls were to have a school to go to, especially because many of them were orphans. The cost of school for a year was something like $15 (I may not have that exactly right, but it was under $20). And these little girls would well up with tears as they talked about maybe not being able to go to school next year because they wouldn’t be able to afford it. Think about that the next time you hear a teenager saying they “have” to have the latest iPod, iPhone or digital game. Again, our incredible life of privilege is such a stark contrast, isn’t it?
As the interview went on, Oprah was talking about how much this experience had changed her and how moving it was. But then it came to a point where she was asked what she was doing now, and she answered honestly about redecorating her bathroom. She kind of smiled and said something about how weird it is to experience such extremes, but at the same time, this is the reality we live in.
She’s right. This is our reality. We have feelings of inadequacy about not being thin enough, we get depressed when we can’t afford a great haircut, we live in a world where what we wear matters a great deal and going to the grocery store can really feel like a burden. I get that, I think we all get that. It is our life. We don’t live in Darfur. Our children complain about going to school or not having the latest expensive gadget and we fight with our husbands about things like taking out the garbage or vacuuming. We have conversations about people we don’t know with names like Jen, Brad, Barack and Paris.
But I hope that more days than not, I take a moment to remember how incredibly blessed and abundant my life is. My family is very healthy, I have a job that I was able to create and build, I get to watch I Love Lucy and laugh. I have a dog at my feet who loves me, and I don’t live in constant fear of rape or terror. The next time my son whines about not wanting to go to school, I will smile, hug him and say “Isn’t that great! How lucky are we that we get to complain about these things!” I’ll try and say the same to myself the next time my trip to the fully stocked, luxurious grocery store seems annoying.
To our continued love, joy and abundance in our land of the free.
Author: Sarah
