Gratitude

For some reason, gratitude has been showing up as a theme in my thoughts and my life lately. Before the holidays it was they typical discussion with my sons about being thankful for what they have and not fussing for what they do not have. In the past few days I have been reading blogs, newspapers, online news sites, message boards and the like and I found it disturbing at the things people, including myself, were complaining about, feeling sorry for themselves over and just plain being ungrateful about. Don't get me wrong, I am not always the most gracious person and I don't think my life is perfect, but it caused me to stop a minute this morning as I sat over coffee with my Grandmother, and think about gratitude.

Small things that we never think about..
20% of the world's population lives with out spoons, bowls and plates to eat their food.
1.1 billion people worldwide do not have running water of any kind. There are several million more who collect their water from unsafe, ecoli and bacteria infested, standing pools or wells.
Every 8 seconds a child dies of a water related illness.
100 million people worldwide have no shelter or home.
3 billion of the world's people (one-half) live in 'poverty' (living on less than $2 per day). 1.3 billion people live in 'absolute' or 'extreme poverty' (living on less than $1 per day).
275 million children never attend or complete primary school education. 870 million of the world's adults are illiterate.

As I read the words of people who write articles, journal entries and stories about hardship in their lives, I began to recognize that we are soo spoiled. We are not struggling, not really. The inability to afford a cell phone, a second car, a new TV, decorations for our home, vacations and activities for our families, are not hardships. I read about people who are "poor" and people who are "broke" and realized that the world has gotten too small if we now define those terms without looking at the rest of the world.

I am thankful. I am thankful that I have so much and I am embarrassed that I thought it was not enough. I look around my home and am thankful that my family has shelter and running water (hot and cold) and heat and light. I am thankful that I am worrying about WHAT to serve for our meals today, not if we will have a meal.

I am spending my day realizing that most of the problems I read about and I think that I have myself, are not problems of how to survive in this life, but how to survive with the mess that our materialistic thinking has caused us to make of it. We are not struggling because we don't have access to what we need, we are struggling because we have classified so many things that are "wants" into the "needs" category. We are struggling because we create consumer debt trying to live a life that is "bigger" than we can afford because we see it as what is "necessary".

Gratitude is something I need to spend more time expressing.