Thursday, March 13, 2008

Am I Greatful?

How often do we hear that we should be grateful for what we have. How often do we outer the same phrase to others?

A mother gets up every morning just to rush to feed the kids, pack their lunch, walk the dog, get to work and be productive. While stressing over projects, dead lines and meetings, a mother needs to arrange a play date, schedule a doctors appointment, and look to find out that the next due date to apply for school, for the next semester of college is still with in her reach.

We run home to make dinner and check on our younger kids’ homework while we listen to our teenagers complain about life not being fair. From the corner of one eye a pile of bills catches your attention, and you make a mental note that they can no longer wait. Housework that we so much hope will be done by others in our immediate household is left undone…and finally last but not least our significant other is just waiting for his turn to be attended to. We pick up a ringing phone and listen to our parents talk about their health issues, and then switch to the second line just to hear about how our best friend has had it with her husband’s middle age crisis, and she is ready to walk…Where and how she hasn’t figured it out, but she just needed to vent and to share that little piece of information with you, and some where down the path of that conversation you think you just picked up on the thought that crossed her mind…”I can always take my two little munchkins and move to my friends house, at least until all the chaos is resolved.” By the time you’re done with everyone’s drama, you look and notice that you just cleaned the whole kitchen without even realizing it. You kiss the kids goodnight and flop on your couch, and precisely at that moment, you hear an inner voice… I should be grateful?…Is that what I heard someone at work say to me today?




Finally sitting on the couch-next to a pile of laundry, I automatically start folding while thinking about what should be cooked for dinner tomorrow, I decide to flip on the evening news…

From one channel to the next the evening news presents all the possible horrors one might imagine. Between the war, the earthquakes, the floods and fires, the outside world is full of tragedies, and as you switch the TV off you realize that:

While my kids may not be the angels about who I never have to worry about, they are good kids…My husband who even after a hard day at work offers his support and encouragement, even if it’s almost midnight when he is ready to show it…is a good thing. Although my parents who are complaining of their constant medical problems, are alive and with me today... The house, even if it needs work, is a place I call home, and as I crawl into bed exhausted and sleepy I feel a warm body of the man I love and think that I’m not only Grateful but very much Happy.

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