How often do we (in Britain) take the simplest things in life for granted. After a good night’s sleep in a warm bed, we get up, turn on the tap. There is water to make a cup of tea, hot water to have a bath or shower, food in the cupboard if we wish to eat. Our shops and supermarkets are filled with everything we could wish for.
We have so much food that tons of it are wasted and thrown away each day. Medicine cabinets are full of unused, sometimes expensive drugs, that for some reason we haven’t bothered to take. Our wardrobes are full with clothes that are hardly worn, bought on a whim or just because we can. Electrical goods, that we just couldn’t live without or so we tell ourselves, lay idle and gathering dust. In this throw-away society, nothing is mended anymore. It’s cheaper to throw it out and get a new one.
Are we truly blessed or have all the privileges we have made us into a more selfish, self-centred nation? With today’s technology, people don’t seem to work together – hours spent on computers have isolated us.
We are worlds away from the countries where women walk miles to get water: electricity is limited to a few hours a day, or where in some cases there is no electricity: food is in short supply, rationed or non-existent: no supermarkets for them or full medicine cabinets: a bed is a rag on the floor: many are crammed into one room: no nice hot shower, bath, soap, or shampoo: the same clothes are worn day and night: no medical help for them on the end of a phone.
It’s easy to forget that people live like this while we have so much. We tend to isolate ourselves from the not so pleasant things in life and forget to count our blessings which we have many.
Copyright 2009 Anita Turner
