Thankful for things we may take for granted…
When I was a boy we would sometimes visit my great aunt Louisa, who lived in a small town in rural Minnesota. Her house was so old that it didn’t have plumbing for hot water. I can remember how we had to heat water on the stove to have hot water for a bath. It would take forever to get that much hot water and then by the time you got a new pot of water hot, the other water in the tub was already cold. To this day I still remember that and I appreciate how easy it is to get hot water out of my faucet.
Imagine wasting 5-8 hours a day?
And compared to the rest of the world my aunt Louisa had it good. Consider this… almost 1 billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water. (That’s 1 in 8 people on the planet!) Can you imagine walking two hours one way just to get your family clean water? Not only is that a lot of work but think of the time wasted! With much of one’s day already consumed with the task of retrieving water, there is little time for much else. The hours lost to gathering water prevent these people from working a trade or teaching their children.
Matter of Perspective
What a blessing it is for us to walk to the kitchen sink and pour ourselves a glass of cool, clean drinking water anytime we want. I know our lives can be pretty stressful and we work really hard, but at the same time we do not live in a country that is rampant with the Ebola virus, or live in a city that has been taken over by ISIS who are terrorizing its citizens. In the midst of our struggle we have it pretty good. It’s a matter of perspective.
What are you Grateful for?
The founder of National Karate and 10th Degree Grand Master, John Worley always challenged me to start each day by thinking of at least one thing that we are grateful for. It’s a great way to start your day and it has a positive effect on your attitude! This Thanksgiving I am thankful for the students, parents and staff at National Karate – I really treasure these relationships!
