There but for the grace of God…

Each day I am reminded how fortunate I am.   While I may complain about the rain or other such things, I want you to know that I am very aware of how very lucky I am.   My family is healthy and has always had enough of life’s necessities – good food to eat, a warm place to sleep, work to keep us going.   We are surrounded by people that care about us and would willingly go out of their way to help us in an emergency.   Best of all, we wake up each day and live in this beautiful valley.

How did I get to be this lucky?  Was it just an accident of birth that I was born in this country to people that wanted me and were able to take care of me?   It’s funny how sometimes you can forget about your good fortune.  It’s easy to do.   We tend to think that everyone is like us, to some degree or another; that we share similar experiences.  I remember a few years ago I was asked to teach a class on cake baking at the high school.  As part of my introduction, I talked about the type of pan one might use for the recipe I had brought.  My intent was to let the kids know that the recipe was able to be used in a number of ways.  Later, the instructor told me that some of the kids in her class probably did not have access to cake pans because they were “couch surfing“.  The term was new for me.  Here I was worried about how they would make a cake and some of them didn’t have a permanent home.

It’s strange to think that this sort of thing is true.  How can we let it happen?  Why is this not high on our priority list? Like many, I do what I can to help others – because I am able and because I think it is important to do.  An earlier post included the quote by Anne Frank “No one has ever become poor by giving.”  This, by Winston Churchill, is equally profound “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

On this cold, wet day a lovely quiche was delivered to a man who has been without a home for many years.  It was a small gift but received with great appreciation.   And somehow I feel more blessed than before.