While searching through the horror stories in the news this morning, to find some inspiration to write about something topical and interesting, I drew a frustrating blank. All the stories follow the same pattern and when you write a blog ever day it eventually becomes hard to find something to write about. Could just be me though....writers block and all that jazz.
My mind started to wander as I looked at story after story of more and more horrific acts committed by people and I thought about being grateful. Simple concept, I realize but it seems that the simple concepts in this life are easily dismissed, do I even need to bring up "He's Just Not That Into You?" Yesterday while grocery shopping, I was horrified at the price of food and by the time I had packed the packets into the boot of my car, I had my head on my steering wheel ready to let out a self pitying wail of sadness. As I drove home, I started feeling more and more sorry for myself. Questions raced through my mind, "How am I going to make it to the end of the month?", "Why can't I have more money?", "My life is so horrible!! What am I going to do?" by the time I got home, I was completely miserable and found myself like a snapping turtle and anything anyone said made me want to lash out.
It's just my nature to be a worry wart, I seem to make it every month, not well but I do. As I wallowed in my misery, my 14 year old brother looked at me and said in a very even voice "It could be worse, think of my friend." It hit me like a ton of bricks. His friend who is the same age as him lost his mother two years ago and now lives with his 10 year old brother and their father who is dieing of HIV/AIDS. One morning while my mother was lifting this boy to school along with my brother they started talking and she realized that these kids didn't have money for food and that they were hungry every morning when they went to school.
That broke my heart, I have food on my table every night, I have a roof over my head and truth be told a damn good family that would do anything for me and here I was wallowing in self pity when a boy much younger than me has to deal with the harsh realities of life way before he should be. My grandfather, admittedly not a very wise man, once told me something that really stuck with me, he said, " If you sat around a table with a bunch of strangers and all put your problems on it, you would snatch yours back very quickly". Wise words. So the next time you check your bank balance and want to crawl in the depths of depression remember that you are so much luckier than most. I know it's a cliche people but sometimes the cliche's hold some powerful truths we just have to be wise enough to see it. We are all powerful and there is nothing that can get us down, we are adaptable, cunning and intelligent. We have it all on our side, we just need to learn how to use our skills and overcome any obstacle that stands in our way. Have a wonderful week readers!
