There is so much happening in our lives. So much we take for granted or simply over look. We forget reality, the essentials, in essence the fundamentals of life. We have basic needs and I use basic in the most extreme sense of the term. Things we need for our survival. We need food, water, shelter and clothing. These are our needs, what keeps up in the day to day and yet we forget at their most minimal form they nourish our lives.
Food. When I say that, most people think "OMG Pumpkin spice latte!" or "Burrito with chips and salsa please". Most of you don't say.. "hot soup & some crackers". We believe that we take things into consideration, that we are mindful of our surroundings and the reality of the world we live in. At a deeper more invasive level we tend not to think about things as serious as being freezing or starving.
There are people, homeless, living in a makeshift tent off the on ramp to the highway. There are mothers forced out of their home with a child, sleeping in a car and using the gas station bathrooms to maintain some sense of hygiene. There are children who go home to empty cabinets at night and go to school in the morning not to learn but because they are starving. The only food and perhaps even shelter they get come between 9am to 4pm when they are in school surrounded by their peers. There are people that are ill and not sniffles sick but forever sick. The kind of pain and torture where not only can they not help their body heal but they also know their days are numbered. They have been cursed with the knowledge of their inevitable fate. They cannot afford bills or extensive treatment, let alone work for income. Food becomes an afterthought. Someone once said, "Why feed a body that has failed you?" Yea, it was that bad. That statement hit me like a freight train. To be that pained with suffering daily.
We forget through the chaos of what to wear to a party, what toy to get for our child's birthday or whether to stop by dunkin donuts, that there are so many variations of the world we live in. Pain to one person is not the same pain as others. That house you live in, with curtains, pillows, maybe a dent in the wall is a home before anything else. Its supposed to protect you, keep you from the elements and give you warmth. Everything else it serves as if pure indulgence. I privilege that comes in all shapes and sizes.
You may donate our old clothes to a charity, some canned goods to a shelter, but have you ever actually thought about the day to day of the person receiving those items. Most often they were once a contributing member of society, some may have been doctors, business professionals or artists. Life threw them curve balls and for one reason or another that landed them in a group home or unfortunately on the streets. We take that for granted, I have literally heard someone say, "if he doesn't want to be homeless, he should of had a job." The entitlement these days astounds me. He may had had a job, a good one. May have lost his ability to work, perhaps at the hand of injury, disaster or addiction. When did it become a social norm to be so critical and honestly inhuman to other people. People feed stray cats but gasp at the "nerve" of a homeless women walking down the street.
You are one of the lucky ones, for now. You have been led down a blessed road. You're reading this from your computer, tablet or phone, maybe relaxing, possibly you are at work. Nevertheless you are alive, with food in your stomach and clothing on your back and somehow people think that gives you the say so to be down right disgustingly cruel to people that have not had it easy.
THINK ABOUT THAT.
How blessed you are. Your health, your home, clothing, family. To some people, you're life is a DREAM. A place they go when they are hitting rock bottom to escape the reality that they are sharing a water bottle and rag blanket with 2 other people. You're life, even though you face your own challenges and fast balls is something they could only hope to experience or get back to. We forget, I forget. I forget that sometimes my kids drive me crazy, my house looks like a hurricane came through and I'm having a bad day. I actually laugh at how selfish and ridiculous that seems. Some spilled milk and my day is now horrible. Sometimes you jut need a little reality check. Think about your basic needs, if they are being met and be thankful for the life you have. Not everyone is so lucky.
