This realization took on new meaning when I was in Cambodia recently. They often don't even know when their next meal will be. I just got back from WalMart...for the 3rd time this week.
I have watched people around me in a new way since I've been back, most of us are not very thankful for what we have. Almost as if we deserve what we have ...SO not true. I too act this way.
Today yet another experience changed me just a little - moved me toward thankful even more.
I watched as several handicapped people tried to make their way through the grocery store. One guy was very crippled and was in a wheel chair pushing himself around with one foot. He couldn't even use his hands. He struggled to turn the chair and sometimes pushed himself backward instead of forward just because that was the direction his chair took him in. I walked just a little slower as I continued to watch. The second guy used a walker and seemed to have great difficulty communicating, just shuffling along.
They were accompanied by a lady who struggled slightly herself due to her weight - she leaned heavily against her cart allowing it to propel her forward slowly. The three slowly but surely made their way across the store. I wasn't sure whether they were shopping or just out to move around a little while.
The gentleman in the wheel chair seemed to be in his own world, but as I watched he became a little panicked trying desperately to communicate with the lady walking with them. He had lost sight of his friend and was very upset! She assured him he must just be around the next corner and so the struggle to turn his chair continued this time driven by the desire to see his friend once again.
As they moved out of view I wondered if there was anything at all in my life that in anyway compared to a handicap.
I am sure my friends and family could list a few things! I feel until this year perhaps my greatest handicap was my safe little American box. And now that is gone -I can move outside myself a little further causing me to look at everything differently. And that's a good thing.
I do have such an easy life and I remembered that again tonight as I watched the young men struggle to do the most basic things. God teaches when I pay attention - and I left that store with far more than groceries.
1 comment:
I think we all have easy lifes. We don't realize it till we lose something in our lifes such as friends or health. I thank God each day for the ability to exercise not only in activity but my rights to be who I am.
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