Monday, June 25, 2007

An addition

...to my previous post. Recently, Samson, one of my coworkers was talking to his "partner" in the Orthopedic field here at St. John. He said that some doctor is the most famous physician on the planet in his field. I smirked to my colleague, Jennifer, and said, jokingly, "I want someone to say I am the most famous person in the world for XYZ..." She and I started chatting about this. Really I could care a less about being famous for anything really. I was joking in all seriousness.

We also have something called Inspiration here at SJA. Every Monday morning we would tell our colleagues about something that inspires us. This can vary wildly but my colleague, Dan, did this thing - he asked like five questions -Name the top five richest people in the world, Name the last five Academy Award winners for Best Actor/Actress, etc... Then he asked Who are the five people you would turn to in a time of need? Name five people who have inspired you in your life, etc... Of course, the first set of things were nearly impossible to think of off the top of your head and the second set were fairly simple to come up with.

I told Jennifer that I have recently changed the way I think. I mostly used to always WANT. Instead of feeling like I want something more or better, I go through my "I am grateful for..." statements. I remind myself that there is always something else that I want or think I need but really I am just grateful for what I have today and I am not talking about money or things - I am talking about the aforementioned wet smooch and bear hug from my son. This has greatly helped me to change my thinking about both myself and the world around me.

This new daily activity reminds me that most of the world is struggling to get by - they do not have the pleasure of running water or a toilet down the hall, they do not live in relative safety (I know I can get home without running into militia or road side bombs...), they do not know where their next meal will come from (or even how far they have to go to get that meal) and, quite frankly, this list goes on for miles.

We are lucky to live in this land of plenty. To have the relative luxury to make choices that many others cannot - I am aware today that I am grateful for the life I have and the choices I am afforded to make by living in this place, this community.

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