Being Grateful

For Ordinary Things

Some days our thoughts drift and we start thinking about what we don’t have and get miserable.

It’s at these times we have to look around us and recognise what we actually do have, and not just taking these precious things for granted.

I worked in India for a time away from my family and the building site where we were was pretty remote, cell phones were not around then and even if you had a one now I doubt if you could get any decent coverage.

From an urban city up bringing to a place where running water and electricity were not reliable opens up a lot of interesting and sometimes enlightening experiences.

The locals in that area, of which there were tens of thousands, were grateful for the small amount of power and water they received.

Whereas I and most of my colleagues looked at the lack of water and electricity as if we were losing out on something.

On one occasion I was approached by a group of Indian workers and they told me how they thought I was rich as I had lots of clothes and shoes.

My reply was to say I was not rich at all and I was working in India as part of my job to earn some money to pay my mortgage on my house.

After a while I found out from these Indian workers they had only a few clothes and the shoes they had were made from old car tyres with a piece of rope as a strap.

They then showed me where they lived and it was only a shelter made from packing crates.

Even though it was a lot of years ago when I spoke to these men, when I get thoughts of lacking things I remember how these men lived then and I understand gratitude just a little bit more.