Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Complaint department



Recently a friend of mine was on a tear, complaining. She complained about her husband, her kids, her home, her lack of money. In reality she has a nice husband who adores her, healthy, kind, intelligent children and a beautiful, paid for home. I tried to gently point out the many blessings in her life. She rolled her eyes at me a bit and when mentioned her nice family and wonderful home. When I elaborated, and said something like, "You have running water!" Her eye rolling turned to a scoff.

When I get home from work on an average day, I do things to keep our home running. I might dust the living room pictured here, water plants, do some dishes, start dinner and/or toss in a load of laundry. I am not a huge fan of doing laundry, to be honest, but I AM a fan of having clean clothes to wear! Today, as I tossed in a load of things to wash I thought about how amazing it is that I can just stuff items into this big white box, add soap, turn a dial and come back in 30 minutes or so to find clean clothes. What a huge blessing that is. I am also very fond of having clean, cool, safe water available to me 24 hours a day, with just a lift of a faucet.

Sometimes, if I am feeling a little grumpy, I remind myself just how lucky I am. I never scoff at my running water or electricity, but I do sometimes fail to appreciate them fully. Taking a moment to appreciate the things I often take for granted helps me stay on track. I really don't have much to be complaining about.

1 comment:

Cottagecheap said...

Amen! Don't forget heat that comes on without getting out of bed, and when you do use a fireplace what about CHAINSAWS?