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| Source: Tuscola Today |
I open the refrigerator and cabinets and choose what to eat for my meals. I go to the grocery store and choose organic or conventional, healthy or junky. I can choose to eat fresh foods, to cook something, or to eat out. I can even choose not to eat if I'm not hungry.
I select the water temperature for my shower and how long to run the water. I choose what soap, shampoo, conditioner to use. I pick from among a closetful of clean towels.
I choose what clothes to wear. I can vary my choices based on the weather, my mood, or what activities I'm undertaking each day. I choose when to wash my clothes and whether to wash them by machine or hand. I can use the dryer or hang them up.
I decide how warm or cool to keep my house. I choose where I want to live, how to decorate my home, what to grow in my yard.
I don't always remember to be thankful for these choices. Too often, I take them for granted. Today, though, I acknowledge how unbelievably lucky, blessed, and privileged I am. I know that there are millions of people on Earth who do not have the choices I do. For so many, food, clean water, clothing, and shelter are not choices - they are inconsistent, inadequate, or non-existent realities. They are distant dreams.
I don't know why I have been so blessed to live where I do, to have the freedoms and choices I do. But I believe that with these blessings comes a great responsibility to share. Over the next few days, I'll tell you about some of the organizations and people that help me share what I have with others.
What choices are you thankful for today?
3 comments:
I am thankful for the choices my daughters have made. Each daughter has chosen her own path in life but their choices have resulted in three wonderful people with love and tenderness for those around them. Each daughter owns a piece of my heart and each daughter has nurtured the pride that I have in being their father. I do not claim credit for them reaching the zenith of humanity, their Mother deserves most of that, I am thankful for the choices that she made and that they have made. I made them watch a program on Slime Mold and she made them into the sparkling examples of what a human being is capable of becoming.
Dad - You never know how important slime mold is going to be! Seriously, I think you underestimate your influence.
Whenever I take R to the science museum or to the Harvard Museum of Natural History (as I did yesterday), and I'm pointing out interesting minerals, crystals, animals, etc., I always think of you and how you taught us to notice the world around us - and actually READ the signs at the museum exhibits. This week, R and I marveled over the sunsets and watched the birds in our yard. Your influence is definitely there.
And, I'm pretty sure I've had the smooth vs. wrinkled peas discussion with R, too. :-)
This from the child who once said "Are we going to another damned museum? Can't we go to an amusement park or something?".
OOOH, yes, yes, yes! It feels so good. WOO-HOO!
It reminds me of the Tut exhibit. They had a wooden table there that they said was thousands of years old, probably the first piece of wooden furniture made. There was a sign that deciphered the cartouche of the maker's name phonetically. It was KHA-BAKH-NET. I almost imploded. Some clown had put that sign there expecting us to believe that the first carpenter's name was CABINET.
It reminded me of my Father's admonition "Believe none of what you read and only half of what you see.".
It is pleasing to me that you take R to museums. The peas would understand. Do you remember standing up on the roof when Jupiter aligned with Mars?
daddy
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