Being thankful

Wow, what a week! All five members of my family caught a nasty gastroenteritis bug at once, and our home was NOT a pretty sight for a few days whilst we tried to get over it. As the mother of three, I rarely watch TV during the day, but I didn't have the energy to do much else for a couple of days after I could get out of bed, so I ended up watching an Oprah show, on "Moms Around the World". One story was about a mother of four in Africa (Sudan I think), who's husband had been killed. They live in a small one-room shanty. She was suporting her family by working as a porter, carrying goods on her head and back to the next village - two miles up a hill - for the equivalent of 25c US. Another 25 year-old African woman was supporting her remaining four children in a refugee camp after her husband and two of her children were killed and she was raped. There's nothing like a bought of illness to make you so very thankful for things that you take for granted on a daily basis, and boy did that show drive the point home.

I am so very thankful for the provision of (essentially) unlimited supply of clean, disease-fee, hot, running water throughout my house. I am thankful that I can take a 10 minute hot shower just because I feel crappy. I am thankful that I have a cupboard full of clean sheets and towels with which to minister my sick kids, and an automatic washing machine to throw them in to clean.

I am so very thankful for the paracetamol tablets in my pantry and electrolyte solutions I can buy freely and easily at my local chemist.

I am very thankful for our car so that I can drive two minutes to my local doctor and chemist for medication.

I am so very thankful for the availability of fresh nutitious food. And for my local Italian restaurant who cooked us steamed vegetables and grilled chicken to takeaway for dinner when we were too tired to cook.

I'm so very thankful for DH's job that means we can afford these things.

I'm so very thankful for his working conditions that mean he can have time off work on full pay not only when he is sick, but extra time to look after his wife and kids as well.

There really are only two things in life that matter: health and happiness. And despite what the marketing executives want us to believe, it definitely isn't any material goods that can achieve those things.