My small thing? Waking up.
Last week I went to a tea with my mother and my sister and as I was eating scones and sipping on tea, the speaker dared to interrupt my rather peaceful and placid afternoon with a speech that would rock my world. It's still rocking my world. She had just gotten back from China on a missionary trip to the underground churches there and she was talking about the people she'd met and the food she'd eaten and the places she'd slept. I started off interested. China is someplace I've had no interest in visiting. And the pictures she was showing proved it. Bugs. They were actually eating bugs, and a brain of some kind, and the toilets were literal holes in the ground.
Then I saw it.
The people there looked happy, some of them radiantly so. Now, most of you know that I'm a psychiatric nurse; I know happiness is a rare and precious commodity. And the woman who was telling us these stories? The one who'd gone to China again and again, sometimes at the risk of her own life? She was happy, too.
A knot formed in my stomach. Have I become too spoiled, too accustomed to thick mattresses and central heat and every other luxury that has become expected? In short, have I been ruined by excess?
Just twenty minutes before she began speaking we'd had one of the waitresses close the door closest to us because it was drafty. I didn't want to have to put on my coat over the dress I was wearing. I didn't want to be uncomfortable. But it turns out uncomfortable was just what I needed.
This morning I watched as the sun rose over a field blanketed in crisp white snow, but that time I really saw it. That time I really appreciated it.
Do you ever think our "stuff" is sometimes a curse instead of a blessing?
It is a brave new world for you!
ReplyDeleteI saw this quote the other day: It's not happy people who are thankful, it's thankful people who are happy.
I think the moment we become complacent, start taking ANYthing for granted, we begin to slip away from God or the Great Spirit or the Creator - whatever you want to call it. And when we begin to disconnect ourselves from THAT, we begin to become self-absorbed as if somehow this little *i* is more important than the gift of breathing, the gift of life itself. And in becoming self-absorbed we can become disillusioned, disappointed. We can begin to feel disconnected and become depressed.
None of our "stuff" defines us, though we think it does. It is something we need to remind ourselves from moment to moment.
What a powerful post! I can't help but wish I had heard this speaker too. It's inspiring to read what an impact this had on you.
ReplyDeleteNot stuff so much sometimes as all the entertainment possibilities instead of just spending time with family.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's what they mean by less is more. When you don't have everything, you appreciate what you do have.
ReplyDeleteThat's like computers making our life easier. Now all we do is sit in front of one.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post.I think we get caught up with the stuff we have and don't have sometimes that we lose sight of what really matters in life. And it's tales like this that brings us back to the basics.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful post! It's a good question. Why do people assume that those with different ways of living should be unhappy, uncultured, or uncivilized?
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