Small and wonderful things . . .

"The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But who gets excited by a mere penny?...It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. what you see is what you get." ~Anne Dillard  

A few of the small and wonderful things which bring untold joy into my life.   It's the small things in life which truly mean the most.  Simple abundance . . . it's the best.   





80% of the world lives in abject poverty.   I go to sleep each night in a warm and comfy bed, with a belly that is full, in a home which is quite spacious and warm and dry.  I do not know what it is like to be truly hungry or truly afraid.   I may think sometimes that I am poor, but that is only because I don't have what a handful of other people might have.   To many in the world . . .  I am considered to be wealthy.  You are considered to be wealthy.




We are a part of the 20%.   I get up each morning and I spend time each day pondering on what I am going to make for our dinner . . .  not if we are going to have dinner today.   I have clean water to drink and to cook with and to bathe in.  I am loved and appreciated.   I am blessed.




 There are days when I throw away more food  than 80 % of the world's  people have to eat in a day . . .



Barely a day passes that I don't grumble out of frustration that my kitchen is too small to hold all the wonderful things that I own that help me to prepare my food, or store my food . . .  or . . . just  my food.



When my clothes are dirty . . .  I simply throw them into the washer . . .  in fact, when compared to some people's clothing . . .  my clothes are never really dirty and I wash them anyways.  I have the luxury of being able to put on something clean every day if I wish, and it's not always the same thing  . . .  of having a pair of shoes that fit and keep my feet reasonably warm and dry . . .  and in fact of having another pair of shoes that I save for "good."



I buy my food in shops which are relatively clean . . . and filled with abundance and variety and luxury.  My shops throw out more food in a day that many people in the world see in a week, or a month or a year . . .



Our children play in school yards each day that are clean and that are safe . . . where they are being given a free education that many of them will squander, or take for granted.



Most will never have to sell their bodies, or beg . . . or worse . . .




Many people in this world put their lives at great risk just for the chance to have a portion of what I already have . . .

A roof over my head.  Food in my belly.   Clothes on my back.   Clean water.   Freedom from fear.  Free medical care.  A free education.   The right to worship as I wish.   The luxury of choice.



Something is very wrong with this world.   Very wrong.   We should never take for granted what we are so very blessed to have . . .  and we should never squander it.  We are the 20%.  I hope and pray that one day things will be very, very different and in the meantime I do what I can to alleviate the sorrow and the poverty of the 80%.  I may not be able to do much, but I can do something.

There is none so poor as those who are so poor of spirit that they cannot stop to help to lift another up or to share their crust of bread with one who hungers . . . 

This seems almost hedonistic now . . . I apologise for that.  ☺

 

In the English Kitchen today  . . .  Macaroni, Cheese and Tomato Bake. 

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