Attitude Adjustment

There are days when I forget just how lucky, how blessed, how looked after I am. I'm not a naturally "glass if half full" person - I tend to be sarcastic and always kind of looking "for the catch" so to speak. And I forget on occasion, that I am privileged. There are days when I'm feeling like I don't love myself, that Jeff and I are sooo strict with our budget and money can be tight, that boy where are the days that I could buy whatever I wanted (thank you American Express!!!) and do whatever I wanted. But I just watched a Dateline episode about hunger in Ohio and it featured this one food bank that services 3,000 people monthly:

http://www.friends-n-neighbors.org/

It also told the stories of different families and how they are struggling. One family was a young mom with three children, she was young. So young, 21 years old I believe with a three year old, a two year old, and a one year old. And she was living in a van. A VAN! I almost sobbed when I realized she had a baby boy as old as my own beloved and precious Nathan and she was sleeping in a van. In the winter. She had no child support, no money coming, and she acknowledged she'd made some bad choices. It just got me thinking. Your starting game, the way you enter life, can either make you or break you. She had no family to help her. She had nothing. Her children's father - nothing. While I sniffle and watch her story I think about how unfair it is that I have so much, and she has so little. My own baby boy has so many toys I CYCLE THEM OUT so he doesn't get overwhelmed. He has clothes and food (need I say that I even spend more on ORGANIC FOOD because it's supposed to be better for him?) and he has really everything his heart could desire. This poor mom was making her own diapers for her baby boy out of underpants stuffed with a dishtowel. It breaks my heart on so many levels. I know Jeff and I are lucky in that we have family who have and will stand by us. That if the worst happened, we would have a home. We would have a MULTITUDE of homes to choose from among family members who would gladly take us in. If we were hungry, we have family who could, and would, feed us. It's gut wrenching. I can sit here and get angry that this girl, who admittedly knew of birth control and still had three children, yet I ache for her. I ache for her children. Children who are not getting the head start that Nathan is getting. Children who might possibly wind up in similar situations as their mother.

It made me think that I need to definitely adopt a more positive attitude in life. To remember that I may not have had the easiest life at times, but that I am still lucky. Very, very, very lucky.