Start to be Grateful 19 July 2010

 “Now, as the country comes to terms with the impact of what has happened over the past thirteen years, everybody must start to see a better life emerging from it.

“During times of great hardship, such as war and severe austerity, people emerge with a different way to live and survive.

“Unlike the war years of 1940 to 1945 where there was so little and food, clothing and petrol etc where rationed, that was a wakeup call to so many.

“Because of those circumstances people got on and had to manage.  We thankfully as a nation are not in those austere times, yet in spite of this people never seen grateful for what they have.  They simply want it all, all of the time.

“It is only those of us, who have visited other countries in the world where they do not have electricity all the time, where running water is a luxury and washing and toilet facilities are not the norm.

“Where the markets only have very little produce and you are glad to have any kind of aid in whatever form.

“Where holes in the road are enormous craters making our own potholes seem like nothing at all.

“It is only when we return to this country that we are reminded at just how much we actually have and how much we take for granted on a daily basis.

“We soon forget what others have not got and we begin to slip back into our own ways of moaning instead of being grateful.  It is only when things we have taken for granted are perhaps taken away from us do we appreciate what we had.

“We are all in some way or another selfish.  We have had it too good for too long.

“We all have access to local hospitals, where we have to sometimes wait a few hours before we are seen, never thinking we might have had to walk for several hours to even get to some form of a minor clinic where basic conditions and drugs are limited.

“All is given to us and we are grateful?  No!  We expect and believe it is our right to have.

“Kindly, before we moan now, have a thought for the others in this world who are far less privileged than ourselves and start to be grateful.

“Help is always out there and where we might have to make a certain sacrifice for the time, it will allow us thinking time that when we get it back, we will consider ourselves fortunate and learn not to expect that we should have it all.”

Jenny Ayers