learning to appreciate

isn't it funny how often we take things we have in our lives for granted? i have recently, or should i rather say i am currently undergoing a mind and body cleansing process whereby i am forced to focus entirely on my own thoughts. this is what i have learnt.

quite simply. appreciation.

take food for example. we live in a world where there is so much food, freely available - in excess - which we have access to at a dial of the phone, or a quick drive to the supermarket. i, on a daily basis, would simply jump in my car and take a drive to the store as soon as a craving hit. a feeling millions of people around the world will never experience. we, as fortunate and blessed as we are, forget what it means to be truly hungry, to know what it is like to go days without food. despite this excess of readily available food, there are still communites where there is a absence of food for days on end. we forget that food is something to appreciate. and we never will appreciate it, until we have none.

appreciation stretches out to any aspect in life really. in fact, i think the thing we most take for granted in life is not people (although everyone is guilty of doing this) but rather, life itself. we wake up each morning, unaware of our beating hearts, or automatic breathing, and we go through the motions of day to day activities, almost always without taking a step back to appreciate the fact that we woke up to experience another day, see the people we hold close to our hearts, do the things we enjoy, eat, drink, laugh, love. all of which we could never do, if these things that keep us alive had to shut down during our slumber.

so often we worry about silly, insignificant things in the greater picture of life. accounts, deadlines, work, fashion, beauty - and don't get me wrong, all of these day to day things are important, but at the end of the day, when you look back on your life, i guarentee you that you will not think about the account deadline you didn't make in the month of december 2010, or the way your teeth may look after spending thousands on teeth whitening. no, you will think about the people your have loved, and who have loved you back and the memories that were made, most of which were no thanks to monetary gain. your life, the fact that you wake up every morning able to see, breath, walk, listen, talk, feel, smell. simple things which we take for granted, but are the greatest blessings in life. learn to appreciate them. and when you learn to, make sure you make your appreciation known. verbalise it.

"if you don't think everyday is a great day, try going without one" - jim evans.