Taking Things for Granted--A Paragraph a Day

Often when I'm teaching my World Studies course we learn about people living in cultures that have very few of the luxuries that we tend to take for granted.  In this world today, there are millions of people living without electricity in their homes, without running water in their homes, without hope for jobs that would allow them to improve their situations.  There are millions of people without families, without the opportunity to go to school, without enough food to meet their nutritional needs today.  Yes, today.  Twenty-five thousand people on this planet will die of starvation or starvation-related causes today.  Knowing these things, I can let them overwhelm me and get a feeling of hopelessness that could make me very unhappy, or I can use this knowledge to help me to foster my appreciation for the things that I do have, the blessings that are present in my life in so many ways.  I obviously can't ignore the fact that there's much misery in the world, and I do my best with my limited resources to contribute to bettering the world, but I can't do it all.  What I can do is not squander the gifts by not appreciating them.  I can allow gratitude to be an important part of my life and not take for granted anything that I have.