Grateful Reminders

I know everyone’s sick to death of hearing about the cold weather we’ve had.  Those who had it bad have most certainly had it worse than us. The most we experienced was a little inconvenience, and maybe a little discomfort.

I am incredibly thankful that our electricity did not go off.  Yet I found myself complaining about the inefficiency of a home heating system that was not designed for sub-zero weather.  Then I reminded myself of all those who weathered this storm without a home heating system, or without a home.

We are a very fortunate family indeed to have three bathrooms.  It was inconvenient that one of them had temporary pipe issues that caused us to have to use a less desirable shower, and it was uncomfortable when all three were cold, but I reminded myself of all those who don’t have pipes.

Or showers.

I know folks who have both, and when their pipes froze and burst they had expensive repairs to make.  Ours only made a sputtering noise in one of them, and only then with the hot water, and only for a total of one day.  So what if it was the preferred shower.

We had another.

I complained about the icy steps, and then immediately was grateful that I had them, and the porch to which they are attached.  The driveway that husband shoveled three times in two days had him complaining, but then I think of the guy with no driveway, no car, and no ‘anything’.

So what if I woke up to a cold house.  I didn’t have to shove snow and ice off of my blanket and me when I crawled out of a warm bed, took a hot shower, and put on warm clothes.  So what if after I put on my very warm coat and gloves I stepped outside into frigid conditions.  I had a job to go to, something else some others don’t have.

And I had a vehicle to take me so I wouldn’t have to walk.

And you know who does the most complaining?  People like me, who have seemingly everything – certainly everything that’s important.

I have never heard those without complain much about anything.  I think their level of gratitude must exceed mine, and those like me, who are very fortunate indeed, and most times don’t even know it.