Just Take a Moment and Look Around You
We all need to learn to appreciate what we have when we have it. ~ Beth Cohen
The quote up there is a different version of “you don’t know what you have until you lose it” and for some reason, both quotes ends up having deeper meanings to me at different stages of my life.
My dad will always say that we will appreciate the life we are living when we take just thirty minutes of our time and visit the hospital. He said the day he went, he came out thanking God. He had told us about how he saw people who couldn’t eat so they feed them through a pipe by melting down whatever it is they want to eat and pouring it down the pipe and also people who couldn’t urinate properly.
He had said all of these things to us hoping that we would learn to appreciate life more and though some of what he said stuck with us, the truth is that we will never fully understand the message he was trying to pass unless we saw those things for ourselves and today I had a glimpse of what he was talking about.
I said a glimpse because I didn’t go to a hospital so what I saw wasn’t as severe as what my dad saw but it still was enough to make me appreciate the life I’m living.
My Aunt had invited me to an empowerment program that was being hosted by the government. When I arrived at the location, I noticed majority of the people there were handicapped. I was a bit confused but I said nothing. I just tried to focus on what was being taught but no matter how hard I tried to concentrate, I just couldn’t help but steal a glance at the men and women on wheelchairs.
The lecture had gone for a while when we noticed we had three people in our midst who were deaf and dumb. The moment we noticed it, we asked if there was anyone there who knew the sign language but there was no one. Automatically, my focus shifted to them. I was a bit worried about how they would understand what was being taught and it didn’t take long for one of them to sleep off.
About twenty minutes later, a new tutor came on and we immediately drew his attention to the three guys who couldn’t hear or speak and that was when he told us he knew a bit of sign language and would try his best in communicating with them.
I will never forget how the faces of the men lit up when the tutor did a sign gesture towards them. According to him, he had greeted them and they had responded, asking him if he knew the sign language which he replied, telling them he only knew a bit of it and yet they still were happy that finally someone who could understand them was there.
All of that nearly moved me to tears because here I was, worried about some unnecessary stuff when there are people out there whose only wish is to have the things I got for free.
We really should learn to be more appreciative of the things we have because there’s always someone out there wishing they had just a tiny bit of that thing we have.