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Reflection
Sep. 3rd, 2003 03:38 pmTaking a quiz the other day, I was asked to select a word that I felt described myself. After perusing all the choices, rejecting some out of hand and dithering on others for a few seconds, I went with the one that leapt out at me: "lucky."
I am not lucky in the sense that wins a lottery ticket or even a door prize. But I am a very fortunate person.
I have never known hunger. I am physically healthy and emotionally stable. I have two parents who love me. They're still married to one another after over thirty years, so I've never had to go through the emotional trauma of a divorce. When my sister and I were small, my mother was an at-home mom. Later she got a job in the kitchen of our elementary school--a whole two hundred yards away from our house. I was never a latch-key child. The smell of bread baking *is* one of my childhood memories. I never suffered physical or emotional abandonment of any kind--I never even got left anywhere. We moved several times when I was younger, and each time it was an adventure. I got to see new places, experience new climates, make new friends.
I am financially fortunate enough to be paying for my own car. I also (obviously) have steady internet access and am somewhat computer literate. This alone puts me ahead of a lot of people in this world. I am relatively intelligent and have had the opportunity to go to college, receiving one bachelor's degree. I plan to finish off my second next spring.
I have travelled. I've been to Europe and Asia. I've also been to Mexico and several different places in the USA. I've made friends in many of these places and correspond with them regularly, via the internet. I met a wonderful young man during my travels and will soon become his wife. I have never been in an abusive relationship. Many of my exes are still good friends. I am, in fact, surrounded by good friends. I know that if anything should ever happen, legally, physically, emotionally, or financially, I will have a network to fall back onto until I can get back on my feet.
I have a built-in compass and mapping system; I don't easily get lost. I live in a country and a society that tolerate my beliefs, behaviors, and style of dress. I was born in a time of physical ease, when I don't have to be out in the fields from dawn to dusk, hoping that the crop yields are good enough to see me through the winter. I live in an area where the temperature never drops below freezing point and it never gets hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement. I have a patch of ground I can grow plants in--not because I have to, but because I want to. I have all these blessings, and when I take a moment and step back, or list them out like this, I wonder how I could ever want for anything.
I was born lucky.
I am not lucky in the sense that wins a lottery ticket or even a door prize. But I am a very fortunate person.
I have never known hunger. I am physically healthy and emotionally stable. I have two parents who love me. They're still married to one another after over thirty years, so I've never had to go through the emotional trauma of a divorce. When my sister and I were small, my mother was an at-home mom. Later she got a job in the kitchen of our elementary school--a whole two hundred yards away from our house. I was never a latch-key child. The smell of bread baking *is* one of my childhood memories. I never suffered physical or emotional abandonment of any kind--I never even got left anywhere. We moved several times when I was younger, and each time it was an adventure. I got to see new places, experience new climates, make new friends.
I am financially fortunate enough to be paying for my own car. I also (obviously) have steady internet access and am somewhat computer literate. This alone puts me ahead of a lot of people in this world. I am relatively intelligent and have had the opportunity to go to college, receiving one bachelor's degree. I plan to finish off my second next spring.
I have travelled. I've been to Europe and Asia. I've also been to Mexico and several different places in the USA. I've made friends in many of these places and correspond with them regularly, via the internet. I met a wonderful young man during my travels and will soon become his wife. I have never been in an abusive relationship. Many of my exes are still good friends. I am, in fact, surrounded by good friends. I know that if anything should ever happen, legally, physically, emotionally, or financially, I will have a network to fall back onto until I can get back on my feet.
I have a built-in compass and mapping system; I don't easily get lost. I live in a country and a society that tolerate my beliefs, behaviors, and style of dress. I was born in a time of physical ease, when I don't have to be out in the fields from dawn to dusk, hoping that the crop yields are good enough to see me through the winter. I live in an area where the temperature never drops below freezing point and it never gets hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement. I have a patch of ground I can grow plants in--not because I have to, but because I want to. I have all these blessings, and when I take a moment and step back, or list them out like this, I wonder how I could ever want for anything.
I was born lucky.
