Gratitude

Last week when I took third twin daughter (twin with young son) to singing lessons I came across one of those toilet philosophy sheets. Normally I'm more of a Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan sort of girl and I have a sunny, accommodating disposition, but on this day I was feeling bizarrely pessimistic, woeful and generally sorry for myself. I had been re-reading through Dawkins 'The God Delusion' helping second daughter with a philosophy paper on whether knowledge is really attainable despite bias and selection, so my mind was in an intense place. This little bit of paper with it's words admonishing us to be grateful for what we actually do have in our lives pierced through the intellectual intensity and dispelled my fog. You may have read it before but I thought I might share it with you just in case you haven't(I'll leave Dawkins for another day):

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness,
You are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation,
You are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a Church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death,
You are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.
If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep,
You are richer than 75% of the world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and spare change in a dish somewhere,
You are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and married,

You are rare, even in Australia.
If you can read this,
You are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

What goes around comes around...
Work like you don't need the money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
Dance like no one's watching,
Sing like no one's listening,
Live like it's heaven on Earth!