last week i was talking with my mom. i try and go and talk with her at least once a week. and we were talking about her friends in Haiti. she told me that things were really hard for them. She has a friend who survived the earthquake. his family lived trough somethings that i know most Americans can never get through. (we're spoiled. lets face it. if the hot water doesn't come on fast enough we complain about it) he told her what it was like where the lived. no water, no food, no where to live. they spent a week sleeping in the streets. it was the norm for everyone. they laid there shoulder to shoulder on the ground. he told my mom that when they went back to their home they looked around and saw nothing that resembled their home. the floods destroyed everything. they looked in their small back yard and saw a body. it was a man from the next neighborhood over. the water dragged him down the hill. so they packed up and we to another city. there they were met with the same answers that they were given. no water, no food, no where to live. now what? so they found scraps and made a make shift home. they did what they had to do. sick, hungry, and in pain. they lived. they lasted there for a bit living on some kind of sweet potato. i didn't even know what it was. and then last week they were hit again. this time by the tsunami. something that didn't need to happen to this poor country. something that killed the hopes of many of the citizens of Haiti. now it was worse. now there was nothing. so as my mom talked with her friend last week. she asked him. how are feeling. and this man. this poor hungry sick man responded "I'm happy, I'm good" now I'm not that smart of a man but if that happened to me i wouldn't be happy. she didn't understand why he said that. he then said "I'm happy cause I'm alive".
as i sat there and talked with my mom the tears were hard to fight back. how many times do i sit there and complain cause the waiter didn't fill my huge cup of water. how many times do i get made cause the lock on my door sticks sometimes when i open it. how many times in an hour do we complain about the smallest stuff. i don't know about you. but i feel really stupid. i feel like i am so lucky to live in a country like this. i have everything that i need in my life. i think that i need to take a look at myself and just be thankful for what i have. be thankful to have food, shelter and to be healthy. we are all so lucky. i for one am very great full for my life. im happy. im happy to be alive. life is good.
