This month I had an eye-opening realization. And I’m telling you, thank God I did! I was about to pay my bills – getting annoyed at them, because, of course, that meant that I would lose money that I could spend on other things. And then a few moments later I realized that my rent I had already paid, and now I had paid for my internet bill, public transport and I was lucky to have parents who had already taken care of my health insurance and my university fee.
Here comes the realization: As long as I was now able to buy myself some food, I would survive. And everything else is pure luxury. And I thought, my God, what a privilege that is!
We’re so freaking lucky…
As I did my research for this essay I found that 768 million people suffer from undernourishment. According to the “Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN” nearly a third (2.67 billion people) did not have access to adequate food in 2020. Another source said that the poverty line in Ethiopia lies at 2.04 $ per day, meaning that if you have to live with less than that amount of money, you belong to the part of the population that lives in poverty. The worst part about that is: when I read that I was sitting in a Starbucks, drinking my coffee for 3.50 € and eating a cookie for 2.70€. I never realized how much money that could be.
I continued to read… 60 million children of primary school age don’t have access to education, in total that number lies almost at 260 million children. 13% of the world’s population is illiterate. Every fourth person doesn’t have access to clean drinking water. Every sixth death is caused by cancer. 5% or 280 billion people suffer from depression. I could go on with this sad list.
… when we realize…
But what is the point in looking for such terrible numbers? By no means am I trying to talk down on the issues and problems you might have. They should be validated! But I’m trying to say that, at the end of the day, we are so lucky to have the lives we have – full of opportunity, potential and privilege. It’s important to, once in a while, remind ourselves of that – speaking to myself here as well!
As a spiritual practice I would recommend to once in a while check in with yourself, reminding yourself of what you have and thank someone for it – whether you believe in a creator, a higher power, or not. I prefer to do so right before I go to sleep, it feels more intimate.
… how many things we have…
And if you have trouble finding things to be grateful for, I would suggest to change the narrative from ‘I have to’ to ‘I get to’. You get to go to school, because it opens up so many doors for you and delivers so many opportunities for your future well-being. You get to go to work and have the opportunity to pay all your bills. You get to eat healthy and take care of your body. You get to walk around the city and see the world. You get to call your family when you miss them, not everyone has that privilege.
… that keep us alive…
If you still need some food for thought: You have the ability to see, hear, speak. You have both legs and arms. You can walk and run. You are healthy – nothing else matters when you’re not healthy. You can feed yourself and others. You have family and friends – people that support you. You have access to education. You are safe and in peace. You have a bed that you can crawl into after a hard day. You have clothes to warm yourself. You have a social life that keeps you emotionally healthy. Maybe you are able to speak more than one language. You have access to a computer. You can at any point in time go out and buy yourself a cup of coffee. You can buy almost everything your heart desires with your money. You were able to recover from a broken heart. Well done… You won in life!
… and make life wonderful!
I once heard someone say something hugely important: “Imagine I gave you a million dollars. You wouldn’t worry about stupid little problems, about what people say about you, about how your boss annoys you, right? You would be very lucky and feel good about your life. You’re a millionaire! But imagine the condition of me giving you the million dollars would be that you’re not going to wake up tomorrow. You wouldn’t take the money, right? Because you’d be dead. What does this mean? Your life, and the fact that you wake up every morning, is worth much more than a million dollars. Act like it. Don’t let yourself be brought down by the little, unimportant things.”
I don’t know how well I was able to bring my point across. I could have gone on but I think you get what I’m trying to say with this blog. But I hope you were able to take something from this and maybe once in a while think about how freaking wonderful your life is, and remember how lucky we actually are 🙂
Hope, you enjoyed. Thanks for reading <3
