Giving thanks

Lately I have been stressed out at work and with things going on there. I've been dealing with anger, resentment, and stress all in one. Then I watched the news last night and they had a report about a man they found dead in a sleeping bag off of a freeway. I don't know if he was a transient or a homeless man, but they doubted it. Anyhow, it made me realize how lucky I was. Right now the temperatures are dipping into the high 20's at night, and I cannot begin to even imagine trying to find warmth while living outside. When I'm outside in the early morning before work, I am cold. I rush to my truck to defrost and heat it up. It's easy for me- I have shelter. So many people do not, and it's so easy to take little things like that for granted. I don't think shelter is a little thing, but it's something we don't normally think about.

I've never been homeless. Even when times were at their toughest, we were able to scrape up the money we needed for rent. As a general rule, rent is our first and top priority. It's always been that way. I think it's because my husband spent some time living in his car as a teenager and he knew what it was like to be homeless. He thought he was one of the lucky ones though- at least he had a car to sleep in. But I have never experienced what it is like to be homeless, and for that, I am truly thankful.

It's so easy to be stressed and angry at circumstances at life, but sometimes we get a little wake up call that raises our awareness of how lucky we truly are.