#14: It's All Relative

Dearest Reader,

Over the last six months, I’ve had some big disappointments.  Circumstances forced me to withdraw from a long-anticipated humanitarian trip to Africa 12 hours before I was to leave.  A project, making family lives better and taking me months to put together, fell apart 15 minutes before it was to happen.  After much enthusiastic reading, organization, and expectation, my Turkey/Greece adventure planned to make me feel better about the missed Africa trip is now also canceled.  I feel wrung out from all the planning, drained of excitement, and empty.
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I realize, in the big scheme of things, this is nothing.  There are people who...

• do not know where their next meal is coming from.
• go to bed every night, afraid.
• deal  with excruciating pain every day.
•  just lost a loved one.
•  feel lonely and scared.
• find themselves in horrific situations with no means of escape.
• suffer debilitating drug addiction.
• do not know the whereabouts of their child.
• manage crippling depression.
• suffer abuse.
• live in a country where they are second class citizens.
• do not know how they will feed their children.
• cannot keep their families safe.
• Etc., etc., etc.

 
Reading over this list, I realize I’m good.  Sorry for whining.
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Love,
M.J.