Things We Should Be Grateful for! in A New Beginning

A few days ago, the farming neighbors Joey works for sent him home with what I called The Biggest Watermelon in the World. It was one of those huge watermelons that a person only buys if s/he needs something to take to a BIG family reunion! And since we don't even have a big family, much less a big family reunion, I very much looked this gift horse in the mouth. What the hell was I supposed to do with this thing?! We don't have any ripe melons in our own garden yet, but we had a big ripe cantaloupe on the table (from the neighbors) and a basket of fresh vegetables from our own garden already! Once I cut open this Thing, there'd be no room for it in the fridge!

Well, after an action-packed week, I am finally enjoying a day of JUST!! STAYING!! HOME!! And once I got a few other housework things done, I covered an end of the table with plastic bags (which, btw, did nothing at all to keep watermelon juice from getting all over the table!), got out a platter, knife, and lidded plastic containers, and set to work on that watermelon. I used the ice cream scoop to dig out big chunks. There were a lot of seeds. I filled up two big containers and a small one. As I scooped watermelon, I thought about how lucky we are, really, to have so much good food that we can afford to sometimes look askance at it. A lot of people go hungry every day in this world. When my sisters were little girls, sometimes there was literally NOTHING to eat except for bread and milk. That didn't make the bread and milk taste any better. But they were hungry, so they ate it, and it kept tummies from growling all night long. Sometimes there was food on the table that was pretty awful. They reminisce about salted fish that was way too salty, and meats like TONGUE, for goodness' sake! :oO !! It wasn't even a matter of Mom and Dad loving these foods. They were POOR, and those foods were either very VERY cheap, or given to them. If they had those, then at least the two little girls had something more to eat than bread and milk.

How LUCKY we are, who can have A CHOICE about what we eat! There are so many people in the world today who do not! How LUCKY we are to be surrounded by an almost unlimited supply, and variety, of food! Most of us live in a place where we can grow some food if we want to, or if we don't we have access to farmers' markets and produce stands. And we have not only "a store," but MANY stores around us where we can go to buy food! There are sales, and things called "coupons," that help us save money when we buy food. There are all kinds of restaurants, fast food and otherwise, where we can go to buy food that is even already cooked for us!

When Joe and I attend a big function that our Assembly of the Sacred Wheel puts on, everyone brings food to share, and the tables are divided and labeled: meat dishes, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and desserts! We can be VERY picky indeed about what we eat! There are so many people in the world, and even in this country, who are just so glad to get something to eat that they don't ever think of questioning "Is there wheat flour in this?" or "does this have red meat in it?"

Cutting up that VERY big watermelon gave me a lot to think about! I might not even have cut it up today, except that I was writing out a shopping list and wondered, "What kind of fruit will we have for this weekend?" I've never had to go hungry, BUT early in our marriage I did have to think in terms of "How am I going to feed us for the next three days before payday, with these few things we have?" or even tell Joe, "You need to borrow five bucks from someone at work so we can buy milk!"

Times have changed. My sisters, the two little girls who often didn't have enough to eat, now can go out to lunch any day that they want to, also. :o) !! I don't think any of the three of us ever forget to be thankful for long. And if we ever do..... something (like a watermelon) shows up to remind us!

hugs and blessings, Nicky