I have a great life. I am so lucky. Here are some things I am grateful for today.
- Living close enough to green space that I can be there in less than 10 minutes and am surrounded by birds, trees, water, lizards, and grass. The air feels so different there, and it changes my entire breath, posture, and headspace. It makes me a better person, and I imagine it makes me much easier to work with and be friends with. 🙂
- Having been born a female into a country where women are, for the most part, valued as highly as males. Of course, my country of birth and citizenship still isn’t “perfect” and has some work to do, but I have far more opportunity afforded me than a female born into… say… Pakistan or Lesthoto. I’m grateful that I grew up being told — and knowing that I could — do anything. And I’m pretty much living proof that this is true. I’ve done nearly everything I’ve set my mind to. Nearly.
- The opportunity and circumstances that allow me to choose where I work. This is in part related to #2, but in other ways it’s related to demographics and family circumstance. I don’t have a young family to feed. I don’t have elderly parents who are requiring care. I am very very lucky in this regard. I am not restricted by family needs and therefore I have the privilege to be able to follow my passion (as cheesy as that sounds) and do the kind of work that I find truly fulfilling. In that, I can also quite freely choose which individual employer I want to work for, as I do not feel the need to be tied to benefits or salaries or tax rebates due to needing other things for children or parents. I don’t have to sacrifice job satisfaction for money. This gives me tremendous individual freedom — and I know it won’t last forever, so I’m even more grateful for my current situation.
- Having fresh, abundant, and affordable healthy food near me every day. I’ll admit, I never truly understood this to be a “luxury” until I lived in NYC. And really, it should be a right, not a luxury! The number of families living below the poverty line who do not have affordable access to groceries (other than processed foods and burger joints) is truly astonishing, and should be against the law. This should be a goal for all places on the planet. Human beings need to be nourished, not starved.
- Having access to quality affordable healthcare. This was another “aha” moment for me while living in the USA. Those who follow me on Twitter will recall the heated debates I had with my American (right-of-centre) friends who did not agree with me that health care is a basic human right. No one chooses when s/he will be sick. Therefore, this is a social issue of the highest order, IMO, and should always be publicly subsidized unless an individual opts out. I will never forget what I learned in NYC after my ankle injury, where on one of the “best” healthcare plans in the country, I had to pay a $30 co-pay for every physical therapy visit. This was a relatively minor injury, and yet if I had been poorer than I was (I was already “poor” as I was a full-time graduate student living on <$20K/year), I would not have been able to afford these visits. It amounted to 3 visits / week… or $90 / week, for roughly 12 weeks. That many Americans could not afford this just about made me cry each visit to the PT office. What it means is that poor Americans — those who could not afford this co-pay — who have a simple injury like mine such as an ankle sprain caused by tripping down the subway steps (and which is EASILY recoverable from, with the proper care) will be crippled for life — literally! crippled! — because they cannot access this care. This is ABSURD and WRONG. If I were an American living in the USA, I would be fighting this fight to my death, without any doubt. It’s not a political issue: it’s a human rights issue.
That’s all for now. These are just the things on my mind today. Each has crossed my mind in the last 24 hours for one reason or another.
(Yes, I think a lot. Perhaps too much. I tend to enjoy myself more when I’m not in my head all the time, but I just can’t help it.)
