Gratitude From a #WAHM

In the quest to minimize and get rid of papers that I have accumulated through the years I've discovered hidden wisdom I kept for years and have forgotten. This is one by Nancy Byrd Turner on Lincoln:

 

There was a boy of other days,

A quiet, awkward, darnest lad,

Who trudged long weary miles to get

A book on which his heart was set-

And then no candle had!

 

He was too poor to buy a lamp

But very wise in woodmen's ways

He gathered season bough and stem,

And crisping leaf, and kindled them

into a ruddy blaze.

The above resonates with me because my mom once told me a story about a little girl in Malaysia. Her hunger for reading and learning was beyond what her parents could fathom. Every piece of paper with written words was consumed day and night. But when night fell, the whole village was almost dark because electricity or kerosene lamps were hard to come by.

Sitting in the dark, she took the written words and sat as close to the wooden wall to the little light that peered through from her neighbor's living room. That's where she sat and read through the night...over and over again.

I asked who was this little girl. She thought long and hard, with tears in her eyes she said "It was I!" She continued, "I wished I've had the books to read like you do. Books can bring you to places you will never reach."

What do you do when you see limitations and lack? That's the question I asked myself as well.

Lincoln went gathering bough, stem, crisping leaf and kindled them for a ruddy blaze. My mom sat in a corner so she could 'steal' lights from her neighbor. What is my excuse?

Last night I struggled with a thought...I did not accomplish one thing that I set out to do. I focused on that one lack instead of all the good that had happened including traveling full-time for eight months in South America and the ability to live a freelance lifestyle as a family.

As 2013 is coming to an end let's express our gratitude to our love ones and the people we are in contact with. So here I go: Thank you for your support. Please leave a comment below and let me know what you are thankful for. Let's show our gratitude.