Understanding that nothing is certain ...

Yikes ... it's been almost a whole week since I've last written.

Well, here's some food for thought -- and no pun intended, as I was in a grocery store when my mind started racing. 

I was standing in line to check out when I noticed the woman in front of me having to put back more than half of her groceries because her debit/credit card transaction did not go through.  As she was of course quite embarrassed, she frantically tried to hurry up and apologized countless times for the inconvenience.  I sincerely wanted to help her out and offer to pay for some of the groceries, but I could tell she was trying to duck out as fast as possible.  Plus, I'm not sure what the original total was, and I'm not ballin' enough (or rather at all) to not care.

I divert my attention toward the left so that she doesn't think I'm staring at her or that I'm getting frustrated, and I notice an older gentleman in a wheelchair with a missing a leg.  As he also glances in my direction while leaving the store, I give him a friendly head nod and he does the same.

Instead of setting my wandering eyes free again, I instead look down at my cart.  My mind then begins to go wild, and I realize how blessed I truly am and how easy it is to take such blessings for granted.   I'm not trying to say that I am any better than those other shoppers ... and that is actually my point.  I have no idea what their story is, where they're going after leaving here, and how they came to arrive at their current situation.   

In fact, given my history and normal societal trends, I should be at a completely different place than where I am today.  And who's to say that tomorrow I won't be in a compromising situation, wondering, "how in the hell did I get here?"   

So often, we complain about a bad day or get frustrated at certain occurrences in our lives.  And while we're fully justified to feel the way that we do, it is also important to put things in perspective.  Yes, matters could always be worse than they really are.  And yes, things can be unfair and downright wrong.  But go a step further to actually count your blessings.

For as much is "going wrong" in your life, I'm quite certain there are at least three times as many positive things to note.  We've simply become conditioned to think our way of life is the norm and we take things as a given, when in fact, we don't truly realize how much is actually uncertain and volatile, and what can change five minutes from now ...  an hour ... a day ... a week ... a month ... a year ...