A New Perspective

In the midst of all the suffering in Haiti, I have been thinking about my perspective on things.

If there are dirty dishes in the sink in the morning I am upset.

If I have not followed by housework plan I am disappointed.

If I have not worked out that day I feel defeated.

None of these things matter in the grand scheme of things.

My house will not fall down on top of me if there are dishes in the sink when I wake up.

I should feel lucky to have a sink to do dishes in, and for that matter lucky that I have water to wash them with (not to mention a dishwasher) and moreover, I should feel privileged to have food to put on the plates which constituted dirty dishes.

My children will not be missing presumably in a pile of rubble if my kitchen floor does not get mopped.

Most generally my kids are the ones that dirty the floors, and make it necessary for me to mop them twice a week; and THANK HEAVENS FOR THAT!

I will not have to watch my children cry out in fear and hunger if I didn't get my butt on the elliptical for one day.

How blessed am I to have to get on a machine everyday to get exercise? My daily life doesn't require me to walk to get water, or dedicate hours upon hours to harvest the meager amount of food that is possible to grow where I live.

It breaks my heart to watch so many people who had so little to begin with lose the few things they had. These people live in a country where their government does nothing to support them. The opposite is actually true. Haiti has such a corrupted governmental system that it actually hinders personal growth, and punishes those who try to better themselves.

I was on facebook yesterday, and saw a status of a friend. This friends' father is a very prominent college football Defensive coordinator. He has coached in the NFL, and returned to college ball a few years ago. He has been smack-dab in the middle of the coaching switch-ups and drama as of late. "C" (my friend) posted this as his status yesterday:

"Who cares who is coaching where? Over 50,000 people lost their lives in a split second in Haiti. Makes you think about your life and what's most important."

Coaching is his families life. It is literally what puts food on his parents table. It is also what is paying for he and his wife to attend graduate school-a perk of having a father as coach is free tuition.

All of these things are more important than my dishes. ESPN is not calling me night and day about what I know, and I can safely say ESPN does not care if my kitchen floors are dirty, or if my sheets didn't get changed on Monday like they were suppose to.

Your life is what you make it. The truth is your world does revolve around you and the ones you choose to include in it. It is nice to look outside yourself for a while and reassess your situation. Unfortunately these brief moments of clarity seem to come most often in the midst of others suffering.

I pray for the people of Haiti. I pray that they can recover from this disaster both physically and spiritually.

I am not a fan of Bill Clinton, and under most circumstances would not be caught dead quoting him; but yesterday I saw him on the Today show, and actually felt a ray of hope from what he said. He was addressing his and George W. Bush's fundraising efforts for Haiti and pointed out that Haiti was so far behind the United States in it's development and quality of life that it should not take the exorbitant amount of time people are predicting to rebuild and improve the country.

I certainly hope Bill Clinton is right.

I hope that we, with the cooperation of other nations will be successful in helping Haiti become better than it once was.

There are no lucrative natural resources there to financially benefit us, but I hope and pray world leaders realize what is most important: Haiti's most important and beneficial natural resource is it's people.

We will continue to pray for the people of Haiti everyday as a family and do whatever we can to help. No matter how small.

Our church has already sent 160,000 lbs. of food(which arrived Wednesday, 2 days before the government aid ) as well as countless hygiene kits, infant care kits, tarps, tents, blankets, clothing and so much more. A team of LDS doctors will be arriving there this week to set up a medical clinic in the meetinghouse in Port-Au-Price. It is a blessing to be able to have some small part in this recovery effort. I am proud that we belong to a church that is so organized and willing to help those of other faiths. It warms my heart to know that the hygiene kits my kids put together as a service project a few months ago may actually be one that is bringing a little bit of hope to someone who may not otherwise have any.

Links:

Church Sends Additional Aid to Haiti Earthquake Victims - LDS Newsroom

Church Sending Team of Doctors to Assist in Haiti - LDS Newsroom