An Interesting Look at Gratitude

I just saw a story about some 16,000 Haitian migrants waiting on a beach in Colombia to continue their journey to the United States.

After the devastating 2018 earthquake in Haiti, many of them fled the poverty and violence by going to Chile but they only found discrimination and little work. So now they were trying to get to the US. The story began after they finally made it to Columbia and were ready to get on boats that would take them to Panama. Then they had another trek for an hour through mud and difficult terrain.

They finally arrived at a smugglers camp at edge of the jungle only to face the most daunting part of their journey – walking for days through a dense jungle filled with treacherous terrain, wild animals, and bandits.

This jungle is called the Darien Gap, because it’s the only place the Pan-American Highway, which stretches from Alaska to Argentina, was not able to be built because the jungle was too dense. Thus, the name Darien gap.

More than 88,000 people have crossed in 2021 and Panama estimates about one quarter are children! Why would people put themselves and their children through such torture? Why would they be willing to die in order to get to the United States? Because, compared to most of the world, this is heaven on earth. Are we perfect? No! But relatively speaking, our lives are so much easier than most of the world.

Some of the things that make it so much easier are:

Most of us have running water. In Ethiopia for example, over 60% of the people lack basic water services. Over 60%! And that is one of many countries where water is scarcer than food.

Most of us are not afraid for our lives when we step out of our house in the morning but think of the ordinary, everyday people in Somalia or South Sudan.

Women, more than ever in history, actually have a voice here, unlike women in Afghanistan and many other countries around the world.

And most women are not afraid of being killed by a man whereas in Honduras, on average, one woman is murdered every 18 hours and most of the murderers are getting away with it.

Our freedoms make it much easier to be economically successful than almost any place else in the world.

Most children are not terrified of being sold into prostitution as they can be in Thailand and India.

Most people have access to the internet with freedom to explore unlike North Korea, China and Iran.

Most people feel safe when they go to vote unlike women in Pakistan, Uganda and even Egypt.

Most children are not forced into demeaning and dangerous jobs. Child labor has increased dramatically in the last few years. Over 160 million children on this planet are forced to work heart crushing jobs.

And most of us have access to food, unlike the children in Yemen, Syria and Haiti.

What can you do to help alleviate the suffering of our world? You may not be able to work for a nonprofit which helps migrants, and you may not be able to become a politician who is working for the good of the whole, but you can add to the collective heart of humanity by cultivating gratitude for the most basic things in your life, basic things that so many other people don’t have access to.

So the next time you turn on the faucet for a drink of water; or you step outside into the fresh morning air without being afraid of dying; or the next time you open the refrigerator and it’s full of food; or the next time you are sitting across the table from a man and you’re not terrified of him killing you; or the next time you have the privilege to vote; or the next time you access the internet, take a moment and be grateful!

And the next time you are feeling down in the dumps, recognize that people are willing to die and put their children at risk on so many levels to come to this place of freedom.

Of course, this list is only scratching the surface of how much we have to be grateful for. So, make your own list of the most basic things in your life to be grateful for and when you forget, remember how difficult it is for many, many people in the world to access these basic human rights.