Giving Thanks

I am thankful for so much. It's really important to me to be grateful for all I have. Sometimes I am sickened by American excess. It's never enough for some people. We wake up every day to clean water to drink and bathe in, most of us have access to food, lots of us have warm shelter and 93.5% of us are fortunate to have a job that pays us. Yet we want more. Okay. A vehicle is great. So is cable tv, an mp3 player, going out to dinner and drinks with friends, etc.

Do we ever stop to think about the billions of people in developing countries who have none of that? As women, we can choose our reproductive future, vote in political elections, are protected against FGM and can educate ourselves to whatever extent we wish. When we run, we run for pleasure, to be fitter, slimmer and in better heart shape. When people in developing countries run, they run as a means of getting from A to B or they're running from things that threaten them. We try not to eat too much, while others search for food and often go without.

I'm so thankful for the things we deem as "basic necessities". There's lots more I'm thankful for, but I think it's important to pause at the basics and truly give thanks.

Black Friday is tomorrow. Are you worried about how much you may spend on Christmas? Take a minute and watch this, and consider what could happen:

I wanna

date a hot Indian man named Raj

go to Egypt a second time

buy a car that's actually good in the snow

sunbathe on a nude beach

live in Chicago for at least a year

marry someone who's foreign with a wonderful voice

write my book

buy a sweet house with tons of character

sip wine in Napa Valley with someone who appreciates wine

have a koi pond


in the next five years.