"Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
I've been through some harrowing experiences ever since I came to Chile one month ago. I've learnt what a terramotto (big earthquake) really is. I've managed to stay sane if not brave, through an almost continual flow of aftershocks. I've been on the streets running away, God knows where, from a tsunami alert with no idea of where I was going nor any knowledge of the local language.I can't sleep and my nerves are jangled. I suppose the predominant feeling at this time should be one of fear. But surprisingly it isn't so. What I feel so much all the time is gratefulness.
Nothing can be taken for granted. Even a glass of clean drinking water or a simple thing like hot water in the taps or gas to cook your food, or even for a slice of bread.I've been grateful for a bathroom, even though nine other people were using it and the flushing system of the WC wasn't working. Not a very long time back,this would have been reason enough to throw a mammoth fit. I would get upset over things which seem so trivial to me today.
I'm being brief here about the difficult situation I'm facing. Creature comforts and luxury of home life in India enlarge the discomfort in a foreign land especially when the place is shaken by natural disasters and one spends a day and night on the streets.Yes,I came here as a creature a bit too fastidious. Well, I admit I'm not a saint yet but though life in Chile is not exactly honky-dory, I've learnt to appreciate the little things of life and feel grateful for the small acts of kindness I encounter every day. I've experienced what it means when we speak about the presence of God and his grace. Yes,I'm grateful.
"No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night." -Elie Wiesel
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I've been through some harrowing experiences ever since I came to Chile one month ago. I've learnt what a terramotto (big earthquake) really is. I've managed to stay sane if not brave, through an almost continual flow of aftershocks. I've been on the streets running away, God knows where, from a tsunami alert with no idea of where I was going nor any knowledge of the local language.I can't sleep and my nerves are jangled. I suppose the predominant feeling at this time should be one of fear. But surprisingly it isn't so. What I feel so much all the time is gratefulness.
Nothing can be taken for granted. Even a glass of clean drinking water or a simple thing like hot water in the taps or gas to cook your food, or even for a slice of bread.I've been grateful for a bathroom, even though nine other people were using it and the flushing system of the WC wasn't working. Not a very long time back,this would have been reason enough to throw a mammoth fit. I would get upset over things which seem so trivial to me today.
I'm being brief here about the difficult situation I'm facing. Creature comforts and luxury of home life in India enlarge the discomfort in a foreign land especially when the place is shaken by natural disasters and one spends a day and night on the streets.Yes,I came here as a creature a bit too fastidious. Well, I admit I'm not a saint yet but though life in Chile is not exactly honky-dory, I've learnt to appreciate the little things of life and feel grateful for the small acts of kindness I encounter every day. I've experienced what it means when we speak about the presence of God and his grace. Yes,I'm grateful.
"No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night." -Elie Wiesel
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