I found this note to the editor of a local rag some years ago... it resonated with me then.. and still does now. In fact I have covered it in clear plastic wrap and it lives on our fridge as a daily reminder....
Be thankful this Christmas...
If you have food in the refridgerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 per cent of this world.
If you wake up in the morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have money in the bank, in the wallet and spare change in a dish some place, you are among the top ten per cent of the world's wealthy.
If you can attend a church meeting without fear of arrest, torture or death, you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
If you never experience the battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pain of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If all your children are still married, you are very rare, even in Australia.
If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you are a healing touch.
If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can but most dont.
If you can read this messge, you have just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and you are more blessed than the two billion in the world who cannot read at all.
As you read this and you are reminded how life is in the rest of the world, remember just how blessed you really are.
I take this opportunity of wishing everyone a very happy and peaceful Christmas.
I am not a whinging "New Australian". I am a very happy migrant who managed 40 years ago to escape from the Iron Curtain of south Eurpoe - governed and ruled by fascits and communists.
God Bless Australia and its people. Nick Szego, Queanbeyan.
Peace and Love
Bx
