It is human's nature to crave for more, not in terms of being greedy. We always want growth, we don't want to be where we are the previous year, we want a positive difference in every ramification of our life. In the course of evaluating ourselves, many of us feel unsatisfied about our achievement and that's understandable because there are times we don't do up to our expectations, challenges come into the picture and they cause setbacks. While thinking of these setbacks, many of us start feeling unappreciative.
We feel like failure, we feel like our life is miserable and we don't see the need to be appreciative for even the slightest achievement we made amidst all the challenges. Many of us use a fellow human gauge for ourselves and because someone did something at a particular age but we can't therefore, we don't have anything to be happy about.
I fall into the category of people who feel life isn't moving for them. The struggle is real and even though there is growth, I fail to see it because it is not coming as expected.
I had an encounter early this month and it broke me down for a few days. Regardless of what my journey might look like, I realised that I have been ungrateful in so many ways.
Life was never fair to anyone so I wouldn't want to emphasize my journey much. Even the people who we think have the best life are going through one challenge or the other and that's what life is about, we just have to always fight through to make a difference for ourselves.
This encounter made me realise how far I have come in life and opened my eyes to reality.
As a kid, things weren't easy. I remembered a particular day when I had to eat an unripe mango because I was hungry. Mom went out as usual to make ends meet and I just couldn't hold anymore. As terrible as the taste was, I couldn't spit it out. I gladly swallowed it and drank enough water until I was full.
The sun didn't set before the repercussion started and that day, everything mom made went to the hospital because I had stomach ache that left me in severe pain. The experience was horrible for me and it's one of the reasons why I don't hold back when it comes to sharing even my last meal with a hungry person.
Image was captured by me
I went to get some stuff to prepare breakfast, it rained heavily that morning so the meal happened very late. On my way back, I saw a young man in torn clothes on my street.
He was doing something he didn't want people to see, he was facing the wall and I was curious. My younger brother quickly moved ahead because he thought the guy was disguising and might want to run. We have had a few cases of people like that who turned out to be kidnappers so he was on the alert.
The guy seems scared and stood from the floor he was sitting. He threw away what he was holding and it turned out to be an unripe mango that he had eaten completely. The sight of the mango triggered my previous experience and I felt down immediately.
I was shocked and wasn't myself as I walked past him. He took his time to pick up some plastic waste and I was restless. I got home, drop what I was holding and got some cash.
I told my brother what I saw and he was down as well. I approached this guy who was almost out of the street and asked if he cared for food.
He was shy but said, "Yes".
I would have loved to share my breakfast with him but I haven't cooked so we went to a food vendor and I got him food, drink and little cash probably for another meal.
On receiving it, he said "Thank you God", and that broke me down more.
I watched him as he left with his bag in which he put the waste plastic he was gathering and I immediately felt like an ingrate all along.
I don't have all I want in life but I am definitely not what I use to be. Most time, I don't see a reason to be appreciative because the progress is not huge and this deprives me of the energy to keep pushing.
If someone can be truly grateful for that little, what is it us that have a roof over our heads, clothes, food and others? While we are bothered about what we don't have, we must be grateful for what we have.
The little progress we see as nothing means the world to someone out there.