I had kind of a mentally exhausting day today so I thought the best way to combat that would be to get out & do some physical labor after Levi went to bed..I mowed, edged, weeded and then some. As I was mowing I was getting bitten by bugs, walking thru spider webs and getting attacked by tree limbs & I thought to myself how fortunate I am to have a yard to mow. Seriously~ so often I forget that people in many other countries have no home to call their own. They have no roof to leak, no weeds to pull and no shelf to dust. But, I have to imagine if given the opportunity they would love to have those "dilemmas" to sort out. I am not referring to the people whom have made a choice to live simply & prefer to rent vs. own...I am thinking more of the people who were born in a country different then mine. They may be in a land where there is little or no education available, no resources, no work, no skills, no clean water, no food, no family and it is not by any fault of their own that they are in the circumstances they are in just like it isn't any doing of my own that I was born in the USA land of free & plenty. I have never viewed myself as someone overly patriotic, but I do feel so blessed to have been fortunate enough to have been born in a country where freedom is not something just dreamed about, where as a woman I am able to do so much without ever having to hide my face or turn my eyes downward, where I can turn on any number of taps in my house and get instant clean cold or warm water, where people are able to decide if they would like to go to a community college, a four-year college or maybe go to a technical school to learn a valuable trade, where there are grocery stores on every street & the biggest food dilemma is to go to Costco or Trader Joes, where people can make a fresh start, new opportunities, health care, medicine, follow Jesus & read a Bible with out being beaten or jailed or murdered, and even vote for whom they think would serve the country best. I guess I am just kind of tired of it being "uncool" to be proud to be an American....we have it so easy, we take so much for granted, and we have so many people that came before us that made it all possible. Having all of this running through my mind tonight made it very difficult to find any reason to complain about the yard work I was doing & I am praying it stays as a fresh reminder so I will have patience on the road, in the stores, and with those I love.